Squid Game S2 E6, E7

Spoilers

“O X”

“Friend or Foe”

I finished up the second season of Squid Games on Netflix late last night and I have thoughts.

First, it sure ended at a strange place. It almost felt like this was a first part of a season like they did for Stranger Things and Cobra Kai. I have not heard any info on a second part to season two though. Perhaps it is just setting up for season three instead. If so, then season two would absolutely be the Empire Strikes Back of the Squid Games as things went oh so wrong for our heroes (PS… just looked at the end of the episode and it says season three will be back in 2025 so there is that.)

Gi-hun’s whole plan to take it to the people running the show by hijacking guns from the guards was wild and was never going to work. The pink suits had such a huge number of people that the handful of rebels were just not going to get through. However, it got fairly far and might have had a chance if they did not have a rat inside their team. Of course, that is In-ho, 001, who had been inside the game manipulating the situation. His eventual betrayal ended the uprising and led to the unfortunate death of Jung-bae. I had seen a spoiler about a death in the final episode that was shocking and this was the one. For a minute, I actually thought it was going to be Gi-hun instead. That would have been a shocker.

Defying all odds, Geum-ja has survived. I was sure she was going down after her son Yong-sik had changed his vote from X to O. I thought he was going to have to pay for his choice with his mother, but she continues to fight on. It did look like she was a goner during Mingle, but she was thankfully saved.

Speaking of Mingle, that was another game that was intense and very difficult to watch at times. The way alliances were tossed aside by some compared to those that were going out of their way to try and help the others.

Seeing Thanos get his final payment at the end of season six was very satisfying, and of course, brutal. Fork to the neck is not something I expected to see.

For a season that I was not sure was needed, this was a very tense and exciting seven episodes.

Squid Game S2 E3, E4, E5

Spoilers

“001”

“Six Legs”

“One More Game”

The first two episodes of the season were character beats, setting up the characters we would be following in the Squid Game and developing them some. I found those episodes to be of great importance because we jump full into the games in episodes 3, 4, & 5.

The games themselves are always the most intense, stressful parts of this show. Even the Red Light, Green Light, which we saw in the first season and we know what to expect, was just insanity when it comes to execution. The show did a great job of giving us something different for us to stress over. In this case, Gi-hun taking the lead and almost directing traffic, despite several of the contestants not believing him or wanting to follow what he said. When Gi-hun ran back out to save the guy who had been shot in the leg, we saw what a heroic figure he had become from his days of season one.

The other characters all elicited some emotion from us as viewers, both positively and negatively. I hate Thanos, even if he does some funny things. I love Geum-ja. She is the ultimate mother figure in the games and she must be protected. There will be a time, I am sure, that the show will want to rip out hearts out and it will kill her. I do not want that to happen.

Player 001 turned out to be In-ho aka the Front Man (Captain). Much like last season, number 001 is a traitor, a man from behind the scenes inserting himself into the game. In this case, we are aware of the treachery unlike last year. In this case, In-ho is also a former winner of the Squid Game and his presence is curious. He sure seemed as if he was working with the group during the six-legged pentathlon.

By the way, that six-legged pentathlon was both the most invigorating and exciting game and the most stressful and horrendous game played. Watching the group of five try to make it through five children’s games in five minutes was unbelievably tense and suspenseful. It was also hard for the second game.

The show has done a tremendous job of building mood during the two votes we have had to try and end the games. The first vote coming down to the final player, 001, who voted to continue, and the second vote being more weighed toward the stay and do one more game.

I am afraid a bunch of the characters whom stated that they will play one more game and then leave are going to find their votes a tragic mistake.

I really thought doing a second season of this show was going to be a mistake, especially since the creators of the show had not intended on continuing the show past season one. However, this has been exceptional so far and it has taken an extra step in its exploration into human nature. It does not feel like a repeat of what happened in season one, and even when something similar happens, it is done in a totally different manner. The writing has been great so far as they have created a bunch of characters that I really want to see survive, even though I know they will not.

There are only two episodes left in this season, which I have heard ends in a cliffhanger, so I am excited about wrapping it up.

What If…? S3 E7

Spoilers

“What If the Watcher Disappeared?”

The penultimate episode of the series What If aired this morning on Disney + and it took a step back to the first season.

Captain Carter returned to the series that she had been a major part of during the first two seasons and she brought with her a group that was called The Exiles. This was not a group of Exiles like in the comics, but a group that was from the run of What If…?. The group featured Peggy, Kahhori, Byrdie the Duck and Goddess of Thunder Storm.

First off, Byrdie the Duck was the grown daughter of Howard and Marcy the Duck from episode four. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, this is a whole on original character from What If… and then they teamed Byrdie up with the other major original character from season two of What If…?, Kahhori.

Storm’s arrival was also extremely exciting and well done. Voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith, the fan favorite voice of Storm from the X-Men’97 and animated series, Storm was hauling around Mjolnir and showing herself to be one big time badass. Having Storm in the show, and giving us a Storm that felt just like the Storm that we know was a wonderful treat.

The show’s beginning let us know that something was wrong as it was not the Watcher’s voice doing the narration over the opening credits. Instead, it was the voice of The Eminence who have taken Uatu prisoner, ready to punish him for his breaking of the Watcher Oath.

Peggy realized that the Watcher was in trouble and she decided that The Exiles needed to go to the Fifth Dimension to help the Watcher, but she did not know how they would do it.

Bring in… Infinity Ultron. The one individual ever able to go to the Fifth Dimension on his own. This is how the show returned to the first season, as Infinity Ultron was the big bad of that season.

I did like the fact that this Infinity Ultron had succeeded in his quest and, because of that, had an existential crisis. He realized, way too late, that destroying all life would not bring peace, that in order to have peace there must be life and to have life, you must have conflict.

This was a first part of a two-part finale for the series as the Exiles went to the Fifth Dimension to try and save their friends.

One more episode tomorrow for the series.

E2 What If Agatha Went to Hollywood?

E7 What If the Watcher Disappeared?

E3 What If The Red Guardian stopped The Winter Soldier?

E6 What If 1872?

E5 What If the Emergence Destroyed the Earth?

E1 What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?

E4 What If Howard the Duck Got Hitched?

Creature Commandos S1 E5

Spoilers

“The Iron Pot”

The Creature Commandos focused on Frankenstein this week, seeing some back story on him that turned out as tragic as one might expect.

This series has been up and down for me. This episode was good, but it really felt too quick, as if it rushed through. I would have said inconsequential, but Rick Flag Sr. sure looks like he is dead. I have a hard time believing that, but he sure seemed dead, and that would be clearly consequential.

However, the word was that Rick Flag Sr, as played by Frank Grillo, was playing a part in future DCU projects, and that the animation was all cannon, so I can not believe that I just saw him killed by this Clayface-looking monster.

Perhaps this is my own personal taste too, but the animated blood that is done so much here is overkill. I think the blood loses its impact when it is used as much as it is. It is the same way I feel about Invincible. I would rather keep the bloodshed to a minimum to keep it feeling special. When you just see bloody kill after bloody kill, it desensitizes the viewer and minimizes the effect. That is my opinion, but I thought the blood use in X-Men ’97 was much more effective than it has been in Creature Commandos.

Twenty-two minutes feels less than this show should have. At the very least, it should be 30 minutes, but this just felt like it was over and it had just started.

Skeleton Crew S1 E5

Spoilers

“You Have a lot to Learn about Pirates”

With Christmas in the middle of the week and no school because of Christmas break, my mind gets mixed up. I was focused on a lot of different things, and I did not think about Skeleton Crew having a new episode last night. In fact, with Doctor Who coming up and a list of other things I wanted to watch, I would not have thought about Skeleton Crew had I not seen mktoon (aka Michael Vogel of the Geek Buddies) post a message on X about how Skeleton Crew is always great.

Once I saw this Tweet (or whatever they are called now), this show jumped to the head of the list for the day.

What a great episode. Things are really moving forward quickly, including the ultimate betrayal of Jod.

This show does a great job of keeping these characters kids and showing us that they are still kids. The scene of the pillow fight on the bed was a perfect example of showing these characters as children. Many times children characters do not act like children characters. In Skeleton Crew, these kids are kids.

Jod taking over the captain’s role was a huge betrayal to the kids, who were as brave as they could be, but were in way over their heads. When Wim stepped up with a lightsaber, I believed that we were going to get something magical, but with him holding the lightsaber in the wrong direction, things did not go well. I guess Wim was lucky he did not cut off part of his body.

Jod and SM-33 are together now, as the kids escaped from Jod through a specific tunnel. This scene was right out of Goonies, with the kids finding the treasure of One-Eyed Willy. There are also booty traps (Boobie traps… that’s what I said, booty traps).

Skeleton Crew is one of the most entertaining Star Wars shows in a long time and it really had that Star Wars vibe to it this week. With the two groups now separated, and people chasing after Jod, who continues to be called by different names, the show is flying into the second half of the season in a positive way.

2024 Year in Review: I Am Groot Voice Acting Award

This has been a big year for animation and that means this was going to be a tough award to pick. Of course, it is not just animation for a voice over. It could be a character on a show in a helmet that you never see their face. It could be a mo-cap character. There are a ton of choices.

“I am Groot” Voice Acting Award

Previous Winners:  Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes),  Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)

Runners-Up: Let’s start off with one of the toughest jobs of the year. Chris Hemsworth did the voice of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and had to step into the shoes of iconic EYG Hall of Famer Peter Cullin. And he did a tremendous job in Transformers One. Another film with big shoes to fill was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Noa was a new protagonist voiced by Owen Teague, who took over the franchise from Andy Serkis. Tom Hardy was the best part of Venom: The Last Dance as he was the voice of Venom as well as Eddie Brock. The Wild Robot had two great performances from Lupita Nyong’o as Roz and Pedro Pascal as Fink. Hamish Linklater was our new animated Batman in Prime’s Batman: The Caped Crusader. Maya Hawke was awesome as the voice of the antagonist in Inside Out 2, Anxiety. Just today, we heard Kathryn Hahn return to the role of Agatha Harkness in one of the best episodes of What If…? ever, and her voice brought the power of this character. Mark Hamill is an iconic voice actor and he continued as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions. Lenore Zann delivered one of the most powerful lines in all of animation this year when she said “I can’t feel you” as Rogue clutched Gambit’s dead body at the end of episode five of X-Men ’97. Alison Sealy-Smith was exceptional in X-Men ’97 as Storm. To be fair, there are so many possible choices from X-Men ’97 because that show was epic.

This year’s winner is also from the show, X-Men ’97.

AJ LoCascio, as Gambit (X-Men’97)

The name’s Gambit. Remember it.

He was only in half of the season of X-Men ’97, but he absolutely killed it. Then, episode five of the show is one of the best episodes of TV this entire year. Gambit was at the center of that show and was the massive emotional beat.

Dexter: Original Sin E1-3

Spoilers

“And in the Beginning…”

“Kid in a Candy Store”

“Miami Vice”

I watched Dexter on and off when it was one. The season with John Lithgow was one of the best seasons of TV ever. But I did not watch much of the last few years of the show nor did I watch the return series from a few years ago. I liked Dexter, but I did not go out of my way for him.

When I spotted this new series, Dexter: Original Sin, on Prime, I was interested. Telling the story of how things started off with Dexter and his Dark Passenger seemed like a great story, and the use of Michael C. Hall as the narrator worked in a lot of different ways.

Of course, the casting of Dexter and Debra would be key to any series and I think this new show got them right with Dexter being played by Patrick Gibson and Debra was played by Molly Brown. Both seem to fit these characters without being just an imitation of the originals.

We have a living Harry Morgan here as well with the one and only Christian Slater taking that role of Dexter’s adoptive father. He is on the force, but we know that Dexter’s murders would eventually take their toll on Harry. Harry’s rules are a major part in the character of Dexter’s life and code, no matter how bizarre it was.

Sarah Michelle Geller is on this show too as Tanya Martin, Dexter’s first boss at the Miami Metro and is the CSI chief. It’s cool to see Buffy once again, but she is just listed as a “special guest star” so I do not know what that means.

Dexter is an excellent character, a heroic one who would feed his darker impulses by killing people who were bad. Yes, there is all kinds of morally grey area in here. Yes, Dexter is not really a hero. Yet, he does seem to be more than just another serial killer. The influence of Harry is clearly the reason for that.

At this point, Dexter has been dumping his two kills in a swampy area with some alligators. Thing is … at the end of E3, an arm was left floating. Obviously, Dexter will develop a better manner of body disposal that he takes into the future with him. We will see how he avoids the trouble with the arm (because obviously he is getting away with it).

I liked these first three episodes. It did take a little while to remember about the characters from the original series and how they are used here, but it was fun getting through it. I will continue to watch this series and may even give a chance to the new Dexter series called Dexter: Resurrections coming in 2025.

What If … ? S3 E1

Spoilers

“What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers”

I am very happy to have What If…? back once more over holiday break, releasing daily for my entertainment pleasure. I love this release schedule which they started last year. They are releasing the eight episodes daily, starting on December 22 and running through December 29. It gives me something to look forward to every day.

What If…? has been a fairly consistent show over the three seasons. It has been enjoyable, but perhaps not outstanding. It is typically really good, fun and entertaining. This first episode feels like it falls right into that category.

The What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers episode had a new team of Avengers with their giant mech technology, much like Voltron or the Power Rangers, and they took on some gamma beasts created in the Gamma War.

One of the best parts of What If…? is the use of the actual live action actors for voices in the animated shows. This episode included Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, and David Harbour as Red Guardian.

The first half of this episode felt as if it had too much exposition and, despite having a series of cool animation styles during the period, I thought there was too much telling and not enough showing. This is one of the overall issues with What If…?. Episodes are kept around 30 minutes and sometimes feel as if it is too short. This one felt like it would have been more compelling if it had been an hour. Maybe we could have seen some of the Gamma War instead of just using it as set up.

However, the second half of the show was solid and included some awesome giant robot vs. Kaiju type action, including Bruce Banner transforming himself into a gigantic Godzilla-like creature, I dubbed Hulkzilla as soon as I saw the scene. This was fun and an enjoyable action piece with a decent theme working.

Admittedly, after seeing some of the outstanding animated TV shows this year such as X-Men ’97 and Batman: The Caped Crusader, What If…? feels like a step down. That may not be fair, but when the genre is elevating its game, you expect other shows to step up too. What If…? episode one of season three was fine, but probably not as memorable as it could have been.

Shrinking S2 E10

Spoilers

“Changing Patterns”

Okay, so perhaps this is not the season finale after all.

I really thought that this was the season finale. But when I pulled up the show on Apple TV +, I saw episode 11 listed for next Wednesday. So I guess this is not the final episode of the season. I do not know how many there are.

That does not bother me much because Shrinking is consistently one of the best written and entertaining shows on TV.

I had been wondering where this show was going as it seemed like most of the storylines were wrapped up over the last couple of episodes, but there were a couple that came raging back into the forefront.

In particular, the whole Louis/Alice friendship came back hard and heavy this week. Alice found out that Jimmy had told Louis to not see Alice again and that crushed her. Apparently, there are more legs to this as Alice told her father that he ruined another birthday.

Oh yeah, it was Alice’s 18 birthday. She was a little unfair in this situation in my opinion. I mean, Jimmy did find her a car just like his wife. Sure he can be blind in a lot of ways, but to say that he ruined the birthday felt a touch harsh.

There are some great development with all of the other characters too. Paul, Liz, Derek, Julie, and Gaby had solid arcs within this episode, but they all paled in comparison to the birthday escapades.

I wonder how many more episodes the season has for us?

Skeleton Crew S1 E1, E2

Spoilers

“This Could Be a Real Adventure”

“Way, Way Out Past the Barrier”

I usually do not do write ups on the Star Wars Disney + shows. The main reason is that I do not like that many of these shows. I do consider myself a Star Wars fan, but I have not been a fan of several of these shows, and a few I have not even watched (such as Ahsoka). However, the 1980s Goonies/Amblin feel this show provided made me intrigued.

Disney + dropped the first two episodes of this new series last night and I loved it. This was such a fun series and it absolutely captured that 1980s kid adventure movies.

In fact, one of the first things I noticed was the great music used. That music completely made me feel like we were watching an Amblin movie, but it also gave me the feel of Star Wars. The music was a wonderful blend between the two types of films.

I thought all of the kids did a great job. I was a big fan of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) as our main protagonist, and I enjoyed Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) a ton as well. The little elephant character, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) was fun too. I liked him very much. He made a great companion to Wim.

Jude Law showed up at the last scene of the second episode, bringing an interesting storyline with him.

I loved the mystery circulating around the kids’ home planet, At Attin, a planet that it seemed that the rest of the Star Wars universe believed this planet was just a myth. What is this central mystery? It has me intrigued for sure.

I am excited about the Skeleton Crew. I can’t wait to continue watching this series next Tuesday.

The X-Files S7 E10 E11

Spoilers

“Sein Und Zeit”

“Closure”

The X-Files investigates the JonBenét Ramsey case.

Ok, not exactly, but they may as well have.

Only, they tied it into Mulder’s missing sister and his own family tragedy.

I was surprised when this turned out to be a two part episode as some horrible images were shown, including a mass graveyard of children. This was a shocking moment that I did not expect in this series.

You see, at first, I felt very dismissive of this episode, in particular “Sein Und Zeit” because it felt as if the fictional case of this episode was such a take off of the Ramsey case that it seemed exploitive. Then when they tried to connect it to Mulder’s sister, it really took another step away from what I wanted.

Then, Mulder’s mother, who had tried to contact him, committed suicide.

And the emotional power of the episode really took over.

David Duchovny brought some of the best work I have seen from him in a long time. The scene where Scully tells Mulder that his mother had a terrible disease and that she had committed suicide and not killed by some mysterious conspiracy was extremely powerful.

This was all building to answering the question about what happened to Samantha Mulder. As I am watching it, I did not believe that the show would give us a final truth. I saw on Wikipedia that Chris Carter believed that season 7 might have been the final season of the X-Files so I thought that maybe that elusive mystery would finally be revealed. The title “Closure” leads to the idea as well.

Cigarette Smoking Man showed up to see Scully, and I kept yelling at her to shoot him in the head. She didn’t.

As I continued to watch the episode, I started believing that the show might actually give an answer to the mystery. I did not grasp the idea of what in actuality happened. Samantha was apparently taken by “walk-ins” which was a concept told to Mulder by a psychic named Harold Pillar (Anthony Heald) who was also in search of his own missing son. A walk-in was a being made of starlight that would take children who suffered horrible fates.

That whole concept was strange, but the scene where the spirit of Samantha Mulder came to Fox Mulder and hugged him was quite beautiful and provided the character with some serious closure. He could accept that Samantha was gone and, as he said at the end of the episode, he said, “I’m fine. I’m free.”

I am still not sure how his mother played into this. What was her message? Did she know this was Samantha’s fate or what was going on. We saw Mulder’s mother’s spirit come to him and whisper something. I am just not sure that fit with what the show was telling us.

We also got the image of the little girl whose disappearance started this whole thing indicating that she too had become starlight and was, in fact, dead.

I am not sure I love the resolution of this seminal mystery, but I am happy that it is done. I am not sure that all of the different times when we learned bits about Samantha fit into this theory and it works best when you forget about some of those. The whole Samantha mystery was used multiple times over the seasons for episodes and I wonder how much they knew about what actually happened to Samantha.

No matter what, even if the resolution was not totally satisfactory, I am glad that it was addressed and that Mulder was given closure. It is good that this Samantha story ended here.

Silo S2 E3

Spoilers

“Solo”

The best parts of this episode came from the interactions between Juliette and Solo. Solo is the person locked in the vault that we met last week. He told her that if Juliette tried to open the vault again, he would kill her.

However, we discover that Solo is not quite confident in his mental acuity. He was not sure if Juliette was real, so he put some soup out for her. When she gulped it down, Solo realized that she really was real.

Steve Zahn played the off-balanced survivor and he did a great job of spending most of the episode acting with his voice (and perhaps every once in awhile with his eyes).

Discovering the secrets of this other silo, Juliette wanted to get back to her own silo (Silo 18), to warn others of the dangers that brought this silo (Silo 17) down. She was stifled on how to make that happen since her own suit was torn to shreds.

This led to Solo exiting his vault when he feared that Juliette was going to not return. I am not sure where this goes, but Solo feels a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs to me.

The stuff happening back in the original silo was not as compelling for me. We get a bunch of trouble from a group planning a potential rebellion. We get questions about Juliette’s actual choice about wanting to leave. The Mayor continues with his machinations. Judge Meadow who is starting to figure out how she can leave the silo and The Mayor seemingly helping her (though I don’t trust him one bit).

Silo S2 E1

Spoilers

“The Engineer”

Apple TV + series Silo returned for its second season. The first season was an unexpected treat when it first came out on Apple TV + so I was excited to see what a second season had in store for us.

Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) who was sent out of the silo in the first season finale, set up by those in power to get rid of her, went walking across the outside world. She discovered that there were more silos than the one that she came from. As she went to the nearest one, she had to walk through a field littered with skeletons and rotting corpses, belonging to a group of people we saw at the episode’s beginning, who were forcing their way out of their silo in a revolution. A revolution that did not go well. Looks like the air is toxic after all.

As Juliette entered the next silo, she discovered that it was abandoned and run down. She went into the silo, exploring the structure as we got flashbacks of Juliette as a child, learning to work the recycle center.

The episode had a ton of tension and nervous energy as Juliette made her way through the darkness and decay of this silo, picking up on signs as she went. Part of the reason these scenes were as unnerving as they were was that most of the episode was silent. Except for the flashbacks, of course, most of Juliette’s time in the silo contained little to no dialogue.

That is, of course, until she heard that music playing and went to find a big vault door, which she tried to open. Failing, she was ready to leave when she heard a man speak to her, telling her that he understood why she tried to open the door, but if she tried it again, he would kill her.

For me, I would say, sure thing… no problem… enjoy your life in there. I get a feeling that Juliette is not going to just let this guy live his life behind steel doors. Or at least her curiosity will get the better of her. Who is this guy and why did he respond to her in such a way?

We did not see any of the characters from the original silo we had been introduced to in season one, but there was plenty of story taking place here to satisfy. A solid season premiere from a solid sci-fi show that more people should know about.

Cobra Kai S6 Part 2 E9, E10

Spoilers

“Blood In Blood Out”

“Eunjangdo”

So I watched episodes 6-8 earlier this morning and I was truly underwhelmed. I would go as far as say that I disliked E6 while not being much of a fan of E8, with 7 saving the threesome a bit. I was disappointed and I even went as far as to wonder if they should have ended the series after season five with that tremendous finale.

Well, I’ll shut up now.

Episodes 9 and 10 of Cobra Kai Season 6 just said ‘hold my beer.’

Holy crap. What an amazing two episodes in a row. Everything that was weak about the first three I saw this morning was totally crushed in these two episodes. I can’t believe I have to wait for the next episode, whenever the part three of the season is released.

The show amped up the karate fights in these two episodes and ended the stupid conflicts that I complained about in the post this morning. The Miyagi-Do crew finally just put their cards on the table and got the stupid arguments and hurt feelings aside after their team got kicked in the first match of the tag team competition. The tag team battle was creative and awesome.

With the tag team competition done, and Cobra Kai out… you knew something was going to happen to bring them back in. Performance enhancing drugs for one of the non-important teams brought Cobra Kai back into the mixture with the Iron Dragons and Miyagi-Do.

Then, that twist led to something the show has not had in a long time, an epic all-out karate war with everybody fighting each other. It was something that Cobra Kai the show had been well known for, but hadn’t used lately. Certainly not on this scale, with the whole thing broadcast to the world.

And you could tell that someone was getting that knife that Kreese was brandishing all over the place. The show wouldn’t have kept showing it if it was not going to be used. I was afraid that Daniel was going to get that blade as it was being set up, but I never thought that Kwon would taste the dagger. I was sure it was going to be the giant Iron Dragon guy getting killed. But no, Kwon was stabbed int he chest and fell upon his own weapon, Kreese’s dagger which he had picked up from the floor.

Of course, Kreese had every intention of using that dagger to kill Terry Silver, but when he realized that he had dropped it, Kreese decided that they had to have an old man fight, hand to hand.

I may have actually grown to like Chozen and Kim Da-Eun as a pair. Them fighting side by side was cool, even if the show did make Da-Eun flip as a character really quickly. Reminded me of Hawk’s face turn a few seasons ago. Kind of our of nowhere.

Oh, and by the way, Daniel’s dream with Mr. Miyagi making the cameo was out of this world. Make you wonder about AI.

Unbelievable two episodes, especially after the first three of this second part of the season were so iffy. I am completely back on board with the show and can’t wait for the final five episodes.

Grotesquerie S1 E10

Spoilers

“I Think I’m Dead”

What?

This is a season finale. Yet was it a satisfying resolution to the first season story? Absolutely not. I have to say that the ending of this season is just disappointing and a disjointed mess.

The ending does not give us any answers. It does not even hint at them. The first half of the episode was going along with Marshall, and he winds up at a strange anti-woke, anti-women meeting where there were some nastiness implied. What was any of this about? Is it indicating that this group has something to do with the Grotesquerie murders? All the male characters of the show appeared in this meeting, including some of the most important ones. Still, it was anything but clear.

The episode started to get interesting when Lois was in the mental institution and was claiming that she believed that she had died and that this was the Otherworld. Or maybe she was still in the coma. These were some intriguing ideas that I may have bought into, because I stated after last week’s penultimate episode, I really felt as if the world was imaginary. However, this idea was tossed aside quickly and does not seem to be explored any further after Megan arrived to see Lois.

Megan took Lois to another crime scene where a bunch of people were killed, including Charlie the doctor. Lois says she knows who this is, and left to go to her old office and wait for the evidence to be bagged up.

And that was the end of the season.

Really?

This show was so very odd and bounced around potential concepts, changing gears midseason dramatically. This show never felt right since that massive switch. I was willing to give it a chance, but it all still feels too surreal.

I do not mind having mysteries unsolved, as long as I think that those mysteries make sense. These do not. This was a weak ending to a show that had some solid moments and a strong performance from Niecy Nash-Betts.