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The X-Files S11 E4

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“The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat”

The fourth episode of season eleven of The X-Files brought another excellent, comedic show that loosed its venom on itself.

What I mean is that this is clearly a parody of the X-Files as a TV program, poking fun at a lot of the tropes of the series.

Our new informant was named Reggie and the episode featured the Mandela Effect (or as Reggie would put it, the Mengele Effect). According to Wikipedia, the Mandela Effect is when “specific false memories can sometimes be shared by a large group of people.”

Besides the parody of the show, the episode also had some pointed comments about both the use of disinformation and Donald Trump. One of the conspiratorial characters, Dr. They, told Mulder that the days of hiding the truth were gone because the truth can be told and nobody will believe it.

There was an alien that Mulder, Scully and Reggie (who claimed that he had been their partner on the X-Files for years- which included a theme song for the show including his picture) met at the end. This alien spoke lines directly from Trump, talking about building a beautiful wall (invisible), around the galaxy because earth was not sending its best people into space. The Trump effect was in full swing with this episode.

There were clips from previous episodes of The X-Files with Reggie superimposed in them to illustrate his point. Episodes included “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and “Small Potatoes” to name a few.

The whole parallel universe argument that Mulder was making was really funny, as was Mulder’s own frustration on how silly the parallel universe argument was. When Mulder threw his pencil across the room in a fit of frustration, it was just hilarious.

The X-Files could do silly as well as any show and this was a very good example of that.

What We Do in the Shadows Season Two

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I decided that, since the show What We Do in the Shadow had ten episodes each around 24 minutes, it would be a good idea to go ahead and binge these seasons instead of spreading it out. I will be finishing the X-Files soon and my goal is to run through this total series before school starts again.

So I started the season two this morning and went through it. I think the second season was tremendous, and I think I liked it even more than I did season one.

There were some awesome guest stars/cameos during the season. This included an amazing performance from Mark Hammil, plus Benedict Wong, Haley Joel Osment, Craig Robinson, Greta Lee, James Frain, and Lucy Punch.

Some of the fish out of water things that the show threw Laszlo, Nadja and Nandor into some of the oddest situations. They had to attend a “Superb Owl” party at a neighbor’s house which was actually a Super Bowl party. They had to figure out their own laundry after Guillermo left them. The email curse, which everyone knows is BS, caused them massive concern. Colin Robinson’ promotion which led to his great power.

The show brought us a zombie (Haley Joel Osment who is killed by Guillermo accidentally), witches, ghosts (in a very clever episode), Black Peter- a talking goat and, of course, other vampires. There were vampire slayers too, or at least, a group of vampire slayer-wannabees, who get crushed by a house of vampires.

The story of Guillermo being a descendent of Van Helsing is a major driving force of story this year, as is Guillermo’s desire to be appreciated by his master. We see how vital Guillermo is to this group, even if they still do not necessarily see it. Even when Guillermo saved them from the Vampire Council by killing all of them, all Nandor could think of what his laundry.

Mark Hamill’s appearance as Jim the Vampire was so great and led to a solo story for Laszlo, who ran away from Jim the Vampire and hid out in Pennsylvania as a bartender named Jackie Daytona. Laszlo is able to hide his identity by having a toothpick in his mouth. This was a hilarious episode and one of the standout episodes of the season.

This was a great way to watch this season and I will continue to pick days to binge the remainder of the seasons of this show over the next six weeks or so before school. I have seasons 3 – 6 remaining, each season (except 6) have ten episodes.

The Bear S4 E3, E4

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“Scallop”

“Worms”

Two very solid episodes of The Bear are next in their season four on Hulu.

“Scallop” featured Carmy, dealing with a bunch of his own issues. There is a tremendous scene between Carmy and Marcus outside on a smoke break. Their dialogue between them was sharp and filled with evidence about how important they were to each other. Carmy is slowly straightening his life around by seeing the energy and effort given by the staff of the Bear.

Rob Reiner guest starred as Albert Schner, in the episode with Ebraheim, who had asked for his opinion as a mentor about the window for “The Beef” which had been doing great business as a window behind The Bear.

This episode finished with a long overdue confrontation with Carmy and Claire. I would be lying if I did not say that I was yelling at the screen about this scene, waiting for Carmy to just apologize. While it did not feel resolved, I think it is the first baby steps in getting these two back together. Splitting them apart was the start of Carmy’s downward spiral and getting them back together is so needed.

Then in “Worms,” we focus in on Sydney and her decision between staying at the Bear or moving over to Shapiro’s. She has been split over this choice dating back to the last season and she is reaching the point where she is needing to decide.

She goes over to her cousin’s place. Her cousin was played by Danielle Deadwyler, who had had some of the top performances over the last few years. If you have not seen her in Till, do yourself a favor, get some tissues, and watch it.

Sydney winds up watching her cousin’s daughter, TJ. TJ and Sydney have a really nice episode bonding and talking over their own troubles. Sydney tries to use an analogy to get TJ’s opinion about where she wanted to work. She pretended to talk about sleep overs, but, we find out in the end, TJ knew it was about a job.

Sydney called Shapiro and started to talk about paperwork, making us think that she was ready to make the choice to leave the Bear.

These episodes are just nice, calmer character episodes, keeping the craziness to a limit. I like the way this season is going so far, but I expect fireworks coming up soon.

The X-Files S10 E5, E6 & S11 E1

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I wrapped up season 10 and then I had to start season because of the cliffhanger they left us with.

“Babylon”

Homeland meets Californication.

The X-Files had a Muslim terrorist angle that did not put a very positive face on it. It had a definite feel of islamophobia to it as the terrorist organization they were pursuing was Muslim.

It seemed as if the episode was as interested in introducing mirror images of Mulder and Scully. We meet Agent Miller (Robbie Amell) and Agent Einstein (Lauren Ambrose). They were younger examples of Mulder and Scully. Miller was a believer in the paranormal and the weird aspects of the world and Einstein was a scientist who was a skeptic. She was even a red head.

At first it felt like they were just a joke, but they actually turn into characters that would play an important role in the next episode.

The bizarre hallucinations Mulder underwent (thanks to a placebo, apparently) were strange and included the Lone Gunmen (RIP).

“My Struggle II”

Why will they not just shoot him in the head?

I was just screaming at the TV again when Cigarette Smoking Man showed up, not dead again, and plotting to expose the world to a deadly alien virus. Mulder had a gun on him again and just refuses to shoot him in the head. Why won’t he shoot him in the head? Everything can be over if he would just shoot him in the head… several times. Empty the gun.

We get an apocalyptic episode where the world is going to hell and Scully and Einstein race against time to try and find the cure for the virus. Meanwhile, Mulder is confronting CSM and NOT SHOOTING HIM IN THE HEAD!!!!

This episode did feel like a mess and wound up leaving on an insane cliffhanger. It was advertised as “This is the End” and it sure felt like it.

The show did bring back Monica Reyes and put her with CSM, which allowed me to freely hate her instead of trying to like her as I did in season 8 and 9.

“My Struggle III”

Nevermind.

Oh, that ending to season 10…. well, that was just a possible vision that Scully was having. Wink wink.

I wonder how much of the dislike for season 10 episode 6 there was in the world led to this changing of mythology in season 11.

I do not think that the revelation at the end of the episode would change the negative thoughts though as it was revealed that William was not Mulder’s son, but that he was artificially inseminated by CSM and that he was the father of Scully’s baby. Not sure why anyone would think that would be a well received idea.

It was hinted that William was the one sending these visions to Scully, which make little sense, but it definitely kicks off the storyline of finding William for season 11.

Oh, and Skinner won’t shoot CSM in the head either. Why don’t they just SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD? They have the opportunity to d it. Who would blame them. He is believed to be dead anyway. JUST DO IT!!!!

Oh and Jeffrey Spender is back this episode, but looking a lot better than he did the last time we saw him. Did it cost too much for the make up?

Squid Game Season 3

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Squid Game Season Three dropped on Netflix yesterday and I was able to binge it on Saturday and what an emotionally ragged trip this show took us on over the last six episodes of the acclaimed Korean series.

If we are really being truthful, season three of Squid Game really should be considered the second part of season two, as season two left us with a huge cliffhanger and very little to nothing resolved. Season Two Part 2 or Season Three is really semantics, so who cares that much?

Season two had spent a lot of time building the characters participating in the Squid Game up, so we had connections to them and that we cared about them (or despised them, as the case may be). I guess we should have known that they were building up these characters in order to rip our hearts out in the last season… because that is exactly what happened.

Honestly, there were a few characters that I believed would survive this season because I couldn’t believe that the show would be that cold hearted. Unfortunately, the show could be that cold hearted because practically every character that I thought “no way do they kill them off” got killed off.

Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) was the one I was sure would survive, but the show had a fate for him planned out. He was truly our hero of the show and he showed what an honorable man he actually was. His efforts to save the baby, as well as others along the way, made him the show’s breakout character.

Geum-ja was another character that I thought for sure the show would not kill off, and then she hanged herself, after stabbing her own son to prevent him from killing Kim Jun-hee moments after she had given birth. That round of hide and seek was just horrific and filled with tension and anguish. Hyun-ju was another who I was sure had a great chance of being safe, but she did not make it out of the hide and seek, despite the fact that she found the exit before anyone else. She returned to get Geum-ja and Kim Jun-hee, whom had been together the whole game, only to get killed from behind by Myung-gi, right in front of Jun-hee and his daughter.

The jump rope section was also just rough and showed the worst in the players of this game. In fact, the worst of them kept making it through and the characters that I cared about kept getting killed off. I felt satisfied by the end with the deaths of those rotten players though.

However, the VIPs arrived to watch the games and they all had zero accountability at all. Man, I really wanted those VIPs to pay some kind of price for their cavalier attitude toward the games and their downright cruelty and wickedness. Nope, they see the ending of the games when Seong Gi-hun threw himself off the large pillar to save the baby and the VIPs are just never seen again. I really wanted someone to burst into the room and blast them all with some automatic weapon.

Who would guess that Cate Blanchett would be involved in the recruiting for more Squid Games in the world? She made a cameo as an American recruiter playing ddakji with some guy in an alleyway.

The last ten-fifteen minutes was spent wrapping stories up, giving us some ideas on what the few surviving characters were doing, specifically those secondary characters, such as Seong Gi-hun’s daughter.

This was a rough final season as so many of the characters that we had bonded with are killed rapidly. As I said, I really wanted more of a final ending that does not make me think that the Squid Games could be brought back or continue on as the show outright implied. The VIPs needed some kind of comeuppance for me to feel completely satisfied. The sacrifice made by Seong Gi-hun was beautiful and packed an emotional wallop.

A powerhouse of a series.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #22

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Win or Lose

“Coach’s Kid”

“Blue”

The Sunday Morning Sidewalk starts its third series today. I have watched Band of Brothers and The Sandman so far and this week, the new show is on Disney + and is from Pixar. It is called Win or Lose.

This sets a precedent for Sunday Morning Sidewalk because this is the first time that I will be watching two episodes a week. I had looked at the run time on the episodes and they were all right in that 22 minute sweet spot, so I decided that I would do two a week.

I am very happy about that because the first episode was so good that I really wanted to watch a second one no matter the time.

The show’s concept is that every episode will center around a softball championship game and the lead up to it. Then, with each episode, we will see the perspective from a different character leading to the same point. First episode focuses on Laurie, the daughter of the coach of the Pickles, who is terrible at softball, but she desperately wants to do well. Second episode looks at the umpire of the game, a low self-imaged teacher named Mr. Brown.

I love this concept. What a wonderful idea for an 8-episode series and this show has some awesome Pixar magic throughout. In the first episode, Laurie has a little creature on her shoulder that was born from her self-doubt and who just kept growing as the week leading up to the championship game happened. Kind of an Inside Out-style creature that fed into Laurie’s doubts and anxiety.

Poor Mr. Brown. I related to this guy because it showed him as a teacher. The scene of the overbearing mother trying to prevent a punishment for her cheating daughter, well to say that I understand is an understatement. The magical armor that appears around Mr. Brown to deflect the slings and arrows of criticism and negative comments also keeps him isolated and lonely.

The animation is great. I mean, it is Pixar. That is kind of expected. I had no idea that this short little series on Disney + would be as poignant as it seems to be. I am excited to see who the next characters we focus on next week.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

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I have started season 10 of The X-Files, with just 15 more episodes to complete my rewatch of the whole series. I have been working on this on and off since late 2023. With the end in sight, I thought it would be a good choice to go ahead an rewatch the second of the X-Files movies that came out in 2008, The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

According to IMDB, “Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) worked at the F.B.I. as partners, a bond between them that led to them becoming lovers. But now they’re out of the F.B.I. and have begun new careers. Scully works as a staff physician at a Catholic hospital. Her focus these days is on a young boy with an incurable brain disease. Administration wants to give up on him. Scully, who feels a special bond with the boy, does not. Meanwhile, Mulder’s focus is on clipping newspaper articles, throwing pencils into his ceiling and writing about the paranormal. Scully and Mulder are brought together as partners again when a special case requires Mulder’s expertise, and Scully is prevailed upon to convince him to help. The case involves a pedophile priest who claims he is having psychic visions regarding the whereabouts of a missing F.B.I. Agent.”

First off, I love the characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They are some of my all-time favorite TV characters. They are a major selling point for this movie, especially since I am right in continuity of the TV rewatch to where this film would take place. Seeing David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson together once again would improve any movie.

It just does seem that this movie does need that improving. The story in this film is fairly ugly and has moments where it is just not easy to follow. It is convoluted and turns into the weirdest “Frankenstein” type film, seemingly from out of nowhere. The secondary plot of the boy with the disease that Dr. Scully is trying to help despite the administration at the hospital that she works is too medical TV show for a movie like this.

Father Joe (Billy Connolly) is a bizarre choice in many ways, but I do enjoy the conflict that he throws into the mix. As a possible psychic seeing flashes of the kidnapping, that is questionable enough, but when it was revealed that he was a pedophile as well, it was a rough choice. The character is still kind of set up to be the heroic one, which did not go well for Scully and, I would guess, most of the audience. Billy Connolly is an awesome actor though and this was a solid performance.

I do wish this story had a little more construction to it, because what they gave us seemed too strung together without enough connective tissue. Still, I did enjoy seeing my two favorites back together in a movie that would be basically a “monster-of-the-week” structure from the show.

The X-Files S9 E17, E18, E19, E20

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The final season of The X-Files in its original run was season nine. The show returned for two shortened seasons after that, but this was the final four episodes of The X-Files

“Release”

The show is clearly beginning to wrap things up for the original run and one of the dangling mysteries of the last few years was what had actually happened to Agent Doggett’s son. Well, this episode provided some closure to that story as we get the man who had killed him and the reason why the boy was killed. The only piece of the story that was left dangling was the fate of Brad Follmer, as played by Cary Elwes. We learn that Brad has been taking money from the mob and he wound up shooting the actual killer at the end. We never see Elwes again in the series so it is unclear what exactly happened to him.

“Sunshine Days”

Here’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls…..

Yeah, this was a weird episode. Of course, Ben Linus was here. That always throws me off somewhat. Michael Emerson is an awesome actor, but he will always be Ben Linus to me. Then, the fascination with the Brady Bunch was a strange choice, right down to naming Emerson’s character Oliver Martin, in reference to Cousin Oliver.

The overall story of this episode was flat and I did not find it very compelling. I did like seeing Ben Linus again.

“The Truth Part 1 and Part 2”

This was the two part series finale, again of the original run of X-Files episodes and saw the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder. Duchovny had been gone the entire season and had agreed to return for this final wrap up.

The military had decided to put Mulder on trial for the murder of Knowle Rohrer, the “super soldier” who had been running around, surviving death several times over the last few seasons of the show. Of course, this was all part of the government conspiracy that the show had been investigating for the last nine seasons.

The military trial of Mulder was a sham, of course, as one of the men who sat in judgment was one of the aliens, The Toothpick Man (Alan Dale, also a LOST alum, playing Charles Widmore). These two episodes featured the return of multiple characters from the nine years, including  Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) and Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), all of whom testified in the trial. We also had a group of ghosts appear to Mulder in visions such as Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) and X (Steven Williams) as well as the Lone Gunmen.

Of course, the final return was that of the “Wise Man” who Mulder and Scully go to for answers at the end, and it turned out to be the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) himself. Seeing that rotten bastard again did not make things great and neither did seeing him burned to death as I know he returned in the later seasons of the show. I have no idea how he survived this time, but seeing him alive really was a smack to the face.

They dropped a date: December 22, 2012, which is supposedly the date of the alien invasion.

I do not know what was to become of Doggett and Reyes as they drove off into the distance. Reyes has never won my favor in this series, but her final repose after testifying just about won me over. Another plot line that was never dealt with was the supposed feelings that Doggett had for Reyes. A few episodes again, there was a huge deal about how much they loved each other, but it was never mentioned again.

Deputy Director Alvin Kersh was also a bizarre character, as he seemed to be leading the trial against Mulder, going as far as suppressing evidence that proved Mulder innocent. Kersh looked to be fully opposed t Mulder, though he does help Mulder and Scully escape from captivity when Skinner and Doggett break him out. This is yet another character that is unclear of his motives and weakens the story.

Mulder and Scully end up together, snuggling on a bed somewhere, still holding out hope.

I am not sure how I feel about the conclusion of the show. This finale did not really wrap anything up and only served to leave plenty of things dangling or unanswered. Every question does not have to be answered in a finale for me, but it felt as if they brought up a major storyline in the last episode. I know it is dealt with in the future episodes, but we did not know that at the time.

Season ten only has six episodes to it and it will be next.

Poker Face S2 E8

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“The Sleazy Georgian”

I loved this episode. I loved it because it was different than any other Poker Face episode. It started out as always, showing the crime before Charlie gets involved. This crime is a money drop gone wrong, with Shauna from Yellowjackets involved with John Cho. It seemed as if the whole thing was going down in a bad way with a couple of dead bodies.

It was pretty clear that there was some con going on, but I thought that it might have been a con gone wrong and that John Cho, who was playing a man named Guy, had actually bit the big one.

However, we go to Charlie meeting Guy in a hotel bar at breakfast time, just like Shauna did. In every other Poker Face episodes ever, this would be before the crime we see in the cold open, but this time, it was after. Guy was trying to set up Charlie for the con, and, of course, failing miserably because of her lie detector skill.

Guy introduced Charlie to his crew and they all kind of bonded… to a point where they wanted to have Charlie join them in a con. She wanted to think about it.

When she came back the next day, she had discovered that Shauna (Ok, not Shauna… Melanie Lynskey, who plays Shauna is playing Regina in this episode) had killed herself after the con.

In an attempt to get the money Regina had lost (which came from an orphan fund) back, Charlie agreed to join the con.

At this point, the show flipped things around again and I really liked the results. I have to say, I really thought this was Guy trying to prove that he could get away with lying to Charlie. That was not it.

I love the fact that Charlie is shown to be smarter than anyone else, even if she does not seem to be. She has so much common sense and does not just rely on her ability to tell when someone is lying. She set up a con to con the con, and got him in the end. The character of Charlie is also so original and unlikely looking of a protagonist who gets by with her smarts. I love how she is really not your typical hero.

This was a lot of fun and I thought the fact that they broke the format even more than ever before was an awesome thing.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #21

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“Dream of a Thousand Cats”; “Calliope”

The second round of Sunday Morning Sidewalk came to an end this morning with the final episode of season one on Netflix. It looks like there will be a second season of the show, despite the word of cancellations over the issues Neil Gaiman has had. Either way, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end.

Last week’s episode sure felt like a finale, and when I saw this episode, it makes it even more so. This week, there are two separate stories in the hour of the show that are completely separate from almost everything that happened in that first season.

It started out with an animated section called “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and it brings all the cats in a certain area to come and hear the message of a Siamese cat whose story tells of different time of cats and humans.

The animation was great and it really kind of reminded me of a couple of comic books that I have purchased the last couple of year. One was called Feral and the other Animal Pound. Both of these comics are told from the POV of animals, in many cases specifically cats, in their voices.

“Calliope” is the second part of the episode and it is live action. It has a minor connection to the season as they mentioned how Morpheus had been captured, connecting it to the way that Calliope, a muse, was bonded to humans. Specially humans who are trying to write books.

I wonder if these were also based on a comic issue because it does feel as if it could have been one of those filler issues that turn out so good.

With this episode, The Sandman ends and requires that there will be a new Sunday Morning Sidewalk show next week. So far, we have done HBO’s Band of Brothers and Netflix’s The Sandman. Starting next Sunday, I will be doing Pixar’s Win or Lose on Disney +. These episodes are shorter, so I am doing two episodes a week.

The X-Files S9 E11

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“Audrey Pauley”

This was a strange episode.

Monica gets involved in a car crash where a drunk driver hit her and she is taken t the hospital. There it appears that she is brain dead, though her body is still functioning. John refuses to accept the evidence before his eyes, despite the fact that everyone, including Scully, does not believe him. Monica is actually in a deserted hospital and she can only see a few other people there.

One of the people in the mysterious hospital was named Audrey and she was able to be in both the mysterious hospital and the real world. Turned out that she somehow created the mysterious hospital (along with a tiny dollhouse type of hospital) in her mind, I guess. The form this takes is not overly clear, nor how or why she was able to do this.

Another issue was the doctor, played by Jack Blessing, who was known as Mr. MacGillicuddy on Moonlighting, was poisoning patients and putting them into these brain dead situations to… I don’t know… help them die after that? MacGillicuddy’s motives were not explored too deeply. However, he did kill off a nurse who saw him give a shot that was not on the charts, and, eventually, Audrey. I don’t know why MacGillicuddy took such a dark turn after Moonlighting went off the air. Heck, if I remember Moonlighting, I think MacGillicuddy died in the last episode. Maybe he was in this mysterious hospital then.

I’m kidding of course. There is just so much unexplained, even for an X-Files episode, that I had some trouble buying it. It also does not help that Monica is one of my least favorite characters on the show. I was impressed with Robert Patrick’s performance. He brought some solid work grieving the woman that he loved.

Admittedly, the love Doggett felt for Monica seemed to be fast tracked here. I got some implication that they had feelings for one another, but nothing to this extent until this episode. Still, I can let that slide. I do have an issue with Doggett not telling Scully what he thought was happening. He said once that Scully would think he was crazy… but he should know by now that Scully always listened to crazy theories and never outright dismissed them. You would think that John would know that by now.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas here, and some solid to great performances. There are just too many things lacking in my opinion for this to be anything but a mid episode.

Doctor Who S2 E8

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“The Reality War”

I am very sad. Ncuti Gatwa had his final episode as The Doctor as the character regenerates after a huge battle with the Roni, Omega and an attempt to save Poppy, the little girl who turned out to be the real daughter of Belinda.

The action packed episode was thrilling and Ncuti Gatwa showed off his original variation of the Doctor.

We also got a cameo from a former Doctor, the thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker.

I know Ncuti Gatwa had his opposition among the Who fans, but I am here to say that I am now a fan of Doctor Who and it is 100% because of the work of Ncuti Gatwa. He has been the most amazing performer, with more emotion and energy than many action show leads. The Doctor was an original concept and Ncuti Gatwa feels like a breath of fresh air.

From the BBC, this is the statement made by Ncuti Gatwa after the end of this season:

“You know when you get cast, at some point you are going to have to hand back that sonic screwdriver and it is all going to come to an end, but nothing quite prepares you for it.”

He added: “There are no words to describe what it feels like to be cast as the Doctor, nor are there words to explain what it feels like to be accepted into this iconic role that has existed for over 60 years and is truly loved by so many across the globe.”

Gatwa thanked “Whoniverse” fans for “welcoming me in, and making this such a touching experience.

“I’ve loved every minute of it, but now is the time to hand over the keys to that beloved blue box and let someone else take control and enjoy it every bit as much as I have.

“I’ll truly miss it, and forever be grateful to it, and everyone that has played a part in my journey as the Doctor.”

Billie Piper appeared on the screen when the Doctor regenerated. I see that Piper was a former companion for the Christopher Eccleston and then David Tennant versions. The BBC article does imply that she may not have been officially cast as The Doctor yet.

Thank you, Ncuti Gatwa for one of the most human Doctors that we have seen yet. I will miss that tear rolling down your face seemingly every episode. Good luck with everything in your future. You will always be my Doctor.

The Last of Us S2 E6

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When Joel died in episode two, I knew that we would be getting a flashback at some point. There were just too many mysteries that we needed to see play out. In particular, what had happened with Eugene and why did Joel kill him? I saw that Joe Pantoliano was listed in the credits as Eugene so I expected we would see what happened.

I did not expect an entire episode of flashbacks. A whole episode of flashbacks that were amazing and heartbreaking at the same time.

Focusing in on Ellie’s birthdays during the years Joel and Ellie lived in Jackson, we saw how Joel tried to make each day something special for Ellie. Making her happy was a major goal for Joel. The guitar and song. The space shuttle. The dinosaur. All ways to try and make Ellie’s life a little better.

It also showed us how Joel and Ellie’s relationship was weakening. The whole situation stemmed from Joel’s lie at the end of season one involving the Fireflies. Deep down, even when Ellie was happy, she knew the truth. She just did not know the details. The scene on the porch where Ellie finally confronted Joel and he gave her the truth was tough, but had hope surrounding it as well, since Ellie said that she wanted to try to forgive Joel, even though she didn’t think she could.

That scene is made even more powerful as we know that this is the last words between the two of them ever. It is going to be the way that Ellie always remembers Joel.

The whole Eugene storyline was rough too. Joe Pantoliano delivered a great performance despite only being on screen for a few minutes. You really felt his devastation and his deep desire to see his wife one last time. Of course, it was a trigger for Ellie to solidify her thoughts about Joel. It was the look in his eyes when he lied to her.

Ellie was brutal when she outed Joel’s lies to Gail. It was a punishment for Joel by Ellie. She did not take Gail’s pain into consideration.

Next week is the season finale and I am not sure where this will go from here. For sure, the pain of losing Joel is only going to be worse now after we got the opportunity to spend a little bit more time with him and Ellie.

Andor S2 E4, E5, E6

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May the 4th be with you!

It was not intentional that I watched the three Andor episodes on Star Wars Day. It is merely a coincidence. The second season of Andor releases three episodes every Tuesday night at 8 PM my time. That does not give me much time to watch on Tuesdays so I have been pushing it off to the weekend. For the second week in a row, I watched them on Sunday, which just happened to be Star Wars Day.

It’s nice when things work out like they should.

Leia’s adopted father, Senator Organa made a cameo walk through in episode six, but, surprise, surprise, he has been recast. Benjamin Bratt is now playing the role instead of Jimmy Smits. Reportedly, Smits could not shoot the role because of scheduling conflicts. Organa does not make much in the episode four, so I can only assume that the character is more vital as the season continues, otherwise, this cameo would be easily removed, I would think.

Saw Gerrera made an appearance in these episodes as well, and I have to say, Forest Whitaker is downright creepy in the role.

These episodes have been fine to me. I have not absolutely loved these episodes, but there are some really strong points. I thought that every scene involving Diego Luna was perfect. The tension of episode six was palatable.

It seems as if every block of episodes has some tragic occurrence going down. Episode six had one of those as Cinta was shot accidentally by Samm, who was not supposed to have a blaster. This was just after Cinta and Vel reunited, which should have tipped me off that something bad was going to happen to one of them. It was the old LOST thing about when someone is happy, that is when everything goes to hell.

Oh, and when Bix (Adria Arjona) got some vengeance on Dr. Gorst, who tortured her in season one, that was epic. Really bad ass and how she and Cassian walked away together after… loved it.

Doctor Who S2 E5

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Spoilers

“Lucky Day”

I loved this episode. Unlike a certain faction of fans online, I loved Ruby Sunday as the Doctor’s companion in season one of the show on Disney +, and I thought it was great to see Millie Gibson once again.

I was sad that we did not get much involvement with the Doctor in this episode, but I understand the importance of that for the character of Ruby.

We did get to see how much of a bad ass Kate from U.N.I.T. was though. Her scenes facing off with Conrad were intense.

This episode of Doctor Who dealt with the idea of misinformation and the spreading of lies and half-truths across the internet and social media. Conrad’s vileness through the second half of this episode spoke to the disillusionment of many people in our institutions because of this misinformation that has been weaponized by certain individuals and groups.

I did not see Conrad’s betrayal coming. Not even a little bit. As the show was setting up Conrad and Ruby as, apparently, a new and happy couple, I was buying into the relationship 100%. To reveal the truth in such a callous manner was tough to watch as Ruby did not deserve such hostility. I went from really liking Conrad, hoping that he could be another important piece in Ruby’s life and an ally for the Doctor, to absolutely despising the bastard. I will say that the fact that the ending clearly showed that, with Mrs. Flood’s arrival, Conrad has a bigger role to play this season. Actor Jonah Hauer-King does an exceptional job as this character. he made me hate him so much. I am glad that there seems to be more for him to do moving on.

I reiterate, what the heck is up with Mrs. Flood?

The monologue that the Doctor delivered to Conrad at the end was one of the sharpest moments Ncuti Gatwa got to have. There was something about that speech that felt off though. Perhaps the timing…

Doctor Who has been one of my favorite shows so far, as it has had a bunch of amazing episodes this season. It was great to see Ruby again and I enjoyed how the show delved into the idea that companions might have a difficult time getting back to a normal life after their time with the Doctor ended. One could even argue that Ruby is suffering from a form of PTSD, which is why Conrad’s betrayal was all the worse.