Tag Archives: tv

Twin Peaks S2 E4, E5, E6,E7

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A couple of thoughts off the top:

  • I really dislike Donna, James and Maddy. I liked them much more the first time I watched this show, but they are just so dumb.
  • Ray Wise was just brilliant. He deserved an Emmy for his work this season.
  • As a General Hospital fan, seeing Ian Buchanan as Dick Tremayne was a hoot.
  • I started off and kept watching. Each episode ended with something remarkably compelling that I just had to keep watching.

“Laura’s Secret Diary”

I bought Laura Palmer’s Diary when it came out in stores. What a tie-in to the show. It did not give anything really solid, but it was a cool tidbit. The show’s introduction of Harold Smith was not my favorite part of the series because it tied in to the whole Donna mess. Still, they knew how to make money.

Leland confessing to Jacques’ murder was powerful. Of course, it would lead to more than just that murder.

I honestly think the whole thing with Andy and his sperm container rolling across the floor was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I was able to tell Harry Goaz, the actor who played Andy, how funny I found that scene when he came to the Iowa City Memorial Union for a Twin Peaks watch.

“The Orchids Curse”

The fact that it took Cooper this long to remember the note that was under his bed was a travesty. It was way longer than it should have been.

The whole Nadine in high school story was funny too, but I am not sure they ever totally explained why she had such an incredible strength.

Cooper and Truman go to One Eyed Jacks and rescue Audrey. Not before Blackie was killed by John Renault. Hawk came through big time. Good thing Coop and Harry can’t keep a secret.

“Demons”

Bobby and Shelly getting screwed over with their insurance claim with a handicapped Leo is poetic justice for their bad behavior, but felt overly cruel for poor Shelly, who did suffer at the hands of Leo for quite awhile.

Of course, it led to the classic Leo line that I say to this day, “New shoes.”

The arrival of Gordon Cole, played by David Lynch himself, was a highlight. Having a non-working hearing aid and having everyone yell so he could [barely] hear was a great gag that worked the whole time.

The whole scene with “Mike,” the one armed man was creepy as could be.

“Lonely Souls”

It is happening again.

What an episode this one was. So much happened in it and the last ten minutes or so were some of the best scenes you will ever see on TV.

The reveal of Killer Bob as Leland was done as perfectly as you would see and the scene where he kills Maddy has to be one of the most unexpected and violent scenes ever to make network television. Watching the scene flash from Bob to Leland and he danced around with Maddie was completely unbelievable. There is no way we get a scene like that today. There are several moments where it is difficult to watch.

There may be no more tragic character on Twin Peaks than Maddy Ferguson. She came to Twin Peaks for her cousin Laura’s funeral and because she resembled Laura, she had to go through so much. Not only did she have to deal with James’ weird obsession, but ends up being the replacement daughter to Leland who, by the way, is the psychotic killer. She was nothing like Laura, but she had to pay for Laura’s sins.

With Cooper, Harry and the Log Lady at the Road House, we see the Giant make a reappearance uttering that phrase I lead off this section with… “It is happening again.” How unnerving and chilling was that. Then, when Maddy had been killed, the feeling that overtook Bobby, Donna and Cooper at the Road House was suspenseful. They knew something had happened. Donna started to cry and you could see even Bobby was affected. It was all very much like a dream and it had been shot that way. David Lynch did direct this episode and you can see his fingerprints all over it.

This was not all for this episode. The discovery of Laura’s secret dairy at Harold Smith’s place, torn to shreds by Harold who hanged himself with his flowers. The episode started off with that shock, but who remembered that after the ending?

Cooper and Harry arrested Ben Horne, who is looking as if he were the killer. Of course, we knew it was not him. Even when he was first being arrested, it was clearly not him. He was the patsy, the red herring for the audience. Back when it first aired, I did not think that it would be Ben, but I never guessed that it would be Leland, either.

Another shock of this episode that gets rolled over with the ending was the reveal that Mr. Tojamura was, in fact, Catharine Martell back from the dead and hiding in Japanese make-up. The scene where she revealed herself to Pete is one of the happiest moments of the show, certainly of this episode.

Everything about this was disturbing, especially when you stop and think about the fact that Leland killed Laura and that he raped her and abused her as much as he did, though under the guise of Bob. Could this be why he was so grieved when Laura’s body was found, that it was an internal guilt driving him?

An exceptional episode of TV that just combines the emotions of the audience with one of the greatest plot reveals of all time.

Twin Peaks S1 E8

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“The Last Evening”

Part 8

Season one of Twin Peaks came to an end with all of those major storylines I talked about from the penultimate episode of season one coming to a peak in this finale. Except, of course, we did not learn who the killer of Laura Palmer was yet. I know there were some frustration at the time, including me, about when they would reveal the secret. Truth be told, people are just too impatient. It is something I have learned over the years since Twin Peaks’ first season.

We did learn several things. We learned that Jacques did not kill Laura as Leo ditched him before going to the train car. The show went out of its way to show that Dr. Jacoby was not Laura’s killer either, casting him in a more empathic light than we had seen before. And, despite the show kind of playing up Leo in the case, after years of reading comics and watching soap opera, I was sure that Leo was nothing more than a red herring. Twin Peaks was the master of red herrings.

I remember the shooting of Agent Cooper as if it were yesterday. I was so shocked about it that it threw my entire thoughts about the series into overdrive. It was a horrible way to leave the fans dangling over the break, and yet so tasty.

Watching Leland murder Jacques with the pillow was unbelievable at first, but made complete sense in retrospect. At first it just felt like a bad decision from a grieving parent, but, of course, we know now that there was more behind it than just that. This truly begins Ray Wise’s elevation of his performance into season two. When the alarm stops ringing, Wise changes Leland’s facial expressions from his sobbing to one of darkness. It is chilling looking back.

I fell in love with Pete and Catharine in this episode, even though Catharine is still pretty manipulative toward him, but it felt sincere when she asked him for help. You have to admire Pete for heading into the burning mill in search of his wife.

Are there any two characters more likable, but downright stupid as Big Ed and Norma? They are so manipulated by their respected spouses that you would think they would just come out and say what they want, and that is to be together. Thing is, they just can’t seem to get out of their own way and Nadine and Hank know the buttons to push.

Although Hank’s coincidental saving of Bobby’s life with a well placed bullet to Leo’s chest, just before Leo dropped an axe on Bobby’s head, was timed beautifully. I know this leads to one of my favorite quotes from this series of all time during season two. I use it to this day whenever shoe shopping, “New shoes.”

There is also a real ick factor with Benjamin Horne on his way to see the “new girl” who just happens to be his daughter Audrey. I remember watching this the first time and just having no idea how Audrey was going to get out of this.

Andy stepping up as the hero, only to find out that Lucy is pregnant, was really a tough blow. You felt for both of them.

This was an epic season one and spent a lot of time building these strange people in this mysterious little town. The central mystery of Laura Palmer’s murder was iconic and created a huge water cooler show.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution

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The sequel to the Masters of the Universe: Revelations from filmmaker Kevin Smith dropped on Netflix this weekend with five-episodes that ran around a half hour each. This made the series a simple binge and satisfying story with some classic characters if the 1980s.

Another fun tidbit for the series was hearing the voice talents of Mark Hamill and William Shatner working together. Having Luke and Kirk together in any manner is a Geek dream.

The story basically continues from the Revelations series as the characters were dealing with fall-out of everything that happened there when Prince Adam’s father fell ill, so badly sick that he was not long for the world.

There were some solid emotional bits in the story and some good character arcs, especially for Evil-Lynn. Her eventual redemption was one of the most satisfying of the entire series. The show also went into the origin of Skeletor, tying him to Adam in an unexpected way.

There were a lot of voices on the internet that spewed out venom and hatred over the Revelations series when it first came out on Netflix. It got so bad that it was pretty clear that Kevin Smith had been discouraged over it. You could hear the change come over him during his podcast Fatman Beyond. 

However, it seemed as if this time there are many more voices of positivity with this series. I hope Kevin takes in the well-deserved love and it makes him feel better. I really enjoyed Revelations, perhaps more so than Revolution. 

This series feels much more like a love letter to the original series than the previous one had. Revelations felt like he took the characters from the series and made them into deeper characters and put them on some arcs that may not have been popular, but were very interesting and thrilling. Here, it felt as if it were more about the story with the characters taking a bit of a back seat. With the fewer number of episodes, I think that was a wise choice.

The music/score of the animated show was sensational. Some of the music swelled with energy and passion, creating the perfect tone for most of the scenes. 

The animation was very good too. There are some truly beautiful shots of the action and the imagery of the surroundings.

The biggest drawback for me is another thing that connects it to the original series. I did not watch the He-Man show back in the 80’s and the weird, quippy dialogue/patter was cringey at times. When Lynn started to sing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song, I could almost hear my eyes rolling into the back of my head. I understand that is the tone of the series and that it did have a place, but it was fairly annoying at times.

Otherwise, I think this was a satisfactory entry into the Master of the Universe mythos and longtime fans should find a lot here to praise instead of taking to the internet to rip down. 

A Murder at the End of the World E1, E2

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“Chapter One: Homme Fatal”

“Chapter Two: The Silver Doe”

I was looking for something new to watch. I didn’t want to dive into more from Moonlighting or The X-Files, as I have done several of both of those series this weekend. Picket Fences is done. Fargo has one more episode. I have not been too enthralled with For All Mankind as of yet. I finished Murder House. I wanted something new.

I will be doing a Twin Peaks rewatch at some point, but this did not feel like the right time. There are several other great shows I love such as Monk, Castle but those are both multiple season runs and I am only in season 2 of a bunch of the X-Files. Having something that has an end in sight is always welcome.

So I went looking for other options, and eventually I worked around to Hulu. Hulu was being kind of wonky tonight (I think because of the frigid cold we have here right now), but I still came across A Murder at the End of the World.

I had seen this before and the concept intrigued me and I am always a fan of a good murder mystery. It is also only seven episodes, which is great. It feels like one of those shoes like Echo, The Body or Fall of the House of Usher that can be a quick, palate cleanser in-between the longer commitment of the multi-season re-watches.

I started the series hoping that it would be able to catch my attention. I will say it started a little slow, but my the end of episode one, everybody had arrived at the setting and the characters were introduced and the murder was in place. At that point, I was all in.

The basic plot is something that we have seen before. A group of people are invited to an isolated location and somebody is murdered. This trope is very common, but I did like the way this series set up the trope and tied it to our main protagonist’s background. 

Emma Corrin felt very familiar to me, but I did not recognize anything on her IMDB page (that I had watched, I mean… I recognized shows. I just never watched The Crown or Pennyworth). I enjoyed her portrayal of Darby Hart, an amateur sleuth/true crime writer who had been called the Gen Z Sherlock Holmes. She wound up being invited to a retreat with some of the big brains of the world and her former friend/love Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson) was also in attendance, as one of the world’s aforementioned artists.

At the end of the first episode, Bill dies in front of Darby. It is believed that he O.D.’d, but Darby did not believe it. She knew something more was going on, and she sneaked into the crime scene to see what she could find.

The story is told with flashbacks back to Darby’s younger years, not only during the time she and Bill were in pursuit of the Silver Dove Killer, a serial killer obsessed with silver jewelry, but also to younger years yet, when Darby was with her policeman father, including at crime scenes he was investigating. Her observations helped him with his cases.

There are some interesting characters in the show, but there has not yet been too much development of any of the other invitees to the retreat. They have been touched on, but the depth is still to come, I expect.

There was a disturbing glance at a person in a mask on the video in Bill’s room when he died. It was a scary image and it was one that I did not expect.

The first two episodes were really good and, with only five more to go, it should not take too long to find out who the guilty party is. I hope it delivers in the long run.

Moonlighting S3 E13, E14, E15

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“Maddie’s Turn to Cry”

“I am Curious…Maddie”

“To Heiress Human”

Season three of Moonlighting wrapped up with the final three episodes. Episodes 13 & 14 both started off with creative recaps that seemed to make fun of itself for having too many repeats and not enough new episodes. It doesn’t play as well now since I am watching these back to back and there have been no repeats in-between. 

The second episode of these, “I am Curious… Maddie,” is the episode where Dave and Maddie finally do the deed. The will-they-won’t-they dance finally becomes a they-will. After several episodes with Mark Harmon as a roadblock, Dave and Maddie hit the sheets together.

The only problem with that is I disliked how this came to be. I remember not being a fan of the way this worked out when I first saw it back in the 80s. It was so dark. There was so much anger and spite that it did not feel right. I know it was designed that way because Dave and Maddie are always arguing so why not translate that into their first sexual encounter? It just felt like they were way too aggressive, too angry and not showing how they truly felt. 

I would have liked it more had they had their encounter in the episode “Maddie’s Turn to Cry” when Maddie came over to David’s apartment. This is when it should have happened so it was more about two people actually finding themselves instead of such a mean-spirited, almost violent way.

It almost made me feel bad for Mark Harmon. His character of Sam Crawford was such a good guy who seemed to be hurt badly by the relationship between Dave and Maddie.

Cybill Shepherd is clearly pregnant too. You can see how she was wearing clothes that were large and flowing, and using handbags to block her belly. The pregnancy had been part of the problem with getting new episodes out, along with the feud on set with the stars.

Honestly, the breaking of the fourth wall in these episodes felt very off considering the different tone of the episodes.

Season four of Moonlighting goes off the rail. I am curious to see what I think of this next season on rewatch. 

Oliver! (1968)

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Since I have started the Genre-ary DailyView, it has given me the opportunity to see some classic musicals that I probably wouldn’t have watched several of these films. Oliver! is a good example of this. 

Oliver! from 1968 was an Oscar winning movie based on a stage musical which was based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Carol Reed won an Academy Award for Best Director and the picture received the Best Picture Oscar.

An orphan named Oliver (Mark Lester) wound up under the influence of a street criminal named Fagin (Ron Moody), who added Oliver to his troop of street urchin pickpockets, which included the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild). One of Fagin’s accomplices, Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed), showed a more violent and cruel nature. 

It is fun to hear songs that I recognize, but never knew where they originated from. Songs such as “Consider Yourself,” “Food, Glorious Food,” and “As Long as He Needs Me” are songs that I knew prior to watching this film. 

Our villains of the story were excellent. The character of Fagin was one of the best movie villains around, deep and developed, and Sikes was sinister and scary.

Mark Lester does a solid job as the young Oliver. He holds his own with all of the actors around him. 

Clearly this is a classic and you can understand why it won six Oscars.

Fargo S5 E8

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“Blanket”

Sheriff Roy Tillman is absolutely spiraling out of control. 

He is completely unhinged.

And the confrontations with Tillman and Dorothy were totally intense. I want more.

Poor Dorothy is so strong, but you can see the doubts and the anguish she is suffering. The fight scene between them was off the charts. I was so rooting for Dorothy.

Graves had set up the sheriff’s debate and that made Tillman look like a crazy man, which was just what Graves wanted. Of course, Graves wanted to negotiate with Tillman, but Tillman had his own negotiating technique in mind. He shot and killed him.

We also got confirmation that Tillman had killed Linda and buried her. 

It amazes me that there are two more episodes left. This made me feel as if it were a penultimate episode. This episode was so great. I really do love Dorothy and Tillman is one of the best villains you are going to find anywhere. 

Picket Fences S4 E18

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“Three Weddings and a Meltdown”

It is official. I have decided that Jill Brock is one of my least favorite characters on Picket Fences. I am not sure how she has gotten away with all the things she has said or done over the last three and a half season, especially during season four, and still acts as pretentious as she does. 

Jimmy finally called her out about her behavior from a few episodes ago, but it was dropped immediately as Jill promptly made it about him. She then she took off her wedding ring and left him, telling people that she and Jimmy had split up. 

Of course, it was over before the end of the episode and they were back together, thanks to Jimmy’s words.

Douglas and nuMiriam apparently got back together as well. It happened off screen, I guess [EDIT: actually it looks like it happens in one of the next few episodes. It is explained below]. Max and Kenny were also back together. I’m not I remember that happening either.

Carter and Sue decided to get married and Max and Kenny and the Wambaughs joined in on the ceremony. 

Matthew was not here and we have no idea why. This is listed as the series finale on IMDB, but there are four more episodes on Prime. Not sure if they are just out of order or if there were more.

So as I was writing this, I did some research. According to IMDB: “The actual series finale was episode #18, “Three Weddings and a Meltdown”, a feel-good episode that offered happy endings all around. So how did four more episodes wind up showing after the series finale? CBS had canceled the show, and was eager to replace it with a higher-rated new series, so they officially ended its run on April 24 by airing the series finale, without having entered the previous episodes. There was a possibility that those episodes might have never been shown, once the show was canceled. But when summer arrived, CBS dug them up and broadcast them in June, probably thinking that brand new, unaired episodes of the acclaimed show get better ratings than the typical reruns that usually dominated TV in the summer time. But it’s clear from the various plots in those last four episodes that they were originally meant to be aired before the series finale, not after. Character arcs (such as Wambaugh’s troubled marriage, and Kenny & Maxine’s off & on romance) that were finally resolved in that series finale were suddenly unresolved again in these belated episodes. So, although episodes 19 – 22 are listed as the show’s last four episodes, episode 18 should really be listed as the final episode of the series, regardless of when it aired.“

That made more sense than the storylines that happened in episode 18.

The three weddings were cool. I loved Carter’s story arc. You would expect him to bail on the wedding, but he did not. And he was able to convince Kenny and Max to not give into their doubts and to go through with the wedding. 

It was a nice wrap up to the series, although it does kind of ruin the remaining four episodes of the series.

Moonlighting S3 E8

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“It’s a Wonderful Job”

Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.

Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.

There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.

Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.

Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.

This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.

Picket Fences S4 E11, E12, E13, E14, E15

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“Bloodlines”

“Snow Exit”

“My Romance”

“The Z Files”

“Bottled”

I watched a run of the fourth season episodes of Picket Fences this afternoon. They were all fairly low on the overall list of Picket Fences as a group of characters were acting out of character and there was plenty of mean-spiritedness.

The best of these five episodes was “Snow Exit” when a blizzard crippled the city and Mayor Bey had to give birth at the police station. By the way, this was the last time we saw her, She had asked Kenny to help be her Lamaze partner and he had to tromp through the blizzard to get to her. Then she named her child Michael. You know… Michael Bey. Is that a joke or is Michael Bay the son of Marlee Matlin? 

One of this episode’s problems is that everyone had a storyline, but there was no through line. They were all separate. Henry Bone had a heart attack. Max got stuck with Jack Black, who was dressed as a cat. Jill got stuck at a bar with Lydia singing. Nothing was sensible.

Henry and Doug seemed to bury the hatchet with their fight over the Pope, but that changed a few episodes later. 

In another episode, Carter nearly gets run over by a bus, gets electrocuted and is dead for 3 minutes before being revived. It led to an after death moment for him, and caused a major upheaval in his relationship.

The first episode was called “Bloodlines’ and it was actually not bad. Matthew saw a classmate who had killed himself with a shotgun and the sight messed with his head. So Jimmy took him on a trip to chase the Cocaine Bear. Well, it may not have been the Cocaine Bear, but it was a giant bear that was roaming freely around the county. That bear, by the way, left the county and there was never any resolution to that storyline. Matt did some nice acting in that episode. Of course, he then spent time kissing the young girl who Zack liked.

The worst of all of these episode was the old Brock party episode in “Bottled.” Jill thought she was going through menopause and she spent the whole episode being cruel and totally out of control. Even after she discovered that she was not going through the change, she was just as cruel and as crazy, saying such horrendous things as you could imagine to Jimmy and her kids. It was totally inexcusable and there was no reason given for her behavior. If I did not know better, I’d say these people all hate each other. This went well beyond family squabbling or saying unhappy truths to work through issues. This was just obscene.

Matthew had the best joke, saying that they always make up at five minutes to 11, which was a breaking of the fourth wall type joke as that was the time the show aired. Of course, there was no resolution of the arguments or anything but apologies that felt empty. This was not the Jill Brock that I have watched for three seasons + before this.

Henry was also going crazy as he was being totally rude to Douglas, who began to take his rudeness to heart. They came to an understand, sort of, but I got the implication that Wambaugh was not a forgiving as he usually was.

By the way, Zack was allowed to invite four people to his birthday party and he chose Wambaugh, Henry Bone, Maxine and Kenny. Why did he not pick Mayor Bey? Weren’t they so close that she got caught as the Dancing Bandit coming back to see Zack on his last birthday?

I did not mention about the Z Files, where Zack used an internet site to create a dirty picture of his teacher and then he gave it to his friend Kevin who put it on the internet. 

Honestly, this Brock family probably all grew up to become serial killers or master criminals. 

It is a good thing that this is in the middle of the final season of Picket Fences because if this show continued to rape these characters as it has been doing, I’d be ready to stop watching. As of now, I have only seven more episodes left so no sense in stopping now. 

Sad fact is this is just not the same series as it was in the first three seasons.

What If…? S2 E9

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“What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?”

Well, here we are. The finale of season two of What If…?, and it has been a glorious season. Several of these episodes truly took a leap from season one. I shouldn’t say that I disliked season one, because I liked it enough. It just does not stand out. It’s fine.

That is why season two has been so great. Because it went beyond what was before and improved everything: storytelling, animation, characterization… all of it.

The 1602 episode was the highlight of a fantastic season and its placement just before the finale raised the stakes for the finale. 

The finale turned out to be a step back from the best episodes of the season, but was a lot of crazy fun. 

Strange Supreme returned to his goal of saving his universe, especially Christine, and he tried to fool Captain Carter into helping him by retrieving Kahhori, who had slipped from his grasp. However, together Captain Carter and Kahhori fought against the Doctor.

Most of the episode was taken up by the two powerhouses battling the demonic doctor with their powers. Peggy seemingly kept acquiring even more power, through other MCU weapons that she obtained through the episode.

What was the most fun about the episode was the Cabin in the Woods type situation that happened. Supreme Strange had been collecting and imprisoning powerful forces from the multiverse. In order to distract Strange, Peggy freed them all, leading to a wild brawl among all of these Easter eggs. 

While this was a lot of fun, I kind of wanted more because the season had been so good. I’m not calling this a bad episode. It just did not quite reach the level of so many of the other episodes of the year. 

Though the final shot of the Watcher and Captain Carter standing in front of the Tree of Life from Loki season 2 finale presents a lot of possibilities for the third season, which has been confirmed by Marvel.

Final Episode Order:

E8  ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E9  ”What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?“

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

Moonlighting S3 E7

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“Atomic Shakespeare”

One of my favorite hours of television of all-time is next up for Moonlighting. It is the iconic “Atomic Shakespeare” episode that saw David and Maddie taking the place of Petruchio and Katharina, respectfully. It was a show that understood that it did not matter the setting or the format of the show as long as there was David and Maddie.

The show was written in iambic pentameter, honoring the Shakespeare play of The Taming of the Shrew, in which it was based. 

The episode went full throttle into the Shakespeare of it all in dialogue, costuming and sets. Yet, it maintained the certain flair that made this Moonlighting.

Bruce Willis performed “Good Lovin'” after his “wedding” to a bound and gagged Katharina as the entire church sang along. The wedding itself is hilarious, especially the grunts of Cybill Shepherd at the antics of he soon-to-be husband. 

Petruchio, for his part, wore his Rayban sunglasses (so did his horse, btw) and showed himself to be the one man that could handle his Kate. The ending in the town square when Petruchio speaks about how he and Kate were partners and how much better it was than keeping her under his thumb was a fantastic end to the show. It was a great message and gave Kate some strength after being forced to marry him.

This was clever, funny as can be, and still gave us the flavor of David and Maddie, advancing their characters, without even having it be their characters. 

This is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, right up there with “The Constant” of LOST and the pilot of Twin Peaks. The risks the show took with this episode were great, but this provided a remarkable result.

And Cybill Shepherd was meant for this time, because she absolutely rocked those dresses. They could not have been comfortable, but she was unbelievably gorgeous in them.

I did not want to put it at the top of my Moonlighting episode list until I saw it again, to see if it held up. After finishing the episode, I can safely say that this is the best episode of Moonlighting ever made and that it holds up beautifully.

What If…? S2 E6

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“What if… Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

Famously, DC character Harley Quinn made her actual first appearance in the Batman: The Animated Series TV show. Marvel Studios has taken that path with their all-new character Kahhori, a member of the Mohawk Nation, in this What If…? episode.

The creators tied Kahhori’s origin to the Tesseract, which in this universe, arrived on earth after the destruction of Asgard by Surtur during Ragnarok. 

The animation, which has been next level during this entire season of What If…?, is absolutely stunning in this episode and feels as if the animators took it even higher than they had up until this point. Everything here is just gorgeous to look at. The design of Kahhori and her people were outstanding. The fire in the background with the Spaniards was breath-taking. It truly was a beautifully constructed and drawn episode.

The story does feel rushed, but that is the format more than anything else. They have kept these What If…? episodes to a tight 30 minutes for the most part, but this is another one that could have done well with another 10 minutes or so.

The episode was practically all in a different language, which is quite the choice. Only the Watcher and Supreme Strange at the very end speak in English.

Speaking of, Supreme Strange does make an appearance at the very end of the episode, clearly there to set up for the finale. The Supreme Strange episode is listed as the 9th episode of the season, which followed the 1602 episode. Something is telling me that they may be a crossover between them much like last year’s Ultron was.

It will be interesting to see what role Kahhori will play in the MCU moving forward or if she is just a staple in the What If…? section. If she is successful, it can show that Marvel does not have to settle for the characters that are already made which would open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

Top 30 TV Shows of 2023

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There are so many TV shows! It is impossible to watch everything.

This is my list of 30 TV shows that I have watched this year from 30 to 1.

#30. Secret Invasion (Disney +). I wasn’t going to put this on the list, but there were enough moments in the show to be enough for this list. Much of the one on one scenes were decent. The rest of the story was lacking.

#29. Bonus Action Vol. 1 (YouTube). Jay and Adam play D&D with their friends and it was great. Surprisingly great characters with development. Watched on YouTube.

#28. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Disney +). I have only seen two episodes so far (waiting for #3 tonight). Good so far.

#27. Goosebumps (Disney +). RL Stein’s classics were reimagined for this Disney + series. Justin Long starred. This was okay, up and down.

#26. Whose Line is it Anyway (CW). I wish I could see this more, but it sneaks past me. Ihave to catch it on the app if I can. It is in its last season with the regular cast.

#25. American Horror Story: Delicate (FX). First half of the season aired near the end of 2023. Typically creepy horror show. Having to do with pregnancy.

#24. The Muppets Mayhem (Disney +). Muppet series featuring Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. This was fun and had some great music. Loved Janis’s version of True Colors.

#23. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV +). Godzilla has some cameos. Follows two groups of humans, one group in 2015 and one in 1954. The 1954 group is more interesting.

#22. Bodies (Netflix). Limited series on Netflix, based on a graphic novel. Four time periods, same body. Mystery on how this is possible.

#21. Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix). Amalgam of Edgar Allan Poe’s best stories in a new series that watches a group of men and women from the same family die and the patriarch confess.

#20. Invincible (Amazon Prime). One of the top animated shows on TV. It only had 4 episodes in 2023, with the rest of the season two in 2024. Violent and dramatic.

#19. Silo (Apple TV +). Futuristic, apocalyptic drama where humanity has taken up residence inside a giant silo to protect themselves from the environment. Or is there something else going on?

#18. Schmigadoon (Apple TV +). Musical. Season two used classic musicals such as Hair, Chicago, Sweeny Todd as inspiration. Darker. Very funny. 

#17. The Mandalorian (Disney +). Season three was not as awesome as past seasons, but it still has Pedro Pascal and Grogu. 

#16. Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix). Another series that I have recent started and have yet to finish. Amazing animation and a deep character. Love this.

#15. The Rookie (ABC). The ABC drama featuring Nathan Fillion continues to be entertaining after four seasons. Fillion shouldn’t be considered a rookie any more.

#14. The Bear (FX). Fantastic show that takes place inside a restaurant. At least, the rebuilding of a restaurant. Stars Jeremy Allen White.

#13. Shrinking (Apple TV +). Jason Segal and Harrison Ford star on this drama/comedy about psychiatrists and the troubles they face in life, specifically dealing with loss.

#12. Poker Face (Peacock). Natasha Lyonne stars as Charlie Cale who has a special power… she can tell if someone is lying. Case of the week style… from Rian Johnson.

#11. Fargo (FX). Season five of the series has been kicking some butt… particularly by Dorothy “Dot” Lyon, a housewife who is more than what she seems. Jon Hamm stars too.

#10. Monday Night RAW (USA). RAW has really improved this year. There was a time not too long ago that I was thinking about not watching RAW. It is now appointing viewing with CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes etc.

#9. Friday Night Smackdown (FOX). More WWE action with the show that rode the Bloodline storyline all year long. There were some moments in that storyline that could have been Emmy worthy. Acknowledge Smackdown.

#8. Ted Lasso (Apple TV +). The final (?) season of the show had its ups and downs, but usually was hilarious and it gave us a satisfying conclusion. 

#7. What If…? (Disney +). The MCU telling stories about what might have happened. The What If.. Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? and What If…Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? are two of the best episodes of the whole series, let alone season 2.

#6. Gen V (Amazon Prime). The Boys spin-off, featuring as many shocks and gory moments as its parent show. There are some wonderful characters that are less corrupt as the Boys.

#5. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). Third season brought both Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep to the show involving a mystery centered around Oliver’s Broadway show. Some great music coming from it too.

#4. Jury Duty (Freevee). One person on a jury is a real person and the rest are actors. The court case is not real. How will things go? This is exceptionally funny and engaging. James Marsden appears on the show.

#3. The Last of Us (Max). Maybe the best video game adaptation of all time. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey play Joel and Ellie, two people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Emotionally devastating.

#2. One Piece (Netflix). Live action Manga with a group of characters that are the key to this show. The chemistry of this crew, led by Monkey D. Luffy, played by the charismatic Iñaki Godoy, is the most important part of the series. Creative, fun and thrilling.

#1. Loki (Disney +). The God of Mischief is back with more time traveling hijinks. Loki is desperately trying to save the TVA from being destroyed and, in the same way, save the multiverse. Tom Hiddleston has mastered this character after all these years of playing Loki and his chemistry with Owen Wilson’s Mobius is amazing. Their friendship takes this series to a different level. The end of episode four may be the most shocking cliffhanger ever.

Fargo S5 E6

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Spoilers

“The Tender Trap”

Episode six of the new season of Fargo was missing something important.

Dorothy.

I do like a lot of these other characters, but the fact is that this whole season really revolves around Dorothy. With her hidden, other characters had to step up. We get some more rottenness from John Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tillman. We see much more from Indira, including a pretty awesome interaction between her and Lorraine Lyon, as played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. An interaction that led Lorraine to offer Indira a job away from the police. I assume that she was impressed by the bad ass attitude that Indira arrived with.

Indira also dropped Dorothy’s file on Lorraine’s desk, a file we see later contained some horrible images of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Roy.

Lorraine came with a ton of vengeance when she discovered that Roy halted the bank sale she had been working on. She planned on “stealing an election” and she crushed Vivian Dugger’s life, leaving him penniless and even affecting his children.

As I said, things are ramping up for the next several episodes before the finale.