Christmas night saw the second volume of the final season of Strange Things came out with three episodes that will lead directly into the finale, next week on New Year’s Eve.
These three episodes do a tremendous job setting up that finale. We got plenty of answers about what has been going on these last five seasons, and they really fit together nicely. I am impressed with the writing of the Duffer Brothers.
I love the way that they worked the Wormhole into this story, recontextualizing the Upside-Down and what it actually is. The whole moment when Nancy shot the wormhole was so tense and scary with the vacuum outside of it. I loved how Dustin was on the outside of the situation and found the answers in Bremmer’s journal.
Speaking of Dustin, he and Steve went through it in these episodes. They dealt with the way they were treating each other in the first volume and it was extremely dramatic as they handled the deep pain that they were facing.
Jonathan and Nancy dealt with their relationship in a strong manner. The scene where they finally told each other the truth was a really great scene.
I do not like how they are setting up the ending of this with the implication that Eleven is going to need to die for everything to finally be over. I really dislike the sister.
I love how the group is basically back together in the seventh episode, preparing for the big finish. They have not all been back together in a long time, and seeing the team come back together was great.
Vecna truly is terrifying. The use of the redesigned Vecna is really well done and how they use it along with the Henry form. Henry was every bit as scary when dealing with his little cult-like kids. I needed more Dipshit Derek in these episodes.
Max coming back was very satisfying too, as was Will’s admitting about being gay. Both of these moments gave a strength to the ensemble and allowed these characters to show how important they were to each other. It was a lovely way to do this, especially with the Will reveal. Will was still very nervous and awkward during the entire time, hem-and-hawing around the topic. Watching the group embrace him was a beautiful moment.
And we are set up with a crazy plan to save the world and prevent the crashing together of two worlds via the wormhole. A final showdown certainly with Eleven and Vecna (hopefully with Will there too. He deserves to be in the final showdown).
They have actually made me reconsider my New Year’s Eve routine. I usually watch Infinity War and Endgame to midnight, but now, I might have to readjust my tradition.
There were so many great TV shows on streaming and TV. We split them into four categories: Drama, Comedy, Genre and Animated.
Starting with Animation:
#5. Eyes of Wakanda(Disney +). Good show with four episodes dropped all on one day. Second half of those episodes were considerably better.
#4. Win or Lose(Disney +). Pixar show on Disney + that I watched during the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. Highly entertaining and well written.
#3. Marvel Zombies(Disney +). This one turned out way better than I ever thought it would. Another one day drop by Marvel on Disney +.
#2. Hazbin Hotel (Amazon Prime). Second season of the Hell musical was awesome. Wonderful music and amazing voice acting.
#1. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Disney +). One of the best animated Spider-Man series in quite a long time. Great characterization, not only for Peter, but also for Lonnie (Tombstone). I loved the adjusted origin and the tie ins to the MCU was clever.
Comedy
#4. Poker Face (Peacock). Always entertaining. Natasha Lyonne is great as Charlie. Every time is seemed like the show made an adjustment. And that was the truth.
#3. Stick (Apple TV +). Owen Wilson starred as a former golf pro who finds a skilled kid who he wanted to help become a pro. Funny and clever.
#2. The Studio (Apple TV +). Insider story starring Seth Rogan as a movie studio exec and his struggles to get his films out. Hilarious writing and a ton of brilliant cameos.
#1. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). The fifth season of this venerable series was remarkably entertaining and funny. There has been some great seasons of this show, and the fifth one worked so well.
Drama
#10. The White Lotus (HBO Max). This was my least favorite of the three seasons of White Lotus. I was only really interested in one of the stories, and I was unhappy with the resolution.
#9. Squid Game Season 3 (Netflix). Squid Game was really great, but was tainted by the finale, which left way too much undone and unsolved. The end hurt this badly.
#8. The Bear (Hulu). A much better season than the previous one. The Bear felt like it got back to the success from the early seasons. This is in a drama because it is NOT a comedy.
#7. Duster (HBO Max). This was a fun series with Josh Holloway and a duster car. This sadly did not get a second season, but it was much better than it got credit for.
#6. The Pitt (HBO Max). This one might be higher if I had watched the entire series. I am currently at episode 7. Great medical show with Noah Wylie.
#5. Pluribus (Apple TV +). Another one that might be higher on this list if it is finished. There is only one more episode left, but it is really great.
#4. Yellowjackets (Paramount +). The third season continues to show the weirdness of the forest. The story of the mysterious events are still exceptional.
#3. Adolescence (Netflix). Four episode mini series from Netflix with a teenage boy who is charged with murder. Brilliant performances from Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper.
#2. Dexter: Resurrection(Showtime). After the up and down nature of Dexter: Original Sin, I did not expect much out of Resurrection. However, this was a sensational series with Dexter taking up residence in New York. This was so fabulous.
#1. Paradise (Hulu). One of the best new series of the year. The mystery behind the death of the President and what was going on with the story. Paradise was so wonderful. I did not expect it to be this good.
Genre
#15. Alien: Earth (FX). This started great, but it fell off quick. I actually never finished this series.
#14. Fallout (Amazon Prime). I have only seen one episode of season two so far, which is why this is as low as it is. It might be on the 2026 list too.
#13. Silo (Apple TV +). The ending part of the season came into 2025 and it was a very strong season.
#12. Perry Jackson and the Olympians (Disney +). Another show that would be higher on the list had there been more episodes released by now. I do like the mythologically based show.
#11. The Last of Us (HBO Max). The second season of The Last of Us was a step down from the first season.. mainly because of the results of Joel’s fate. It was brutal and damaged the show.
#10. Wednesday(Netflix). The second season of this show was good, but maybe not as great as season one. Still solid and it had some great new characters.
#9. Doctor Who (Disney +). I am sad that Ncuti Gatwa was gone from the role by the end of the season. I loved him as The Doctor. This was a great season with some excellent episodes.
#8. Ironheart (Disney +). Ironheart was better than I expected and… MEPHISTO CONFIRMED!!!
#7. Gen V (Amazon Prime). Gen V does a great job setting up for the end of the Boys in 2026. The characters are excellent and the story was awesome. Brutal as always.
#6. Murderbot (Apple TV +). Surprise series with a robot that becomes sentient. A fun sci-fi series with a wonderful group of characters that are easy to root for.
#5. Strangers Things 5 (Netflix). The first part of the final season of Stranger Things was so great, especially the ending of episode 4 with Will.
#4. Andor (Disney +). The second and final season of Andor is amazing. You knew what the fate of these characters would be, yet the drama of this series was never lacking.
#3. Peacemaker (HBO Max). John Cena’s second season dealt with the multiverse and Peacemaker has to confront so many of his personal demons. A great season for this show… and another brilliant opening credits.
#2. Daredevil: Born Again (Disney +). Daredevil returned and brought Kingpin with him. Shocking death in the first ten minutes set the tone for the season. I wish they had done more with Muse, but it had a great episode in a bank.
#1. It: Welcome to Derry (HBO Max). The prequel to the movie series was so great. The first episode introduced us to a group of kids, made us love them, and then killed them off. Then, we meet another group of kids who had to struggle against Pennywise. Bill Skarsgård was amazing as Pennywise, scary and sinister. A satisfying conclusion with one of the best finale of the year.
Okay, there were a couple of moments during these two episodes that we rough on me. There was a heart attack scene that was just about more than I could handle.
I do like how the show has been, for the most part, more about the characters than with the illnesses. Whether it be the staff of the ER or the patients, the characters are the driving force behind story.
The abortion arc is really good. There is a father abuse storyline that did not work for me. One comment was made that the doctors and nurses were mandatory reporters but couldn’t report without evidence. As a mandatory reporter, that is patently incorrect. That pulled me out of the scene.
Then, it took a dramatic twist with Trinity Santos, who was a character that I have not been a fan of so far in the series, and a vicious confrontation with the child abuser in question. It was fairly unrealistic, but very kick ass. It helped that storyline.
The end of episode seven was horrific, as Dr. Collins went into the restroom, with tears, seeing blood in her underwear. There had been subtle hints through the last couple of episodes that Collins, who was pregnant, was going to have something terrible happen to the baby. While it is unconfirmed as of yet, this ending scene did not make things look good.
This pair of episodes started to show Doctor Robby was acting unlike he normally would do. I had a bit of a problem with that too because up until here, he seemed like he was great. I had no idea that he was acting differently than normal. The show had told us about his struggles on the anniversary of his mentor’s death, but I still thought he was doing a great job. When Collins called him out on his behavior, I was surprised. Some of these scenes with Robby felt out of place from the rest of the season. Of course, we did not know Robby before this series, and all of the episodes have been the same day, so it is hard to see the changes.
The show brought up the kid with the “hit list” again, but it is a story arc that feels like it will come back hard later in the season.
I was so happy that Whittaker made it through episode 7 without having to change his scrubs!
So this was a series that I have wanted to watch for awhile now. The time was just never right, but with Christmas break upon me, plus the second season debuting in January on HBO Max, I thought I would give The Pitt a try.
See, I am a hypochondriac… well, sort of. Medical shows have bothered me in the past. I am bothered by things that can go wrong in the human body. While it does not make me feel as if I am having the same symptoms, it does bother me. That being said, the idea of each episode being an hour at a time in an emergency room made me think of 24 and I was intrigued.
I almost stopped at the first episode. A couple of scenes in that first show nearly finished me off. I was in on some of the storylines though so I decided to stick with it. After four episodes, I am fully in and will hopefully not have any further issues.
The storylines were coming hard and fast in the first four episodes. I was working on the EYG Comic Cavalcade as I was watching so the number of episodes just kept rolling as I worked. Perhaps I shouldn’t work as I watched, because I was being distracted by the show.
Noah Wylie led this cast of actors that I mostly did not recognize. Yet, they all did a great job with their roles. The short term stories with the patients were all very engaging and ranged from deadly serious to a good laugh.
One that especially caught my attention was a mother who faked an illness to get some help with her son. She found a list of girls to eliminate in his room, causing some serious tension of the story. That one is still percolating away. There was one that seemed to fly by faster with a brother and sister who desperately tried to keep their father alive, despite his wishes not to be on life-saving equipment. That story felt like it played out over a longer time than what it actually did, since the four episodes were designed to be only four hours total.
There were also a bunch of deaths in that four hour period. It truly showed the anguish the doctors and nurses have to deal with in their daily job.
The characters are introduced really well as there is not a ton of time to spend with them. Their minutes on screen are maximized extremely effectively.
I was not sure I was going to continue to watch this during episode one because of my own issues, but I am glad I pushed on. This is a strong series so far and my goal is to finish season one before the arrival of season two in January.
So we have come to the end of our journey that started on the first day of September. We have reached the number one show of all time according to EYG, and, if you knew me at all, this would have been the least dramatic reveal of a number one ever.
LOST is, far and away, my favorite show ever. I remember the feeling I had when it came to an end: an emptiness in my gut that took several years to fill.
Some claim that LOST had one of the worst endings of any show, and I respectfully disagree. I found the LOST finale to be perfect. It focused on the characters that I had come to love for the previous six seasons.
LOST ran for six seasons on ABC, giving us 121 episodes of awesomeness.
A group of people, who were from all walks of life, boarded Oceanic flight 815 in Sydney, Australia for Los Angeles. That flight did not make it to LAX. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the plane came across some major problems and crashed on an island. Almost immeditaely, you learned that this island was unlike anywhere else. As Charlie said…
“Guys, where are we?”
The Island was a character all its own, with a mythology and mysteries for the audeicne to chew upon. That was one of the criticisms of the show: they did not reveal the secrets of the Island. Again, I think there were plenty of mysteries revealed. It may not have spoon-fed you the answers you wanted, but if you paid attention, you could make educated answers to everything on the show.
The Island had a polar bear, a smoke monster, a group of Others, healing properties allowing a crippled man to walk again among other things.
The ensemble cast was brillaint. Led by Matthew Fox, the cast included Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Jorge Garcia, Josh Halloway, Maggie Grace, Emilie de Raven, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Malcolm David Kelley, Dominic Monaghan, Harold Perrineau, Michael Emerson, Ian Somerhalder, Henry Ian Cusick, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cynthia Watros, Elizabeth Mitchell, Nestor Carbonell, Jeff Fahey, Sonya Walger, Sam Anderson, L. Scott Caldwell, Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, and Rebecca Mader.
Some of these actors will forever be their characters to me. Many have gone on to do other major roles (Evangeline Lilly was Wasp in the MCU, Terry O’ Quinn and Michael Emerson have had plenty of other roles), but my first thought will always be that they are their characters from LOST.
4 8 15 16 23 42
“See ya in anothe rlife, brother“
“You guys got any milk?”
“We got to go back!”
The greatest show of all time in the opinion of EYG… LOST.
That wraps up the first Daily Countdown. It was quite the undertaking, but we are far from done. Tomorrow we start the next Daily Countdown. It was actually a harder list to compile than the TV one. Tomorrow we start TV THEME SONGS.
That was a scene that happened many times during the run of Moonlighting, a show that went for four seasons on ABC starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.
Set at teh Blue Moon Detective Agency, Maddie Hayes had lost almost all of her fortune to a crooked accountant and she was forced to work in one of the few businesses remaining, a detective agency. There, she met David Addison, a wise cracking, song singing, limbo dancing private eye who challenged her to expand her life.
Moonlighting is one of the best shows on TV. It also felt down to earth quicker than any show on TV. The whole “will they won’t they” aspect of the show kept the viewers glued to their screen, but, when they did, much of the magic was gone.
Still, David and Maddie were amazing together. Charming, fighting, arguing, detecting. They could do anything.
One of the things that they could do was break the fourth wall. This was one of the first shows that I specifically saw do this technique and I found it hilarious. Another specialty of this show was the special episodes… the dream sequences. They had a show called “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” where David and Maddie had dreams that they were musicians in an old time club. Another episode saw them dancing to “Big Man on Mulberry Street.”
But one of the greatest episodes of all time was “Atomic Shakespeare” which Maddie and David played the roles of Katharina and Petruchio in a satire of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” This episode was written in iambic pentameter and was an absolute joy.
The last season and a half was much weaker, but the first two and a half was some of the best TV of all time. I remember planting myself in front of the TV every Tuesday night to watch Moonlighting… although their behind the scenes challenges and fights caused many of those nights to be a rerun.
When compiling this list, I debated between #3 and #2 for Moonlighting, and it could easily be flipped. Moonlighting made Bruce Willis a superstar and helped him get Die Hard.
“Blue Moon Investigations ceased operations on May 14, 1989. The Anselmo Case was never solved… and remains a mystery to this day.”
I noticed some differences in these two episodes than I did int he previous ones. First, it seemed as if they got control of the laugh track. It was still there, but it was much more in control. It was not as loud as it was in the previous 16 episodes and I actually did not notice it for awhile. That was a HUGE item for the show.
Then, the comedy, which was always real bad in most of the first 16 episodes, wasn’t that bad here. It was still not the greatest comedy I ever heard, but it was considerably better. I did not cringe as much as I did in the first part of the season.
They had a new set, a diner where they could go for some of the backstage bits. It was much improved. We had way few of the ridiculous bits by some of the other members of the cast. I wonder if they let some of the others go.
These two episodes had the benefit of having guests that could sing. The first one was Johnny Ray, who I am not sure I knew, but who I was incredibly impressed with. He sang a song on the street set that was great. He was also singing it live. I was fascinated with the way he moved his mouth as he sang. No one would move their mouth like that if they were lip synching.
The second episode of the night had Chubby Checker, who sang Let’s Twist Again (Like We Did Last Summer). He was also clearly singing the song. Truthfully, there were some times he was screaming it. It brought a lot of energy to the show. There is no doubt that when the show has singers as guests, things just seem stronger.
They had a couple of comedy songs- first Rip Van Winkel and then My Baby Loves A Western Movie, and I have to say, I thought both were decent and had some funny moments. I really prefer the group on the stage or in the street set, but these comedy bits were fun too.
These episodes had some solid songs including All Shook Up, Poetry in Motion, Yakety Yak, and Earth Angel.
Things are looking up. Some of my biggest complaints from the first part of this season seems to have been addressed, and just turning that damn laugh track down is a major step in the right direction. Next episode looks to have Chuck Berry as a guest star so that means more music from the guest. That is the way to go.
Who thought that a TV Show based on a low budget, poorly reviewed film could spiral into seven seasons of television on the WB/CW?
The TV show took the idea from the movie and expanded upon it with Sarah Michelle Geller assuming the role of Buffy Summers. Buffy moved to a town named Sunnydale, which was located on a Hellmouth. This explained the variety of vampires, demons and monsters that would populate the town.
Buffy met and bonded with Willow and Zander, who became her backup and support. As the one slayer, Buffy had to deal with the responsibilities of protecting the world from the dangers of an apocalypse while trying to pass high school.
Buffy and Angel, a long lived vampire who had gotten his soul back, became the IT couple of the show, though fate was very much against them. Angel, played by David Boreanaz, wound up being spun off into his own show.
Rupert Giles was the stuffy librarian at the high school who was, in reality, Buffy’s Watcher. A Watcher would train and provide guidance to the current slayer. Giles quickly became connected with Buffy and the other “Scooby Gang” members, and he was more of a father figure than a trainer. Giles was portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head.
Spike was another vampire that Buffy had a relationship with. Spike was introduced to the series as an antagonist, but his popularity saw him return multiple times and eventually fall in love with the Slayer. It led to Spike regaining his own soul. Spike was just so cool.
There were amazing episodes with a ton of creativity over the seven seasons including one where everyone lost the ability to talk (“Hush”) and another one where Buffy finds the dead body of her mother Joyce (“Body”). Perhaps the greatest musical episode of all time was Buffy’s “Once More with Feeling” which saw a demon summoned to Sunnydale causing song and dance to break out across the city.
There have been talks about bringing the Buffy franchise back to TV with a new version that would include Sarah Michelle Geller in some form.
Harry Anderson was one of my favorite parts of Cheers in its early seasons so I loved following him to his new show. While this was not a direct spin off from Cheers, the Harry Anderson character Harry Stone, shared a lot of the same traits with Harry the Hat from Cheers.
I am sure it all came from Harry Anderson’s own act as a magician/comedian and his skills were highlighted on Cheers. Night Court then followed.
Night Court became a wonderful ensemble show. It took awhile to find the proper cast, specifically the defense attorney. The public defender started with Paula Kelly in season one, then went to Ellen Foley in season two before Markie Post finally solidified the position and went the remaining time for the show.
Dan Fielding, the DA, was never a trouble as John Larroquette ran the entire series. Dan was a slimy guy with a heart of gold and the contrast between Dan and Harry was always a great bit for the show. Richard Moll was another full time supporting actor as bailiff Bull Shannon. He was teamed up with the wonderful Selma Diamond for the first two seasons. Diamond played bailiff Selma Hacker, until her death in 1985 from lung cancer. The show struggled with the loss, especially pairing someone with Moll. When they found Marsha Warfield to play Roz starting in season 4, the show hit gold.
We also got Charles Robinson as Mac, the court clerk, replacing Karen Austin, whose Lana Wagner had been a potential love interest for Harry. Mac was a much stronger character and provided some wonderfully dry-witted moments.
When this group finally came together, Night Court really took off. From season four through the end of season nine, this ensemble was one of the best on TV. Stories worked with this variety of complex characters and they were all really funny and had great chemistry with one another. This was what the show was searching for in its first three seasons.
This past summer, I did a TV show first time watch by watching all six seasons of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows. Since they had usually around 10 episodes a season at about a half and hour, I would binge a season in one day and then do a write up.
What We Do in the Shadows was based on a movie from writer/director Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. The show is shot in the mockumentary format following a group of four vampire roommates living together in Staten Island.
The cast was exceptional and had a ton of chemistry with each other. The main stars included Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, and Kristen Schaal.
Much of the POV came from the human character Guillermo, who was the familiar for Nandor the Relentless, one of the four roommates. There was the married couple Lazlo and Nadja and the “energy vampire” Colin Robinson.
Every episode saw this out of time foursome dealing with something unbelievable. The one thing you could count on with What We Do in the Shadows was that it was funny.
The show was not only funny, but it was shocking. There was blood and other bodily fluids involved and provided a humorous look at a world that one wouldn’t think of as funny.
There were a ton of guests stars during the six seasons including such notable stars as Mark Hamill, Tilda Swinton, Dave Bautista, Paul Reubens, Scott Bakula, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, John Slattery, Wesley Snipes, and Evan Rachel Woods. This is just a few of the stars who found their way to this show.
The mockumentary style of the show was one of the big stars as well. It brought a wonderful quirkiness to the show that worked.
Every season was hilarious and, even the weaker ones, had some fabulous moments.
We start a new series this week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and, in honor of the creepy season, I chose The Haunting of Hill House.
What a great start to this series.
I have to say, I think this series does an admirable job of introducing these characters to the viewers. With so many major characters, it can be difficult to know who is who. Then, not only do we met these people in the present day, but also in flashbacks to the time they lived in Hill House. It could easily be very confusing, but I have to say that the show did a solid job of connecting the characters from the past and the present. It did require my attention though.
The show does an especially good job with Steven, as we see him both as a young boy, the oldest of the kids and his protective nature, and an older man, skeptical and struggling.
Then, Nell and the moment at the end was an amazing shock. When Nell stood in that apartment staring blankly at Steven, I knew what was going on (I mean, when you title the episode “Steven Sees a Ghost” and he hasn’t up to this point, well, it is not rocket science), but it did not make it any less impactful.
The middle two girls are the characters that I got the least from during this episode, and I hope they will come into focus more are the series progresses. Luke is a fascinating character and I feel like I have a good grasp on him even with the limited amount of screen time he received.
The father has clearly been affected dramatically and I feel as if we are going to dive deeper into the mother’s suicide in Hill House.
I am intrigued by the mysterious events that the show has introduced to us and, with the mind of writer-director Mike Flanagan, who also was the force behind Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and The Life of Chuck, I believe this could lead to something special.
This series is loosely based on the novel of the same name from 1959 by Shirley Jackson.
I am back with the next three episodes of season one of Sha Na Na. This was one of my favorite shows as a kid and I always looked forward to seeing the next episode.
I just have to say, some of the negatives stand out more for me now than it did when I was a kid. The comedy is downright bad. Very few of these bits were funny at all. The only ones that seemed okay were the ones in the car with one of the members of the band and Ginger. The can laughter made it all the more obvious that it wasn’t funny.
The exception was the bits during episode 5 with Milton Berle. He brought in members of Sha Na Na and would makes jokes with them. These bits felt fairly improv-like and you can see the members of Sha Na Na trying to keep from laughing. Some did better than others. Johnny was working that gum over hard during his moment with Berle.
You do have to respect how they passed around singing responsibilities on the show. In these three episodes, only Santini did not have a lead vocal or a duet. Duke of Earl and Silhouette was performed by Denny. Party Doll and Itsy Bitsy teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini was done by Chico. Whole Lotta Shakin’ was led by Screamin’ Scott. Screamin’ Scott and Jocko combined for Poison Ivy. Bower sang with Ethel Merman with Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Lenny sang Too Chubby to Boogie. Dirty Dan sang Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow. Johnny sang the last song of episode five, though I did not recognize the title. The whole group had a part in The Name Game.
Admittedly, some of the background dancing gets too hectic at times and it gives the audience too many things to try and focus on. However, episode five gave us something different as this was the first time that we got to see shots of the live audience and their responses to the stage songs. I liked that variation on what they had done prior.
The dancing was okay during Carol Lawrence’s dance of The One, from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line. The whole group of Sha Na Na provided chorus line dancing.
Episode five was my favorite of these episodes as it felt like they did some different things and the Milton Berle comedy worked so much more than some of the other episode comedy bits.
I am finally getting caught up with most of the TV shows and that meant that I got to Amazon Prime’s Gen V.
The spin-off of The Boys had a surprisingly good season one and this new season leads right into some of the major events going on in that series.
First of all, we had to deal with the real life loss of actor Chance Perdomo, who played Andre in season one, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2024. Andre was a major character among the ensemble of Gen V so decisions had to be made. The show decided against recasting the role and decided instead to kill the character off-screen. While it was an uncomfortable idea, the death of Andre provided motivation for several of the characters to move forward.
We have a new Dean of Godolkin University and he is the new big bad of season two. Cypher is very mysterious and manipulative.
I do love how the group is kind of getting back together, even after the horrible things that they have done to each other. It sure looked like, after episode one, that Jordan had killed Cate. I am glad Cate survived as the entire event has led to a tentative reunion between Cate, Marie, Jordan, and Emma.
Gen V continues to have the same kind of shocking moments that are typical on The Boys, and the characters from The Boys are referenced constantly Starlight even made a cameo in one of the episodes, trying to recruit Marie to help her out. She mentioned one of the mysteries of the season, which was Odessa. It appeared as if Odessa was Marie, but that has all been questionable.
Episodes will release every Wednesday, so I will be watching them when I can. This kick off has been very enjoyable so far and I am deeply invested in the mysteries of the show. I am curious to see how this show will eventually play into the final season of The Boys.
I was on Twitter/X a few days ago and I came across a Tweet by Jon “Bowzer” Bausman stating that the full episodes of the Sha Na Na TV series was going to be available on YouTube soon. I was excited to hear this as this was a big part of my childhood. I loved Sha Na Na and they turned out to be my first ever concert at Five Flags Center in Dubuque.
I have spent years watching musical clips from the show on YouTube and the news about the full episodes was great. I figured I could make this one of my rewatches here at EYG.
I went to YouTube and searched for Sha Na Na series and I found a playlist from pattyoc01, who had been one of the prolific posters of the Sha Na Na clips over the years. The playlist had all of the episodes on it.
I have a feeling this may not have been what Jon Bausman meant when he posted his tweet. I have a suspicion that a more clean and professional version may be coming in the future. However, I was excited to start the rewatch so I dove into the pilot (listed as episode 0) and the first two episodes of the series.
Sha Na Na consisted of the following group members on the show: Bowzer, Johnny, Screamin’ Scott, Santini, Denny, Lennie, Donny, Dirty Dan, Chico, and Jocko.
The musical numbers are far and away the best part of these first three episodes. The comedy on the show was, at best, iffy. Some of it was groan-inducing. I saw another tweet from Bausman stating that he knew the humor of the first season was not the beat, but he felt the following seasons got more clever.
I was always focused on whether they were lip synching the music. I know that they had done, at least for the stage songs, live singing with the instrumental and the back up singing being pre-taped. You could usually tell from the powerhouse vocals of Johnny Contardo. Some of the street songs or comedy sketch bits (such as the Monster Mash bit in the pilot) were clearly being lip synched. It was obvious that Bernadette Peters was not singing live in episode two either. It was not a major issue, but I am more impressed when they let their vocals come through.
A great example of this was in the third episode where five of the group’s best singers, Johnny, Bowzer, Donny, Lennie and Santini sang an a cappella doo wop version of “I Wonder Why.” This was an amazing performance with these five really blending their voices into a fantastic harmony.
Other songs performed in this first three episodes included Blue Moon, Teenager in Love, Yakkety Yak, Tell Laura I Love Her, Rama Lama Ding Dong, Personality, Little Darlin’, and Runaway.
Along with Bernadette Peters in episode two, Rita Moreno and Frank Gorshin guest starred in the other two episodes however whatever Gorshin did seemed to be cut from the episode on YouTube. This is another reason why I think this may not be the collection that Bausman was referring to in his tweet.
I have to say that this is a bizarre series as the show constantly tells you as an audience member that Sha Na Na is terrible. The show puts down their music, their intelligence and everything else. You would think that they shouldn’t be downgrading their stars, even if it is nothing more than a running joke. It is clear that these ten men are remarkably talented (although they may not have been the greatest dancers ever to grace the screen).
Seeing this show once again gives me a huge feeling of nostalgia. I forgot this show when compiling my Top 100 TV Shows list that I am currently counting down with the Daily Countdown on EYG. This should have probably had a spot on that list.
For the first three episodes… Goodnight sweetheart, well it’s time to go…
This week’s Lovecraft Country focuses on that comment, and we get an episode centered around Hippolyta.
This was a wild, sci-fi romp through alternate dimensions and spiritual encounters. Hippolyta finds herself dancing on a stage with Josephine Baker in Paris, a warrior woman training in what appeared to be Africa (reminded me very much of the movie, The Woman King) and back in bed with George (with Courtney B. Vance returning to the role).
It was a journey of self-discovery for Hippolyta as she is able to work through her grief and anger over the events that she had gone through in the series.
Of course, before she had been pulled into the portal by this strange machine, she had shot and killed a police officer who was going to kill her after catching her in this place. Atticus showed up and helped out, sending another officer through the portal. However, the dead officer’s body was lying on top of Diana’s comic book, leading us to think bad things are coming for the young girl.
We also discover that Atticus had gone through a portal as well. We do not know where he had gone, but he returned with a paperback book entitled Lovecraft Country written by George Freeman.
Other items from this episode:
The show has been implying that Leti is pregnant. I am curious to see how that will play into the narrative.
Emmet Till is referenced in this episode as a friend of Diana.
Atticus learns the truth that his father Montrose was gay. He did not take it well. In fact, Atticus’s response using the f-slur was one of the most shocking moments of the episode. It is a term that we don’t hear much anymore, but would have been more common during this time frame. It was still very hard to hear coming from our protagonist’s mouth.
Ruby and her relationship with Christina is bizarre and could lead to Ruby betraying her sister.
This was a strong episode of Lovecraft Country, which built on the idea of the power of women, much like last week’s episode featuring Ji-ah.
There are just three more episodes of Lovecraft Country remaining. Because next weekend I am going to attend SiouxperCon 2025 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk will be poster this coming Friday, September 19th.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 