57 Channels and Only This Is On: October 28, 2023

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Thankfully they explained who that the big reveal was because did not remember that guy at all.  He was from, what, the second season?  I vaguely remember him and his family took in the main cast but then (shocker!) turned out to be evil.  But I think it is pretty reasonable to assume that someone you bashed in the head with a hammer died and did not just lose an eye. 

 

Billions:  I wonder at what point they decided to end the series with Take the Money and Run.  I would not be at all surprised if it they thought of it right after deciding to do a show about evil people with a lot of money.  But good riddance to this show.  Oh, wait, they are developing Million, Trillions and shows set in London and Miami (where it sound like Wags will be going).  Meh.

 

Survivor:  These Gen Z’ers are annoying.  You are grown men, stop playing with your Pokémon.  Even someone on The Challenge was talking about those things for small children.  At least one of them got voted out. 

 

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion:  Finally a season without the same old boring cast members with the same old alliances… well, at least until the champions arrive.  Though it does seem at this point they may not show up until the “Chaos” section.  And everyone working together for The Challenge was weird.  What happens when they succeed?  Where is the drama?  But poor women, they all decide to vote for a guy and the very first women nominate another woman.  I do wonder how the whole vote would have gone down if anyone other than Berna had voted first.  They really should do a secret vote like in USA. 

 

Doom Patrol:  So the Butt’s with Teeth can talk now?  Cool.  Though how did the one Butt with Teeth become the scientist lady? 

 

Loki:  So all time has been destroyed?  Well, Marvel had a good run.  Oh wait, there is still two episodes left?  How do you continue after the destruction of all time?

57 Channels and Only This Is On: October 22, 2023

  

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  Much like Dead City, I was not aware this was an ongoing series, though will there be much Daryl in the Book of Carol?  I just hope the zombies killed the kid.

 

Billions:  So Prince just let Taylor walk?  Seems uncharacteristic of him.  And how was Bobby let back in the US?  Wasn’t he wanted by the federal government?  But Prince has his vice president and crushed the Bobby/Chuck alliance.  Congratulation, it was a good run for the show.  Good night.  Oh, wait; there is still one more episode left?  Oh, Prince is going down.

 

Survivor:  Really, another quitter?  Someone needs to fire the casting division (get a new casting director for The Challenge why you are at it CBS).  The problem is just way too many super-fans.  The show used to look like a cross-section of American and now it looks more like a D&D convention.  What happen to all the athletes?  Beauty Queens?  Anyone over 40?  Now it is just nerds who cannot even climb a ladder or dive under a log without breaking their skull.  Probst should be embarrassed by this season.

 

Doom Patrol:  Happy Immortus Day!  You knew a musical episode of this show would not disappoint.

 

Loki:  Ultron was evil and all, but at least he did not want a physical form to fork a dude.  I am not sure if that is more or less creepy than Loki wanting to hook up with the female variant of himself.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Well, at least Chris was able to win a show without some stupid loop hole, so congrats I guess.  Dude is still boring and probably should not been cast.  Now I just need to decide, what was a funnier way for Fessy to bomb out of a final: not being able to eat gross things after blaming his partner’s bad ankle or going the wrong way because even the chicks were able to hit an axe on a target? 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: October 15, 2023

  

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  Oh no, they are going to kill Daryl?!?!?  Oh wait, the promo completely spoiled that he is going to get out of the predicament.  Not that I thought for a second they were going to kill off the titular character.

 

Billions:  Finally, Bobby is back.  For someone who was front and center in the poster, the guy has barely been here.  If he appears in the final two episodes, that would be just five of the twelve.  But my bigger complaint is that Prince got U2 to play at his political campaign (one of the least believable things to have ever happen on this show; and that is saying a lot) but they played Beautiful Day at the end of the episode instead of the much better End of the World.  Though that is a weird request for a political rally.

 

Quantum Leap:  So Magic no longer works for the military?  So why was he allowed back in the building?  The modern day timeline has always been really stupid.

 

Doom Patrol:  Thankfully they put out two episodes because I had absolutely no clue who Immortus was.  But then again, I was unaware that the person who played Rita in the stage production was the same person who Madame Rouge pushed into the hole.  Then it looks like we are getting a musical episode next week.  Awesome.

 

Loki:  Of all the places in time of any planet this show could have sent Sylvie, they sent her to the one place and time where she got herself one of the most hideous mullets ever.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Were they actively trying to ruin Hall Brawl?  That puzzle was so stupid if it was easier to just run back and forth ten feet and guess rather than actually solve it.  Remember when you used to get a penalty for a wrong guess?  Then the Hall Brawl aspect meant nothing, basically the first one through got maybe a half a second head start on the puzzle.  Why did anyone bother to fight in the hall is beyond me.  So stupid.  But at least Josh finally went home.  Please stop bringing him back.

57 Challenge and Only This Is On: October 8, 2023

 

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  Not killing the dad is probably going to come back and bite Daryl.  He better hope the auntie is very persuasive.

 

Billions:  So Prince knows of the coup but we still have not gotten to the scene where he throws a chair through Wendy’s window.  I guess that comes when the alliance to bring him down actually does separate Prince from his billions.  So now Prince is bringing in a guy and Chuck is bringing in a guy… could they both actually be bringing in Bobby?  Bobby is clearly the guy Chuck is recruiting for their group, but why exactly would Prince trust Bobby at all?  But I predict that Chuck’s thumb drive gets exposed before the end of the season.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  On no, poor Sazz. Though I did predict that someone would kill her thinking it was Charles way back in season one. Finally got that right belatedly.

 

This finale was missing some hilarious reveal. First season had a drugged Charles, there was the Killer Reveal Party in the second season. I thought it was coming when Mabel mentioned it was too easy when they got the mom to confess. Instead it seemed like they went for a too dramatic reveal with the producer threatening to kill himself which just felt out of place on this show. It probably did not help that the producers were the worst part of this season.

 

But hey, we did finally get a full performance of Creatures of the Night. And I guess the nanny turned out to be the killer in the musical. I mentioned this last week, but I really hope they film a full production of Death Rattle Dazzle and put it out as a special as we wait for I have to assume will be a strike delayed fourth season.

 

Ashoka:  I have been saying all season: they should have found someone better than Erza. Looks like I have been proven right because the bum has up and left them. Now here Ahsoka and Sabine are, foreign to their world. Straight and composed, Thrawn's sermons they can do without. But I am sure they have found that everybody loves to love them when they're far, far away.

 

Quantum Leap:  Really, writers and actors were on strike, but this was the show that somehow managed to come back?  And they yadda yadda three years?  This is going to be a rough season.

 

Loki:  Well, that was confusing.  But at least there was more Pillboi and the new guy was funny.  Gotta love the duct tape bit.  But pretty ominous that one of the judges is Kaittlyn Stark’s creepy sister.

 

The Challenge: USA:   Oh, Michele, I told you that you chose unwisely last week.  But hilarious that the Goof is offering to go in himself next week.  I would love to see it.  But who can he beat at Hall Brawl.  But hey, at least it is not the throwing challenge from earlier this season.

57 Channel and Only This Is On: October 1, 2023

  

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  It did not occur to me that we could see the boyfriend again.  But it was pretty wild of him to think that he would think his former flame would know he was forking her sister.  I know I did not get that during their flashback.

 

Billions:  Wags has some weird kinks, but the new one is just gross.  But another episode without Bobby.  Is Chuck is really going to wait until the last episode or two to call in his favor?  Is Prince’s wife going to join the resistance?

 

Only Murders in the Building:  So it looks like I was right that the creepy mother poisoned Ben to sink the plane.  Now we have to wait and see if my other prediction of a second killer will be right.  But it was just nice to have the Three Amigos back together.

 

Ashoka:  So Thrawn’s plan was just to waste time?  That just made it seem like this was a waste of an episode because of it.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Oh Michele, why are you siding with the Vet’s?  Getting out Tori would have really helped your game.  But more oil wrestling challenges please.  Just do not cut to Josh during it next time.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: September 24, 2023

  

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  So the miracle child was born to a zombie.  Cool.  Does that explain why he is super weird?  They will probably just make him immune from zombieism.

 

The Chi:  Well, that was not the Avengers assembling that I predicted, it actually was a really embarrassing assassination attempt.  Then Emmitt tries to blame it on the gun jamming; the dude shot am missed multiple times before that.  But Victor definitely finishes him off, right?  Either Douda or Emmitt has to die next episode because Douda has to know it was Emmitt since he set up that meeting.  I guess we will have to wait awhile because the show is going on hiatus.   But I guess this ws the last we will see of Kevin, that certainly looked like a farewell.

 

Billions:  Finally, some R.E.M.  Great ending to a not so great episode. Why  was there so much about how Bobby owes Chuck when Bobby is not even in the episode?  The whole DMV thing just seemed like a forced attempted to get Chuck and Wendy at the same place and for the writers to add some forced sports references.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  Now that is how you make an entrance. Welcome back Detective Williams. Sorry you had to slum it on The Idol; hopefully she is available for the final two episodes and this was not a one off. Charles and Oliver's plan to distract her was hilarious. I did notice that they would have missed the interrogation of the first guy (though he is so insignificant I forgot his name if we ever knew it in the first place) and Bobo. I wonder if missing their interview will be important.

But maybe not because Loretta confessed. I had an inkling that it was going to happen, but thought that was going to be the cliffhanger for the penultimate episode, not this one. What pushed her over the edge was Donna talking about protecting her child at all cost which put Donna at the top of my murder board. Could she have sabotage the play to save her kid the humiliation of producing a bomb? She seemed extremely angry that the critic who wrote the bad review for the play was at the sitzprobe (I am now extremely disappointed that none of my high school musicals had sitzprobes).

So now I am thinking they pin the murder on Donna next week, but the big twist at the end is that she just poisoned Ben Glenroy and then we learn who pushed him down the elevator shaft in the final and that will be... mmm, I kind of like Tobert until he started dating Mabel. I guess I will stick with him unless someone really sticks out next week. Though, if it was him, then Detective Williams would have been wrong to say, "The killer is someone in this room." Maybe I will say Howard as a backup, he seems way too eager to be part of the podcast.

 

Ashoka:  So Erza has been hanging out with the rock people from Frozen this whole time?  Wild that him and Thrawn just let each other live in peace this whole time.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Hopefully Wes will keep his word and stay retired, but I will not hold my breath.  If only he took Johnny with him

57 Channels and Only This Is On: September 17, 2023

 

 The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon:  So they are just not going to explain why Daryl is in France?  Didn’t he literally ride off into the sunset at the end of the main series?  But the new setting is breathing some new life into the show even if the religious stuff is a little heavy handed.  Really, that kid is going to be able to bring back souls to zombies?  C’mon.

 

The Chi:  In this week’s installment of should I know who that is: the dude Keisha met at the barber shop.  I feel like I have already asked this about this character this season.  But one episode until the break.  Will we finally see a team up to bring down Douda?  It seems like they have teasing it all season.

 

Billions:  I think we all know what Chuck will call on Axe to do when the time comes.  Of course with just four episodes left, that time will come soon.  But that double turn did not make much sense.  Doesn’t the US government look like fools for letting the Russian back on our soil?

 

Only Murders in the Building: I am mildly disappointed that, with the episode entitled CoBro, we did not get to see any actual footage of the movie this week, or more Girl Cop for that matter; but that disappointment quickly went away with Mel Brooks literally phoning in a cameo. It was also nice to get Theo back (cast this guy as Superman because I did not realize that was him until he started signing). Uma was also great as usual. I may have to steal her line about three types of people: alive, dead, and dead to me.

 

There was a popular theory that Loretta was actually Ben Glenroy's mother. We did learn this week that his and Dicky's parents were Ben Glenroy's birth parents, but I wonder if Peggy was on the right track and she is Dicky's mother but thought Ben Glenroy was her kid because his parents adopted her kid, which is actually Dickie, not Ben.

 

So where exactly is Mabel now? I always assumed she would find a way to stay at the Arconia by the end of the season because it would be weird for her to investigate a murder in a building she no longer lived in. I wonder if maybe Theo is letting her squat in the empty Dimas apartment for now. But it is really sad she did not let her favorite olds she had moved. At least two of the three amigos are back together; hopefully they bring Mabel back into the fold next week too. They are much better together than apart.

 

Ashoka:  I mentioned that Daryl Dixon got a little too religious, but at least he did not get swallowed by a whale.  I figured when the map was destroyed, they would use the space whales to get to the other side of the galaxy, but I was not expecting them to travel inside them.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Why are they still trying to make Survivor vs. Big Brother a thing?  There are two Big Brother players left.  It is over, Survivor won.  Team up and get rid of the remaining vets like it seemed like to be the plan in the beginning of the season.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: September 10, 2023

  

The Chi:   I have been following Emmitt’s Chekov’s Gun all season predicting that it would be used on Douda eventually.  Well, now Douda has it, so that it probably not going to come to fruition.  But now it seems fairly obvious that the Men’s Club is going to bring down Douda one way or another.  The question is, does someone kill him, or are they all going to testify against him?  Killing Papa’s papa will likely be the last straw.

 

Billions:  I did not realize that was Connerty until he started speaking.  Now I am struggling to remember what exactly happened to him and why Kate is so scared of him.  I think he tried to bring Chuck down for being too obsessed with Axe but crossed the legal line to do so.  But I do not remember why he would be an albatross to Kate.  We also saw a return, albeit short absent of the DA kind of screwed over by getting his old job back. I was waiting to see what revenge she would do to Chuck.  Sex tape was not on the top of the list.  Shockingly Chuck did not throw his boy under the bus.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  I pegged Flobert the killer (or at least one of the attempted killers) since the season premiere. Though after this episode and hoe he gave off strong Jan vibes, I am now thinking he may end up being the final red herring of the week before we learn who the real killer(s) was.

 

As for this week's red herring, Jonathan never made a good one. Seems if you killed the star, either the show will shut down or they would bring in another star to replace the current one. I guess this begs the question, why is Oliver having someone who, I believe, was last seen in the chorus of The Lion King be his lead?

 

But I have to say all the President McKinley stuff was hilarious.

 

Ahsoka:  I liked the scene where Ahsoka was running through the wet grass, Sabine falling a step behind, both of them never tiring. I am sure that is better than Erza is doing right now.

 

The Challenge: USA:   So are the finale two Big Brother players going to finally realize that Fessy and Josh are not going to help them and finally join Survivor and get rid of the vets?

57 Channels and Only This Is On: September 3, 2023

  

The Chi:   In this week’s installment of should I know who these people are:  the gay dudes at Victor’s party?  Then is Kevin really going to leave The Chi?  How can you be on The Chi if you are not located in The Chi?  And how did his school afford such a fancy ballroom for prom?  And what kind f school lets them play uncensored songs at a school function?  Oh, and one last question, did the cops find the cashe of guns in the car?  You are not taking someone to the station for just speeding, but doubt they would let them out that night if they found that many unregistered guns.

 

Billions:  A couple episodes I wondered if the bassoon segment was a reference to Only Murders in the Building, now I wonder if The Trolley Problem is a reference to .he Good Place.  Or has the show run out random non sequitur that they have to steal other shows’.  But did they really need a lengthy morbid betting scene just to get to how Prince ties into the insurence company that would have to deal with the hurricane?

 

Only Murders in the Building:  Sazz!!! But it was strange that Joy was the red herring of the week, but she disappeared only for Sazz to do a therapy session. Though the other love interests came off as more sketchy this week. The Ben Glenroy book was creepy, especially for someone who kept having standoffs with the guy. Then by Flobert trying to incriminate Johnathan, which just made him look guiltier. But with all the talk of Charles maybe dating another killer this week, would they really have one of the other three amigos do the same? But guess this week answers the question of who did Charles tell Ben Glenroy to stay away from last season.

 

Justified: City Primeval:  So Raylan got a demotion when he shot someone who drew on him (okay he did goad that to happen) and someone wants to make him chief after shooting someone reaching for a cassette.  Poor Clement, just wanted someone to listen to his demo and no one ever wanted to.  But as lower tier Justified this revival was.  Sign me up for Raylan hunting fugitive Boyd.  But I wonder who was on the other line.  Was it Art?  Has Tim or Rachel taken over for him?

 

Ashoka:  So a human dude forks a green chick and their kid is a human with green hair?  Alrighty.  But I watched the cartoons and did not remember Sabine being a Jedi at all.  But I am sure at being a Jedi, she is better than Ezra.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Oh joy, another episode where the players whose personal backstories were featured in were the ones who were sent into elimination. How predictable. Granted they did spoil one of the players in the promo last week. Hopefully the shakeup at the end of the episode actually shakes things up.  Though I fear like the Vets might actually have the advantage.  There are six of them if you count Josh and Fessy.  On the surface there are seven Survivor and just three Big Brother.  There was a hot chick alliance, but with two of the three Big Brother members going home in two straight episodes, is that still a thing?  Will less hot alyssa want to continue to work with the Survivor chicks or work with the Big Brother guys and hope Josh and Fessy join them?   Then who gets to nominate people?  Just the winner?  The top two or three?  I just hope Survivor and Big Brother gang up on the Vets.  Someone please send Josh in.  I cannot image any of the females will want to potentially want to be teamed with him in a final.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: August 27, 2023

 

The Chi:  In this week’s installment of should I know who that is: the chick in the shower with Douda.  And did we know Quentin was an informant?  But what I am really following this season is Emmitt’s gun.  He learned his father took it this week and wants it back, but I do not think he actually got it back.  Though, if that is Chekov’s gun which will go off in the third act of the season (and I assume in Douda’s direction) does that make the bag of guns Chekov’s arsenal?

 

Billions:  Chuck had a secret meeting at the tomb of Ulysses S. Grant with… Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?  I know this show loves gratuitous cameos, but that was a bit absurd.  For a second, I thought maybe he was meeting with Axe.  Knowing this show, they probably will team up to bring down Prince, but it will probably be Wendy that facilitates that.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  It was a little annoying that they tried to hide who was calling Mabel when it was obvious that is was the person who gave the voiceover at the start of the episode. Otherwise, why else was Cinda there? But I have to say, I enjoyed wellness hippie Cinda than the murder podcaster Cinda.

 

It looks like next episode will be Joy being the red herring of the week which should be hilarious.  I cannot imagine they would make another of Charles’ girlfriend a kill no matter how funny that would be.  The whole fish thing was great.

 

Kimber as this week’s red herring was also very entertaining.  I think I would watch a Kinber trying to make it as an influencer in the New York theater type spin-off. Then the whole White Room stuff was hilarious. I just hope we get a full cast album of Death Rattle Dazzle because all these songs are bangers. But I am not sure I will be able to watch another musical without trying to find who they stuck the sing-talky song too.

 

Justified: City Primeval:  That scene in the diner really felt like the opening scene of the original series.  But instead of ending with a “Justified” killing, for the second time this season, two people trying to get Clement with two different schemes, ruined the other.

 

Ashoka:  Why are they spending so much time and energy trying to find Ezra Bridger?  There are so many Jedi out there who are better than Ezra.  And when did being stabbed in the stomach with a lightsaber stop being fatal?  It felt like a death sentence in the movies, but just a flesh wound on the television shows.

 

The Challenge: USA:  The hat trick plan has to be one of the dumbest things ever.  You just eliminated someone who was not a threat and it should be pretty obvious to all the Survivor and Big Brother people what the Vets were doing.  Of course the big question is will the Survivor and Big Brother people get back on the same page and target the Vets again.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: August 20, 2023

 

The Chi:  In this week’s instalment of should I know who these people are: should I know who those first two people at the party are?  I vaguely remember who the guy who sat at the bar was, but am not entirely how he fit into the story.  Thankfully the guy who did not pick up Keisha the night she was kidnapped said that upfront, because I would not have known that if he did not.  But is this the first time all the characters were in the same place at the same time?  But I think we need to keep track of the Chekov’s Gun that was given as a housewarming present.  I have a feeling I know who will be on a receiving end (the kingpin), but the list of who could shoot it is very long.

 

Billions:  So Chuck ended the last season in jail and has his job back by episode two because of a pair of cowboy boot?  That is pretty absurd even by television standards.  I am guessing it will take a little longer to get Axe Cap back together.  Then I have to imagine the whole bassoon thing was inspired by Only Murders in the Building.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  Ben Glenroy's apartment may have been more wild than the stalkers. Then Death Rattle Dazzle is really coming together nicely, or at the very least coming together hilariously.

But my two main suspects after the first two episodes look a little less guilty this week. The brother looked broken up even when no one was watching (that he knew of). Then Flobert (that is my official name for him going forward unless Mabel comes up with a better one) seemed to help Mabel in her investigation... but then again, Jan did help too.

I do have a sinking suspicion than Kimber was not the only one to lose her hankie.

 

Justified: City Primeval:  Oh no, Sweetie is dead… oh well.  But what happened to the gun?  But this has to be the point where the lawyer turns on him.  But who is the mole in the police department?  The black dude is pretty laissez faire but it is probably the lady cop.

 

The Challenge: USA:  Why were trey trying to make Paulie seem sympathetic?  Good riddance.  If only both went home.  But it is nice to see the hot chick alliance take full control of this game.  It will be interesting as to what Johnny does.  Seems most likely that he goes to go to Blue.  But does he go full spite and send Cory to Red Flag or does he try to make a Vet majority and send one of the non-Vets packing like Chris?  That would be Johnny, Cory, Fessie, and Tori against Cassidy, Seabass, and the Alyssa’s.  Tori could definably get Seabass to switch in that situation.  But can the Alyssa’s keep Cory on their side in that situation.

Previewing Billions Season Seven

 

Poor Michael Prince, he was brought in to replace Bobby Axelrod but just one season after jettisoning Bobby to some nondescript European city, presumably to never be seen again, Axe is back.  Not only is he back, but front and center in the seventh and final season poster for Billions, pushing Prince to the edges.  Making things worse is that Bobby is barely in the episodes given to critics.  Another character that has not been seen in a while may actually have more screen time than Axe in those  episodes.

 

But hey, at least Prince gets to open the season with a very eye opening scene.  Unfortunately that is directly followed by a “5 months earlier“ chyron.  That gets us closer to the end of last season which ended in a high stakes game of chicken which left Prince $3.5 billion cheaper and Chuck in jail, though the latter was short lived as New York State Attorney General Dave Mahar bailed him out.  Prince would move on as he has bigger fish to fry.  After failing to bring the Olympics to New York, now he is trying to run for president as an Independent.

 

But this is an end of the era.  It has been announced that the seventh will be final season of Billions (though Millions and Trillions are currently in development along with versions of Billions set in Miami and London… geez).  And it is time to wrap things up if they think they need Bobby Axelrod to save the show after just one season without him even though the show had gotten stale with Bobby and Chuck going after each other for the previous five seasons (aside from that one stretch when they were on the same side).  The show even seems to run out of pop culture references, there is an awkward Nirvana references early in the season and I was left wondering if they were cribbing other shows’ with a couple of reference.   Like most Showtime shows, this one seems to be ended one to three seasons too late.

 

Billions airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime, though you can stream episodes on Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 17, 2022

 

 

Killing Eve:  I hope TV learned two important lessons from Killing Eve: 1) do not change your showrunner every season.  2)  Shows about antagonists have a short shelf life (though everyone should have learned this from Billions).  What a clusterfork of a final two episodes.  Why did Constantin’s apprentice kill him (or why was she on the shoe at all)?  Why was the 12 meeting on a boat at the same time as a gay wedding?  Why did Caroline try to kill Eve and the crazy French assassin?  None of this season made sense.

 

The Walking Dead:  So Daryl had the Stormtroopers stuck in a house full of zombies but instead decided to ambush them while they were all spread out around plenty of cover.  That was not the smartest plan ever.

 

Billions:  For a second there I thought Mike Prince actually brought down Axe and Chuck in consecutive season.  But then I thought, if we do not see Chuck sentenced by the end of the episode, he will probably weasel his way out next season.  Except he was able to weasel his way out by the end of this episode.  I do not understand his replacement’s plan.  Wouldn’t having Chuck under indictment when she had a real warrant this whole time be fraud, or wouldn’t anything Chuck do to get Prince on illegal stuff entrapment?

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:   Of course they leave the first and arguably the best (though I would say it is Corduroy, which I do not remember being on the show) to start and finish the final episode.  After being kind of meh on the show, I was actually enjoying the finale episode, probably because Travis was finally getting his componence, up until the point he went on his diatribe to the camera and the stupid dream sequence.  Hollywood is having a big problem at determining lengths of its stories and the story of Uber probably should have been a movie.  Or maybe it should have just stayed a book.

 

Moon Knight:  I kind of enjoyed when Mark took over in the first season but they stayed with Stephan’s POV were he would just come to with bodies everywhere.  I did not really care for the reverse.  Though I guess the last time it happened it was some third personality that it does not seem like Mark knows about.  But now I am wondering if every time there is a blackout it has been this third personality.  But I did not really understand the plot of the episode.  I thought that Ethan Hawke needed the scarab to find Ammut’s tomb but the sarcophagus is the only way to find it?  So what was Ethan Hawke digging?

 

Survivor:  How did they manage to make the Turn Back Time advantage worse?  It was even more confusing this time around.  But it was still a stupid twist because of course if you give someone a choice between being safe and not being safe, they will choose safety.  But man, did Hai turn on Lydia for no apparent reason really quickly.  Seems like a horrible idea to sacrifice your closest ally right at the merge.

 

The Blacklist: So they knew that Red was going to save the evil arms deal, but were cool with just looking at the paper the FBI guys handed them?  At least look at the database to see they are who they say they are.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 10, 2022

 

 

Killing Eve:  I have no idea why the crazy French assassin killed that one chick.  Simple jealousy?  But it does not seem she knew about her and Eve until she overheard them.  I also have no idea why she tried to kill the chick who gave her painkillers either.  Maybe I should pay more attention.  But with two more episodes left ever, why bother?

 

The Walking Dead:  I called it, the showdown between Daryl and Maggie was not as antagonistic as it seemed.  But what is so annoying about the mustache twirling villain, he was willing to kill an entire settlement to get his weapons back, but now he is bargaining with the actual person who stole he weapons to kill Maggie

 

Billions:  Did Mike Prince really just say “mother husker”?  But anyway.  During the whole succession thing and people trying to figure out why, my first thought was that maybe he was maybe he was dying.  Nope, the show is doing something even bigger, and more absurd, than trying to move the Olympics: he is running for president… in 2028.  Well at least the show will not be on the air by then.  Probably?

 

But the whole Wendy book thing made no sense to me.  How could a therapist think writing a book with thinly veiled caricature of her clients was a good idea?  At first I thought she was trying to get fired, but then she burned the book at the end.  So what was it all for?  It kind of felt like the writers did not have anything else for her to do but had to use her somehow.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  Travis was on the Trump economic team?  Yeah, definitely seems like Trump’s kind of guy and helps explain why our economy was in the toilet when Trump left office.  But I am kind of with Travis on the price surging thing, being on the side of the passengers is always the best side to be on.  But the scene with Ariana and Bill just shows what is wrong with this show, trust your actors to be able to convey those sediments, do not put subtitles on the screen.  This show is too much in all the wrong ways.  Well, except in the amount of Pearl Jam songs.

 

The Girl from Plainville:  I cannot confirm nor deny watching the REO Speedwagon scene multiple times.

 

Moon Knight:  If I am being chased by a cult who unleashes a jackal only I can see on me, I am not waiting that long to let the trained assassin living inside out. I would be perfectly fine living in glass reflections for a while if that ever happened.  But now that Steven has taken a backseat, I would be fine if he stays there for the rest of the season now.  I am kind of over his whole act after two episodes.  Give me more of the cool superhero, less of his nebbish alter ego.

 

Survivor: This season opened with a montage that showed Tori finding something.  I assumed it was the dumb phase advantage.  Except someone else on her tribe found that this week.  So what exactly does Tori find and when will she find it?  We are already six hours into the season.  We were already spoiled the results of two Tribals where they made it seem like she would go home, now we are at some buff dropping situation (I wonder if they are going to be split in two again with the odd person out once again getting the dumb turn back time advantage… except there are an even number of people this time) so it looks like she will be going to every Tribal going forward.

 

But Daniel has to go down as one of the worst Survivor contestants ever.  He played last Tribal so bad and then still managed to dig a bigger hole this week.  He even said something to the effect that he added nothing to his Tribe at the Challenge.  He did not even try to not get voted out.  Good riddance.

 

The Dropout:  I was listing to an interview with one of the producers and she said the finale changed after e-mails between Elizabeth and Sunny were released.  The original plan was to have half the episode take place at Burning Man.  The producer claims the finale was better with the change.  I whole-heartedly disagree.  Twenty minutes of watching Lizzy weirdly dancing at Burning Man sounds significantly more entertaining (it is not hard to find photos online and… oof) than what we got.  The final scene was particularly bad with the lawyer, who had to know what was going on and tried to ruin Tyler Shultz’s life, berating Lizzy after the fact.  Probably the right message, but not a great messenger.  Amanda Seyfried recently told Vanity Fair she would love to do Elizabeth again in a season two and I am all for it.  They could easily do a season on her and Sunny’s trial.  Oh, and give us a Burning Man episode.

 

Halo:  So the weird alien chick is special in some sort of way.  Although, if we told why, I missed it.  But not a good sign when your show’s most charismatic character is an AI hologram.  

 

Big Sky:  Oh no, Jinder Mahal was killed by a woman.  Oh well, I guess he can go back to his day job as jobber.  At least he is beat up by men there.  So the father is the one lacing their drugs?  I guess dude is hard up for money.  I wonder how much his white girlfriend was involved in that decision.

The Blacklist:  I did not see whoever the big bad is to kill the guy who actually kill the bartender.  Oh, and he also killed the lawyer.  So whoever is in charged seemingly does not want anyone to know where the black site is either.  But who else even knows of the black site to tell the lawyer?  I wonder if it is someone we have already met.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 3, 2022

 

Killing Eve: They really waited way too long to give an origin story of The Twelve to get me to care. And I really do not know why the cvzy French assassin was luring fireman to kill them.

 

The Walking Dead:  So we can now conclude why Stormtrooper Daryl comes to confront Maggie, and and her crew killed a bunch of other Stormtroopers because they killed some of Negan’s people for thinking they stole their weapons, but it turned out Daryl’s ex-girlfriend stole the weapons.  Well, that is complicated.  I still think Daryl is going to side with Maggie.  As for the other Daryl storyline, if the son got caught off and needs the money in the safe to keep his control, how were the Stormtroopers doing  his bidding if he had no money?

 

Billions:   So this very swanky resort has some zen chamber that flashes lights at you, but that chamber has a window letting natural light in and an open waiting room where the next guy can be heard talking on his phone.  How does this chamber not have its own sound proof room? This was a pretty cheap plot devise to inspire Chuck to rededicate his like to taking down douchebags.  And was Taylor really asking out the bland underling?  I took it as Taylor thinking about leaving the whole company, not just the party.  Then the bland chick is showering at Prince’s. Huh?  Being this is the tenth episode, I just this week remembered that Billions still does 12 episodes a season, and with this being such a filler of an episode, maybe it would be best if the show downgraded to 10 like most other shows from this era.  Or, like other shows from this era, not run on forever.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  I was beginning to worry with no Pearl Jam last episode, but we finally got another song for the end credits.   Speaking of music, as weird as it to have Pearl Jam and other 90’s alt rock song primarily soundtrack a show that took place last decade, it almost make ]s sense given Travis’ age, but much weirder to have an Olivia Rodrigo song that is half a decade from being released when that scene takes place.  But of all the actors they could have gotten from Billions to be on this show, she may have been the worst choice.  She is just so monotone it is hard to root for her.  Plus, as I said before, it is hard to take the commentary on the boys club at Uber seriously coming from a writing team that has their own boys club accusations hanging over them.

 

Snowpiercer:  I still do not understand Melanie’s motivation.  What would it hurt to look and see if the Horn of Africa was habitable?  If not, just keep going.  But I was wrong the writers just did this to make her the new antagonist for Layton, instead she turned on Wilford and agreed to split the train and let everyone decide which track they wanted to go.  Huh?  I thought Snowpiercer needed Big Alice because it no longer could produce enough heat like at the beginning of the season.  Then what was that thing at the end?  At first I thought it was a flare, maybe set off by Layton to let Melanie know that it was safe, but then it froze and kind of looked like a missile.  Could that be where Wilford went off to?

 

The Girl from Plainville:  This show is paced weirdly.  I really do not like that they started with Conrad’s death and then set up a duel timeline in the second episode.  With the two timeline, it makes it hard to tell when they are because there are no physical cues to Michelle, you just have to wait to see if Conrad is referenced in the current or past tense.  It really wished this show would have been more linear.

 

Moon Knight:  I came into this show with low expectations so I actually kind of enjoyed the episode.  Plus Ethan Hawke was giving me big Vigo the Carpathian vibes.

 

Survivor:  Why did they show us that Tori eventually finds the dumb phase advantage if they are going to send her to two Tribal Councils with an edit making it like it was her or someone else going home?  Well, of course Swati was going to be the one who goes home.  But that is three Tribal and three people using their Shot in the Dark.  And the third person to not get saved.

 

The Dropout:  Okay, that scene with lawyers at the newspaper was great.  Always nice when you can toy with lawyers.  I have been trying to avoid spoilers, but I will be really interested if the other lawyer scene with the Shultz family actually happened.

 

Halo:  The first episode was a bit of a bore.  They really should have introduced Bokeem Woodbine last week, because he may be the only interesting character on the show.

 

Big Sky: So there is someone selling tainted drugs onder the Indian’s noses?  Who could it be?  It kind of has to be the local drug dealer guy.  Unless they tie it into the storyline with Wolf and Ronald and the sex traffickers are also trafficking drugs.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 27, 2022

 

 Killing Eve:   So they went through all that trouble to set up the crazy French assassin just to let her out of prison after one scene with little issue?  Why bother arresting her at all except for a cheap cliffhanger?

 

The Walking Dead:  The writers really got too cute with the nonlinear storytelling.  They should have shown the Aaron/priest scene first because then we knew what was going to happen to the red shirt on the horse.  And I am confused by the timeline.  So red shirt runs into Negann, gets a horse, goes back to get shot, then goes to Hilltop?  Huh?  Feels like something got messed up.  And this is where Negan went?  Are we really to believe this super religious dude who have a wall of evil doer’s skulls was going to is going to let Negan live there?

 

Billions:  What I really disliked about the whole Olympics plot was that its conclusion was obvious, that Prince was not going to be able to move the games to New York since that would deviate from reality too far.  I thought Prince’s attempt to remove Chuck was just as fruitless because there is no show without in a power position.  Well, despite the rousing applause, Chuck still got ousted.  So is Chuck going to go the way of Bobby and be written off the show?  Is Chuck going to be a puppet master to his replacement?  I guess he could always run for governor.  His first run did not go well.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  I am surprised they did not make a bigger deal of Bill getting locked out of Uber.  And while I knew Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington was coming, I did not know she had a seat on the board at Uber.  But all the boy’s club antics of the show was kind of gross considering the accusation of Brian Koppleman’s other Showtime show Billions.

 

Snowpiercer:  So Melanie somehow had enough juice in her suit to walk to another train that apparently can pierce snow too despite being much smaller, then survived by going in and out of stasis.  Yet this is more believable than her turning on her daughter to rat out Layton’s plan to go to the Horn of Africa.  But I guess with Wilford locked up, there needs to be a new antagonist.

 

The Endgame:  The agents were once again stupid enough to think they got to the bomb in time.  If they knew the tech guy was in on it with the evil chick, they really should have known, that it was an act the caught the bomber in time.

 

Survivor:  Yet another episode where the editors spoil things, at least it was inadvertent this time.  But of course the Tribe that got zero scree time prior to the challenge was not going to go to Tribal.  But really bizarre that in the opening scene of the season they show us Tori finding the dumb phrase advantage yet she is going to be the last on the show to find it. 

 

But, wow, so much bad game play this week.  How do you explicitly tell someone you cannot risk losing your vote and then assume the other people will not risk their vote so you can get an Extra Vote?  Then what exactly happened with the vote?  Did Hai change his last minute from the guys voting for the guy and the girls voting for the girl?  It did not seem like he changed, so did they really go to Tribal without the votes correctly working out for them?  But Hai did the one smart thing and threaten to go the rocks.  Had he switched (and why would he if Daniel was adamant about not going to rocks as the only other vote) then he is clearly on the bottom of a five member Tribe and would be gone at next Tribal.  Not changing mean best case scenario, Daniel switches, his closes ally is safe, and Daniel is the new goat of the Tribe.  Worst case scenario, go to rocks with a one in four change of going home,   three and four chance of someone other than you or your only ally going home.  Really the only thing Daniel said or did this week was that he is not going to win.  I do not think anyone on this Tribe has a chance at this point.

 

The Dropout:  My biggest problem with shows about real life people is that I spend way too much time searching if such dumb, inconsequential events really happened.  Like did Tyler Shultz really drop out of college his senior year to go tour with Dispatch?  That was the most excited I have ever seen anyone talk about Dispatch before.

 

Big Sky:  Yeah, I was stupid for assuming multiple died last episode, especially since T-Lock was the only one we got confirmation of.  It turned out Ronald was the only one else who actually died yet.  But much like his brother, Wolf survived a bullet only to be killed by hand latter.  I wonder if there is a triplet out there.  Oh, and Scarlette somehow escaped after being stabbed in the neck.  Umm, okay.  Then it was bizarre that Ren mock the bomber for claiming he had information because everyone says that before dying, but then seemingly believed him after telling her that Stone was cop.

 

The Blacklist:  When the show is doing hot killer sex robot storylines, it is really time to end the show.  But I missed why Red wanted to investigate it when the guy with the ruby neckless was poisoned by his wife. 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 20, 2022

  

Killing Eve:  They have done a very job poor job explaining who the new Indian people are.  And now the sister has killed the brother.  Is she supposed to be the new crazy French assassin?  Then after wasting the crazy French assassin at church camp the first two episodes, now they have put her in prison.  This is just another waste of the character.  Though we know she can escape from prison.  But hey, at least they had completely unnecessary title card

 

The Walking Dead:  So the black chick with glasses was the chick talking to Eugene all along, but that chick was using a different name.  This feels like yet another set up.  And I forgot Oceanside was still a thing.  Is there anyone still there that I would remember?  I certainly did not recognize the chick who talked to the head Commonwealth lady.

 

Billions:  I was wondering a couple episodes ago where were all the gratuitous Olympics athlete cameos.  Though when I think Olympic stars, I do not really think soccer.  The World Cup is what makes soccer players stars.  But anyways.  Chuck (and reality) won, the games are going back to Los Angeles.  Maybe?  There are still four episodes left so I am not sure if Mike prince has another trick or two up his sleeves.  Or are the final four episodes just going to be him trying to get back at Chuck.  But what I found most interesting was that Kopelman was not able to get a Jay-Z song for when he performed at the Uber party, but was able to license Jay-Z for his other show.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  Wait; was there any proof that Uber got caught hacking phones and cameras of Lyft’s users?  Whenever an app asks if they can have access to a bunch of other apps, I usually gloss over and blindly click okay when I should be more selective, but there is a huge difference if you access someone else’s app.  That should put a lot of people behind jail.  And if there is no proof, that seems pretty liable.  While the show could not get Jay-Z and Beyoncé, or even their music, did they really get Mark Cuban to play himself turning Travis down?  That is a pretty big get even if he did not specifically turn down investing in Uber.  I have not been following the Uber story (but I at the very least knew Uber was not going to buy out Lyft) so I was petty shocked when Travis locked out Bill.  Travis vs. Bill seems like it will be much better than what the first couple episodes have been.

 

 Snowpiercer:  So the new chick is dead already?  What a waste of what could have been an interesting character.  We barely saw her, she rarely interacted with anyone, and now she is dead. 

 

The Endgame:  So the lasers stopped when they hit the floor.  No one thought to put something they could crawl under between the laser and the floor that they could get through?  But that the evil people went through all that just to back people up so they would find the secret safe was pretty funny.

 

Survivor:  That challenge was confusing, having two pairs from each team on the course at the same time just made it hard to figure out who was who and who was ahead.  It was not until everything was corrected until I figured out what was going on.  But I never understand why people just do not boot annoying people first.  Why do you (potentially) want to spend the whole game with them?  I get you want to sit next to them at the end, but if you are thinking that, so is everyone else.  Best to get these people out early.

 

Resident Alien: Wait, so even if half human, they would still have to worry about baby alien eating other humans?  That is gross.  Though it never actually ate a human.  But I do wonder if the two cops heard that gunshot.

 

The Dropout:  So this week’s notable actors that just randomly pop up are Jack son from Lost and the comic book store owner from The Big Bang Theory.  We still got some Walgreens, so hopefully my hope for a spin-off is still alive.  But poor chemist, killing himself to avoid everything.  Though if you are stuck between an NDA and being under oath in a court of law, doesn’t US Government supersede a private NDA?  At least consult a lawyer.  NDA seem to violate First Amendment rights.

 

Big Sky: Why did the doctor give Ronald the adrenaline he needed just to kill Scarlett?  Give him something poisonous and then kill her.  Oh well, at least they are both dead… I think.  Drew Carey’s brother seemingly died twice only to survive (and maybe will a third time).  Though, at least T-Lock is dead-dead.  I guess we will have to wait for confirmation of everyone else.