The Twenty Best Television Shows of 2019-2020

1. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist 1.x

2. The Great 1.x

3. Harley Quinn 1.x/2.x

4. The Good Place 4.x

5. Looking for Alaska 1.x

6. Dollface 1.x

7. Veronica Mars 4.x

8. Watchmen 1.x

9. Dickinson 1.x

10. G.L.O.W. 3.x

11. Castle Rock 2.x

12. Harlots 3.x

13. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 3.x

14. Normal People 1.x

15. The Outsider 1.x

16. Love Life 1.x

17. Little Fires Everywhere 1.x

18. This Way Up 1.x

19. Homeland 8.x

20. Impulse 2.x


Shows that aired a majority of their season between July 2019 and August 2020 were eligible for this list.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 15, 2019

Ray Donovan: So we are normalizing herpes now? Okay. But I hope that Bunchy throwing something away at the hospital was a sign he is not going to go with the white supremacist. Dude does have a black brother and all. So Mickey went to some tropical place only to return to New York to set up some time share scam? Please just put, and keep this guy in prison or kill him off.

Supergirl/Crisis on Infinite Earths: Of wow, they got Lucifer Morningstar and Arli$$. That was pretty shocking. Although I am not sure we needed a full minute on the Birds of Prey Earth. The Lucifer was somewhat shocking. I did read on I believe Men’s Health of all places that he would be included but I was not really going to believe television gossip I see on Men’s Health.

Makes me wonder who else will show up. Wonder Woman’s Linda Carter and Lois and Clark’s Teri Hatcher have both already appeared in previous seasons of Supergirl, and goodness knows the crossover needs a Wonder Woman presence because it is laughable in all the Earths there is not one. Granted, we did see Titans which had Wonder Girl who referenced Diana so there is definitely at least one Wonder Woman. Kind of an oversite of Harbinger who supposedly rounded up the greatest Superheroes of the multiverse. And are there no Batmen under fifty? We saw a broken down (and kind of gay) Batman of another Earth who apparel looks like Earth 1’s Batman. Then there is Michael Keaton and Sir Jorah Mormont. The Supermen are no spring chickens, but all three we saw are under fifty. There was a rumor the Gotham Batman may show up but he is on the other end of the age spectrum of being two young but that was a website I trust even less than Men’s Heath for my TV news.

So we got two seconds on the Titans’ Earth. I wonder if we will get a Doom Patrol sighting. I am mostly curious to see if they place that show on the Titans Earth or confirm what we were watching was on a slightly different Earth. There was some casting change and they gave Negative Man a completely different attitude from the Titans episode. The also completely ignored Beast Boy who has been living with them for a while and the only Titans reference was a magazine article.

Okay, fun fan service aside, that third episode was confusing. I have no idea what that whole treadmill thing was about and the Green Arrow in purgatory was a bit confusing too? So Olivier is giving up live to become the new Spectre. And the old one just came out of nowhere. And just how did they come up with those paragons? With Lex Luther, that makes four of the seven from Supergirl. I missed why Martian Manhunter was one because that dude just disappeared. Then one is an Asian scientist with no powers because… um, diversity? The only other person of color was a green dude from Mars (um, if all the other Earths are now gone, are all the Mars gone too?). I hope the last two episodes make sence because the crossover is almost as confusing as the actual comic it was based on.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: Here is the problem with beings that are too powerful, I am left wondering why Dr. Manhattan did not zap him and Angela out of there instead of staying and fighting when he knew how that was going to end with him being zapped with the teleporter? He just zapped his kids a couple minutes earlier. But at least we got conformation of Ozymandias was put in his place by Dr. Manhattan but not a prison like most people thought but actually but as reward. Granted, I suspect that Dr. Manhattan knew that it would not be viewed as paradise very long.

Shameless: In ten seasons, it is kind of surprising they have not done the character was mad that they were the only one not molested by the town pervert before. Or maybe they did and I already forgot about it. Really after ten seasons, it is surprising the writers have not run out of messed up storylines yet.

Mr. Robot: Where has Bobby Canivalle been all this time? I have spent most of the season assuming he was dead. Kind of the same for the rapper, I definitely forgot he switched sides. Unless that was a big surprise. But what a silly rom-com ending except the two lovebirds missed each other. This show is really overthinking everything this season.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: So are they not going to get the Daemons that were in the cages in hopes of maybe someday reuniting them with their humans?

Castle Rock: Well there goes my prediction that Joy ended up being the Annie Wilkes from the Misery book. I was also waiting to see who the author was, I thought they might make it Stephen King himself, but alas no shots of his face. But it was painfully obvious Joy was dead, she was just too happy after being “revived.” Weird we got one random shot of the creepy kid from season one but he did not figure into anything. Then there was a random missing flyer of Henry Deaver in Canada. Was that supposed to be an Easter egg or are we to believe someone actually put that up in a Canadian gas station? No post credits scene so I guess we will have to wait until season three to see if they dip back into the original story.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: Well after forking things up all season, they finally removed Dan right before the finale. And did it because an off camera incident with someone who was not a contestant. Of course this led to rampant speculation on the internet until some website claims they had multiple sources that Dan grabbed a producer’s leg betting into a boat after a challenge. So grabbing Noura’s arm to claim how innocent the action was is okay, but goodness, cannot touch anyone in production. Oh well, at least we know for sure he is not winning.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: Kind of a borefest like most finales on the show, and honestly, I spent most of the episode searching for what Dan did. But hey, at least Paulie and Cara Maria lost after decimating their team.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Almost Family: Well that was certainly a shocking ending. Of all the children he has fathered, the one Leon did not was the one he raised. Which begs the question, does he know? Clearly they did not need any sort of treatment but obviously he was definitely not shooting blanks. Weird that they set up this big weird family but now we know Juila is not blood related to her “sisters.”
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

Stumptown: So Grey’s girlfriend turned out to be evil. Meh, and I kind of liked her. But what a weird plan to get rid of Dex. To assume that Grey would exile her but forgive did not seem like the best plan to me.
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.

The Blacklist: I thought last week would have made for a pretty good “fall finale” but then they really end with Lizzie’s mother being gunned down in the street… except not. Kind of extreme. And I did not get why Lizzie was so quick to side with her mother. She had been lying to her this whole time, had a dude tied up in her apartment, killed a dude in the vicinity of her kid, but lizzie still rescued her to safety.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 8, 2019

Ray Donovan: Oh no Daryl, I fear that the cop asking if she could hold on to the VIP pass was a test and he failed. If you were such a fan you should not part with the merch that easily. Then if Micky not dying was not annoying enough now they are pretending that he is going to the Maldives as is he is not going to return later this season.

Supergirl: So Martian Manhunter’s brother is going back to Mars and Assistant Director Skinner is defeated? Hopefully they do not revive either storyline after Crisis and also recon Lena into not irrationally hating Supergirl, or at the very least give a ready to hate.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: Last week I read an article that ran down a bunch of popular Reddit theories, most so convincing they almost felt like spoilers. The last one they posted was so stupid that I kind of rolled my eyes at how non plausible it was: Cal is really Dr. Manhattan. Then Lady Truie mentioned Dr. Manhattan was in Tulsa, and I thought, oh now. Then she mentioned how Angela did not react to that new and I thought, well fork, this is why I do not read fan theories. Earlier, Lady Truie mentioned her father will be joining her soon, and her father was also one of the popular fan theories that is also going to be right.

Shameless: Oh hey, Xanthippe Lannister Voorhees. But it was weird to see her play poor. I wonder if she will be back (I had to look her up to see if she was on the show before Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and that is how she knew Debbie, she was not… man this show has been on for a while). I was sad to see Mikey go so she could get free health care, but then I realize, oh, he could just run into Ian.

Mr. Robot: So we get multiple shots of Angela in the “Previously On,” White Rose says she is alive, yet she does not show up at all. Meh. I have always thought White Rose’s end game was some sort of time machine but I guess we will not find that out. Or will we? I wonder if White Rose put on the make up and dress so (s)he will get arrested in what (s)he thinks is its true form or if it was to evade the police some how.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: So that kid is like the male, real world version of Lyra? I wonder if we already met his father. I wonder if they gave us any good looks at family photos, but I do not care enough to rewatch.

Castle Rock: So where exactly is the creepy dude from the first season? When he was gone from his cage earlier this season I thought the old body snatchers took him. So did Henry take him somewhere? They did snatch his mother’s body I presume looking for answers so maybe he will show up in the finale.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: It seems like every season there is someone who is clearly on the bottom on their alliance and we the viewers scream at the television to flip and they rarely do unless they do one of those pecking order challenges. Dean was clearly that person this season, going as far as trying to form an anti-goat alliance not realizing he has not done anything to win yet this season. But after the loved one’s visit, it became abundantly clear that he was fifth in a four person alliance. And it worked out perfectly because Noura and Karishma were the only people he had a chance at beating this season. Then he inexplicably tells Tommy he is the target, sending home Karishma. Just when you thought this season could not get any worse…
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: So the Brits get a ten minute penalty for interference, but the Americans seemed to be doing a lot of interfering too and I thought TJ say they no one could carry the stuff individually. Granted they still have not gotten to TJ yet, so that may be coming.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Stumptown: Well, cannot say I blame Dex for that.
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.

The Blacklist: o Red shows up when Katerina was supposed to show up and misses her… too cute. But at least they ended this charade when Lizzie figured it out. Too bad they gave the conclusion to that confirtation in the “Next Time On…”
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 1, 2019

Ray Donovan: So Micky was burned beyond recognition? Well at least they did not drag it out very long to reveal he was not really dead considering it was extremely obvious he was not. Now they just need to explain how he survived such a huge fireball. But hey, if Micky is “dead” Ray should easily be able to get his prints to take the fall for that murder.

Watchmen: Hooded Justice was black? Did not see that coming. Although I did see after the episode someone pointed out that Lou Gossett Jr. had the same color scheme early in the season so it is not that they did not telegraph it. I kind of wish that Angela was the POV the whole time, that would have been more interesting. I also wish we had gotten more of his life than just that short few months… Unless Angela is still under the Nostalgia and that ending was how Lady Truie met Hooded Justice. That would explain how she got out of police custody.

The Walking Dead: So Michonne is just going to leave her small children to help that dude back home? Huh? Almost a big question as how Daryl and everyone is going to get out of their predicament.

Shameless: So a week after shiving a dude in the sick ward, Ian is up for parole? Then to hurt his parole chances, he tries to shiv someone else? Although the best part of the episode was when I realized Debbie did not forget to load the debit cards but instead they were all garnished by the government for unpaid debt.

Mr. Robot: RIP Janice, but you really kind of annoying. Otherwise, felt like huge filler episode.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: Wow, it just seems like Lin-Manual Miranda is on a completely different show. I mean, both his show and the main show are bad, but just a different kind of bad.

Castle Rock: Strangulation by stethoscope… had we not seen someone this season shove an ice cream scooper down someone’s throat, that would have been a pretty imaginative self-defense scene. Interesting the episode description said, “Annie sees things for what they are.” Considering she saw her long dead mother and a waterfall that came out of a mirror. But maybe it says that because she is the only one who is not under the cult’s spell as even Joy is not walking in step. But annie is legit crazy, I wonder what is so special about the doctor? Is it just that you have to see the statue to be enthralled by it? But a surprisingly short episode, about thirty-five minutes, even less than a network drama without commercials.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: Idols have been out of control for a while now and two of the last seasons featured someone who went on a three or longer Idol run until Idols were no longer available to play, but at this point I really hope Karishma somehow finds an Idol every week and somehow finds herself in the final (but I fear she will be more like Rick than Ben in the fire making challenge) and manages to win the whole things. Only her or Janet are the only ones from this season that would land them in the bottom five winners of all time list.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: Poor Nany, Smashley gets lost and she still cannot solve a simple Sudoku puzzle. But I wonder if she would have turncoat because the Brits with only one actual Brit clearly look like the better team at this point. Of course it would serve Cara Maria and paulie right to get beat by people who they tried to get rid of.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Almost Family: What a nice treat of back to back episode. The Thanksgiving episode may be the best so far.
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

Titans: When they said one Titan would fall, New Robin seemed obvious considering he famously “died” in the funny books. Except they already threw him out of a window to certain death only to be saved by Superboy in the next episode. Hawk seemed like the next most likely so he could be sacrifice himself and redeemed for his bad behavior. Why I put any thought into might happen because who actually died was completely outside the realm of reason. First of all it, it took forever for that pillar to fall, Lyla Garrity could not get two people out of harm’s way in ten seconds? Then, instead of using her super-speed to hold up the pillar, how about Super Girl using her super-speed to move people out of harm’s way instead of holding the pillar? And can a little electricity really kill an Amazon? Aren’t they Gods? Ugg, what makes things worse is she was the second best part of the show. But is she really dead-dead? Raven pretty easily healed Starfire and says her powers are evolving. And of course this is DC so I am sure there is a Lazarus Pit somewhere. Hopefully she shows up next season somehow.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: November 24, 2019

Ray Donovan: The back and forth of Ray hating and helping his father got played out a couple season ago and I have long thought the show would be much better without Mickey, but I am shocked that they may do the show without him. I say “may” because even though the explosion was so big it could be seen miles away, I will not believe Mickey is dead until I see his corpse. And even then I may not believe because the bodies may be too charred. We also know that back door was broke, he could have slipped out when he saw the tanker coming at him.

Supergirl: What the fork is going on with Lena? Ehy is she so mad at someone who keeps saving her life? This plot just makes no sense. Okay I get being mad at first but after she saves your life, maybe it is time to forgive her?
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: Some well circulated fan theories turned out to be well founded this week. First is that Ozymandias is being jailed on the moon by Dr. Manhattan. Okay, we do not know exactly who put Ozymandias hidden on the moon, but who else has that ability? The other which seemed far-fetched at the time was that the senator was 7th Kalvery. I mean he almost got kidnapped by one of them. Although he claimed to join to keep the peace in Tulsa with Don Johnson controlling the police. So did he orchestrate his kidnapping or did does the 7th Kalvery do not know that is him under the mask. Clearly none of the masks are fooling anyone.

The Walking Dead: Here is the problem with the last couple seasons of the show: I do not care about any of these new people For the last couple episode, the doctor guy kept on having dreams which left me wondering, is this guy important now? He just seemed like a background character; got a little more screen time and now he is dead. And I am not entirely sure who killed him. That guy looked vaguely familiar but am not sure why.

Shameless: Debbie was able to guilt someone out of sexual pleasures? And then uses that lesson to ease up on the male parts of the family? Alrighty.

Mr. Robot: Well this show got really depressing fast. Although if his father was doing that to him, why did Elliot use his likeness as another personality? Seems like a weird choise. And where did the therapist go at the end where she was able to get a knife and killing drug dealer guy. Did I fall asleep? But I thought for sure that the therapist was going to make her big reveal a third personality. They seemed to drop that big reveal from earlier this season.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: Wait, do those Deamon things just go up in smoke if their owner dies? And dude just throws himself down an elevator shaft, seems extreme.

Castle Rock: I kind of had to assume that the dude who was hooking up with the main witch was who the dude Annie killed ended up being, but they really had to make that abundantly clear with the first scene in present day. If it not for the subtitles, I would not have mind if that was the whole episode. But we finally got Tim Robbins to Shawshank (though I thought they said early in the season it was shut down, but since his brother-in-law said he was back, maybe it was reopened).

We get our first real tangible link to season one and… um, so what happened to the creepy dude from last season? He just disappeared? Did he somehow go back to the other dimension? But he was the leader of the cult this whole time? Is he going to be resurrected like the other cult members? Is that why he is still around, because he just keeps on being resurrected? And then since he is a higher being he gets to keep his same form? And what about Henry Dever? We do not even get a mention of him. I kind of have to re-watch the first season.

But we did get an answer to why the cult did not just nab Annie already; it apparently has to be on the anniversary. But one more big answer I want to know is just what do these body snatchers know about their former bodies? Ace seemingly knew to visit his father, but was it just to get to where the creepy cell was? But as many questions that were answered, they just set up a bunch more. Hopefully they can finish this season stronger than the last.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: If handy Dan did not go home, I guess Misty and Aaron were decent
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: Stupid promo monkeys giving me false hope that Cara Maria and Paulie could go home in one fell swoop. Though it was apropos that Joss got eliminated when he stupidly kept Kaleigh over Georgia a couple weeks ago and was party to throwing the challenge last week that eliminated that chick whose name I have already forgotten.. I do wonder if having so few people will actually benefit the “Brits” (with one whole Brit left), kind of a less cooks in the kitchen situation. So we have one more female elimination before the finale. I take it that it will end up being Tori vs, Nany no matter what? Meh, this season is so boring.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Almost Family: Okay, Brittany Snow’s new ring tone was just hilarious.
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

Stumptown: So has Friendsgiving just been three people up to this point? Do Dax and the other dude not have any other friends? Where was food truck guy?
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.

The Good Place: It is episodes like this that makes me made that we are not getting ten seasons of this show because they really could have had a bunch of seasons that were just reboots. I would have really enjoyed an entire season with Chidi’s soulmate being the goth chick. Though I have to wonder why Vicki and her acting chops did not demand that role.
You can download The Good Place on iTunes.

The Blacklist: I think the new chick is basically the viewer at this point. Just a great addition to the cast pointing out the stupidity of it all at every turn. Though she was not there in the bathroom to point out the stupisity of that scene. So just how did Lizzy’s mom get that body out of a public restroom without being noticed and did she not have cleaners to eliminate any trace of the body afterward?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: November 17, 2019

Supergirl: No Dreamer, no Alex’s girlfriend, very little Brainiac 5… and we may have had the best episode since Saturn Girl went back to the future. Sure, Andréa’s mask was a little too generic, I thought that was Dreamer for a split second.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: So crazy rick Asian build her clock in Oklahoma away from the coasts where there is more likely nuclear attacks occur and earthquakes… but isn’t Tulsa right smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley? Of course we already know what she says is not necessary the whole reason behind what she does as seen by her introduction. But she shoots to the top of the list of who imprison Ozymandias in what they certainly implied was on the moon this week.

The Walking Dead: So what is Negan’s game? He is telling the Whispers he wants to be with them but I feel he is just saying that. I do not really seeing him put Rick’s kid in danger no matter how much barbed wire he wraps around his bat.

Shameless: Oh my, are they really going to kill off Lip’s baby mama? Granted he will not be the only single parent in the household.

Mr. Robot: I feel like I missed something. So we first see the FBI agent pointing her gun at Darla. Last week I thought they ended with her seeing the two in the car, when did she get to the apartment? Or was I not paying attention last week because I was bored that there was no dialogue?
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: Wait, this whole story is taking in an alternative universe from our own and there is a portal to get here? Okay, after being bored the first week, that was kind of interesting.

Castle Rock: So the cult of the centuries old invasion of the body snatchers people do not bother to secure their snatchee’s? And they do not have to kill the people first? The first dude was definitely dead. Although now I am wondering how he was resurrected. Was just falling into the crypt enough to resurrect whatever snatched his body but everyone else has to go through that casket process? And just why are they waiting to kidnap Annie to be the vessel for their leader? And is because she killed that dude with an ice cream scooper the reason she is the best candidate?

But the bigger new in Castle Rock was the arrival of Annie’s step-mom, who promptly gets shot. But hey, we do know she can survive trauma to the gut because that was about where Annie stabbed her. Or maybe she will body snatched and survive that way. But who was Jot saying mom too? She does not want to call Annie her sister which makes me think she would not be ready to call the new lady mom. And what was the plan after she sedated her real mother? Just go back on the run with Annie? With the cops involved (and four episodes left) they clearly are not going anywhere soon now.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: I had a lot to say on Twitter while this was happening and I really do not want to relive these two hour so just head there to get my thoughts if you do not already follow me.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: I really wanted T.J., famously hates quitters to lay into the Brits for just blatantly throwing a challenge. Really, they should institute a rule that if you are caught throwing a challenge you are automatically thrown into elimination, even switch the gender week if you have to. The show has just let these people ruin this season by pulling this crap. Sure it looks like they are finally doing something about it next week (though if they eliminate the two black players due to a swimming challenge that will be a bad look), hopefully it is not too late to save this season. Although this season is starting to look much better now airing after Survivor.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Almost Family: Brittney Snow being ashamed by doing just completely moronic this really is the best part of this show.
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

The Good Place: Wait, the Blogger got 44% better over the year? How? I know we only saw about two and a half hours of the experiment but he ended by spreading gossip and fleeing when someone fell into a hole. Maybe since he started at so a low floor it was hard to get worse. But how does that explain Brett who got progressively worse until the final second when he started to apologize to get him to negative one percent. Although if the goal of this experiment was to get better, The Bad Place should have gotten great people who had very little room for improvement. Although now that the judge is going for a full reboot, should be interesting what comes next. I am going to go out on a limb and predict Team Cockroach finds a way to save humanity.
You can download The Good Place on iTunes.

Titans: Um, just how did Batman managed to get the female Titans to the same place at the same time? And why not try to get New Robin, Hawk, or Beast Boy there? Was it just so they could make the mansplaining joke? And why not just break out him out yourself or just have Bruce Wayne buy Old Robin’s release? Or was Bruce really there, he was still acting weird like in Old Robin’s fever dreams. Scarecrow toxin?

Then New Robin just randomly quoting maybe the fifth best West Side Story song was weird. Maybe more weird than him forking Deathstroke’s daughter. And with Rose telling her father she is out, did they just confirm we are in the middle of Judas Contact?

The Blacklist: Playing babies in anti-abortion crusaders… that is just a bit extreme. Of course the evangelical kept it and the politician did not. Although if the rapist was the biological father, where did the eggs come from? The crazy doctor? And just how can the baby survive in a man?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: November 10, 2019

Supergirl: This whole season makes little sense with the Lena storyline, but the sentient tattoos made the season even more nonsensical. And I do not even want to talk about the Doc Oct rip-off in the Robocop helmet.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: Silk Specter made this episode a little less boring than the previous ones.

The Walking Dead: So Negan has his leather jacket back and a new bat. And then got captured by the Whispers. Maybe for the first time since being captured, the writers are going to finally give him something to do.

The Affair: Starting off the series finale with a flash dance. A flash dance with Helen’s neighbor that her boyfriend knocked up and then flew her across the country for her daughter’s wedding. Then there was just a random dude that I did not realize who it was until Noah mentioned his name and I finally realized, oh, that is the oldest son we have not seen since maybe the first season.

Then we finally got what I have been waiting for all season, Joanie meets a Soloway. I thought she may have bumped into one of the Soloway children, but no, she met an old Noah (in old man make-up that was very obvious him) who now owning the Lobster Roll. But what I never say coming was that the creepy reporter Joanie forked was Vic’s kid who gave a Spaceball’s explanation of how he was vaguely related to Joanie. Kind of made the whole series worth it for that scene alone.

But what a weird ending. This season seemed to be about Noah’s chickens coming home to roost set upon the backdrop of #MeToo. We the viewers knew some of those stories were made up and over-exaggerated, but Noah was still a pretty huge pervert who deserved some shame. But then they ended on a redemptive note, Noah outlive both his wives (I thought he was talking to Alison at the end; oh, and Helen’s mom lived to 100?), none of his children get even a mention in the future, and then he get the final shot doing the flash dance he choreographed as the final scene. But I kind of wish the whole season was this weird. The show set itself up as a super-serious piece of “art” but we never really got an explanation of two way some of the acts were wildly different telling of the same event. I guess Occam’s Razer is that was just how that person remembers things.

Mr. Robot: It only took me twelve minutes to realize, oh wait, no one is talking. Then two minutes later the guard whistled at Darla and I just rolled my eyes at the lengths they were going to pull off the now dialogue. Kind of a lame gimmick to pull off with so little time left. At least the one shot episode last season served a purpose and was by far the best non-season one episode. There were just too many times where there really should have been some dialogue. And I was a bit confused at where they broke into. Did this company just have a Soul Cycle open on Christmas Day?
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: This is the second attempt at adapting the books, the first bombed so bad it took down an entire movie studio. But after watching the first episode, maybe the book just is not something that should be adapted; the whole daemon thing just does not look good on screen and just comes across as weird when you see it in living color. And so far it is kind of confusing. I kind of need a Game of Thrones type map title sequence to give me an idea of where this is. Plus, and I really supposed to be scared of the chick from The Africa?

Castle Rock: Well, how Annie turned out the way she did makes much more sense now. Oh geez. Although her obsession with the song Let the River Run has a much darker context now. But from the moment that Rita started to show, I thought, oh no, is Annie going to kill her and steal her baby? Though I never thought that Joy could be her half-sister. Granted when we saw Annie’s wanted poster, it was only for murder, it did not say anything about kidnapping. But what I do not understand is where did Joy get the book. Did Annie just keep a copy this whole time; transfer it from computer to computer all this time?
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: There have been plenty of dumb advantages but whatever they offered Janice may have been the worst. You get the triple wammie of not being trusted for playing it, not being able to vote, and then not even being able to view tribal Council. The Kellee was one of the most interesting plays in the history of the show. Then she managed to pull it off flawlessly and even had one unintended consequence of Jamal burning his Idol which then should put a target on his back which she clearly wants. As long as Dean does not blab about it, this may go down as one of the best moves in the history of the show. But she was one of four people targeted in the promo so maybe it will end up backfiring.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: So now the British team has four actual British players and four non-Brits? It is a shame more people did not defect earlier. Really, Georgia, Bear, and Theo should have defected a long time ago when they realized they were never going to gain the numbers. But it will be funny if Cara/Paulie keep on sending in Americans who beat a Brit and then the “British” team then beats the Americans.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

The Good Place: Oh wow, they finished the new experiment half way through the season. So what next (the title of the next episode seems like it could be a spoiler… or just something Jason says… or maybe both)? You got Simone and the blogger MIA, did they freeze or did they go so far that they are not affected? Could they have found their way to The Bad Place (or been kidnapped by Sean) and have to be rescued? That would be too close to last episode though. Ugg, they usually they give us a teaser of what to come instead of a huge cliffhanger like this.
You can download The Good Place on iTunes.

Titans: So did Raven know the gargoyle was going to go off and kill that dude or was it an unintended consequence? And just when is Old Robin going to get out of prison and how? Kind of seems like he know how but moneybags Bruce could always donate a win to get his release. Him just abandoning everyone just seems weird and these last too episodes just seems like a waste of time while they stall for the finale.

The Blacklist: So the baddie of the week was… a computer? Alrighty. But no fall out from Aram stealing the nametag from Red’s buddy. I thought for sure his new lady friend was nefarious, maybe she just is a thrill seeker and that was a complete coiuncidence.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: November 3, 2019

Watchmen: So we actually got a quick answer to kind of a silly question from the premiere, how do two black people have three white children. Everything else was mostly confusing and still kind of boring.

The Affair: Ooo, our very first duel perspective… whatever that means. I am still not entirely what different things happening during different acts means. When it went back to Noah, I was convinced Helen was dead. But are we officially done with Joanie now? She has been absent for a couple episodes now and there is just one left.

Mr. Robot: Wait, Tyrell does not want to be killed by The Dark Army so he just walked away to bleed out to death in the wood? But I guess whatever that glowing thing will save him. But that storyline was still better than the FBI storyline where she pleasured herself to sleep on Christmas Eve where she dreamed about being killed by the Dark Army.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

Castle Rock: I do not think Pops is done as done as the doctor thinks. I think that he can be reborn like his nephew. It was all but confirmed this week that is not the same nephew since his dog, who has better sense than Ace, wanted to attack him. But what exactly is he and what exactly does he know of Ace’s life? And what are these invasion of the body snatchers type people’s obsession with eggs? He did mention this started four hundred years ago and we learned that some thought it was witches while others think Satanist. But neither are known for body snatching.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: They did a good job making me wonder which way Aaron was going… right up until the point where he did not reciprocate dude’s fist bump. I do not even care if that was kind of a huge spoiler because it was just so forking hilarious. Not quite, “Natalie, can I have your jacket?” but it was up there.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: I understand having an alliance with the other team to keep yourself from going in, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and that was a colossal dumb move by Joss. I get Kayleigh, she is the weakest and she needs to stick around by any means necessary, but for Joss to put in Georgia instead of Smashley just handed the Americans the win right there. Had he picked Smashley, best case scenario, the Americans loose two strong players and you gain one, worst case scenario, the U.S. loses one and you stand pat. Instead you risk the truly worst case scenario which would have been Georgia going home and Tori staying with the U.S. Picking Smashley may have been the only way the Brits could have win, yet Joss stupidly stayed loyal to people who will not be sharing their winning with him.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

The Good Place:Mmmm, Michael let Bad Janet go. Kind of makes me think if the whole show has been a test for Michael to see if demons can be reformed.
You can download The Good Place on iTunes.

Titans: So if Starfire is now mad that her sister is queen, why did she leave and refused to return when summoned? Makes about as much sense as Batman not having voice mail. But why even wait until Superboy woke up? Why didn’t Old Robin call him when he arrived to let Superman know?

The Blacklist: So Aram just happened to crash the same wedding and just so happened to get the nametag as Red’s buddy? There has to be something else to his lady friend. She was a part of that death club so she is not above shady things.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Previewing Castle Rock: Season Two

Though Stephen King himself was not involved, the first season of Castle Rock, based on King’s works with more Easter Eggs than most people could count, had the hallmarks of a Stephen King novel in that it had a very high concept, two outstanding episodes, some slow moving ones, and ultimately a pretty mediocre ending. One thing the first season was a true iconic King character, sure there was an old version of Alan Pangborn and Jack Torrance’s niece.

The show seemingly set up season two with an end credits scene with the niece heading out west, presumably to Overlook Hotel. Instead the show remains in the titular town though no one from the first season shows up in the second season (that I have spotted anyway, halfway through). Granted they did set up multiple universes in the first season, so we may not even be in one of the two universes we saw last season. But there are references to the Warden killing himself and fires that happened last year. But the setting is the same, we do see the bridge that Ruth jumped off and the bar Jackie Torrance hung out in. Though Shawshank Prison has been shut down.

So no familiar faces this season but there is one very familiar famous name: Annie Wilkes. Yes the main character of Misery and made famous on screen by Kathy Bates. Lizzy Caplain (Cloverfield) is a younger version of the character still rocking the same shoulder length hair cut (flashbacks shows Annie has been wearing the same hairstyle from grade school). Oh and she is also crazy with fits of anger.

We are introduced to Annie and her daughter Joy (I have a bold prediction about her at the end of the review) and they are running away from something with Annie taking temp nursing jobs along the way to get some money and steal some anti-psychotics to keep her sane. But a car crash in Castle Rock, now celebrating its four hundredth anniversary, forces the duo to stay a little longer than Annie would like.

Annie has multiple run in with Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) and his family while in town. Everyone calls him “Pops” though no children of his own, he did help raise two nephews and two Somali refugees who lost their parents to war. Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire) plays the nephew who rents out a place for Annie to stay and is in a blood feud with his “brother” who lives in Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot is also a part of this season as well of the theme of rebirth… I think, Annie is not proving to be a reliable narrator) who both want a part of Pops’ minor crime racket and is portrayed by Barkhad Abdi (who utted the iconic line, "I am the captain now" in Captain Philips).

Season two of Castle Rock is a little more even that its predecessor which means there is nothing as great as the two stand out (though a fifth episode flashback comes close) but there are no boring parts that plagued parts of last season. The new season is missing a Jackie Torrance character; Jane Levy sure added some much needed levity to the show. But this is a very different type of story and different type of storytelling because it is at times if we are seeing Annie’s psychotic breaks or if what she (and the audience) seeing something that is actually happening. Still, Lizzy Caplan is great in the role as she knows she is slowly going crazy no matter how hard she tries to avoid it.

But here is my bold prediction; Lizzie Caplan is not the Annie Wilkes we read about in the books, after this Annie dies, her daughter takes the name and goes on to torture authors. Or maybe she will meet up with Jackie Torrance out west and we will eventually get a Castle Rock season populated by all relative of famous Stephen King characters.

The first three episodes of Castle Rock are on Hulu today with a new episode premiering every Wednesday.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 9/16/2018

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Well that was a confusing challenge. Why did the people who got the most bags get rewarded by having more disgusting food?
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Castle Rock: One of the biggest critiques of Stephan King is that, even though he comes up with some great idea, he at times is not very good at finishing his stories. So it should not be that much of a surprise that show inspired by King, though had a great twist in episode in episode nine, was a bit of a let down by the time the final credits rolled. It felt like we ended right back at where we started with The Kid back in his cage but now it is Henry keeping him there instead of the Warden.

We never did get a confirmation if The Kid’s story of the alternative universe was real or not. We did learn that it was, in fact, Henry that pushed his father off the cliff, but we did not see what happened to him after that. I actually thought they were going towards the Henrys going back to the other world with Black Henry being stuck there in a cage for the next twenty-five years until he could find his way back to his world.

Then after the start of the credits we finally got some quality Jackie. She was the best part of the early episodes but just disappeared for long stretches only to return to wield an axe like her uncle. But what exactly was that last scene? Was it just one big Easter Egg because it seemed like all her character was this season? Or was it a teaser for season two and the show will follow her out west to where the story she was writing began? The Overlook Hotel (home of The Shining) is out west in Colorado. After not appearing in much of the first season, I would definitely look forward to a Jane Levy-focused second season.
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 9/2/2018

Sharp Objects: Last week they made a pretty convincing argument that Adora was in fact a serial murder, killing her own kid along with two local girls more recently. I was slightly disappointed because I was convinced all the way back that Amma was the killer. Of course the one thing that bugged me was they never really explained why Adora would mutilate the bodies by ripping their teeth out. My suspension was right because big twists at the end: I was right in thinking Amma was super creepy this whole time because she did end up killing those girls. The show was a rare murder mystery that cleared up all the loose ends and even managed to explain away all the red herrings. Okay I had to have it explained to me that in the brief flashes at the end was Amma killing one of the girls in the guest house where they found the girl’s blood, I totally missed that. And I am kind of left wondering just what the Sherriff knew about Adora and Amma. It was implied he knew about the Munchhausen by Proxy and I always took him dismissing the Woman in White theory because women cannot pull teeth as kind of deflecting of what he knew or at least assumed happened. I guess the only other loose end I have is who dumped the bike?

Fear the Walking Dead: Wait, the hurricane did not actually blow Morgan away did it? Or did someone actually drive him across state lines during a hurricane? Did he just sleep through the whole thing? I feel like I missed something.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Oh my goodness, they actually played Jozea’s single. And it was just as bad as expected. I actually went to YouTube the next day and after it aired and after five months, the video had less than a thousand views. If this is the job Jozea was talking about, he is really going to need to find another one. Just please do not think you can be the next Johnny Bananas. I would not mind if this was the last season for both of you.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Castle Rock: Well Jackie finally got to partake in the horrors that happen in her time. But did she whack that guy with a wood axe or a fireman axe? Oh and Molly died in the woods. Wait, what? We have seen her interact with many different people so she is not a ghost. Was she brought back to life? Is just everyone in this town dead already? And is Henry really the “Black Death” or was the prisoner being locked up is what is truly behind what is cause people to murder?
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/25/2018

Before I get into the week that was on television, I would be remised not to mention the biggest television news of the week: a Veronica Mars reboot is reportedly coming to Hulu with Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas (and other original cast members being negotiating). In the immortal words of Bart Scott: Can’t wait! Really, 2019 is shaping up to a dream year for me with the probibility of reboots of Veronica Mars, Alf, a Deadwood movie, Zombieland 2, and live action Black Manta. Since I am greedy, let me suggest some things that hopefully I can will into existence for 2019: reboots of Quantum Leap, My Two Dad, anything by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, or Hannibal) and give another chance to the Indian chick version of The Greatest American Hero. Brittany Snow cast in the movie version of Supergirl, but that does not interfere with Pitch Perfect: The Series set between the first and second movie. Reunited Oasis and Hootie and the Blowfish or just any nineties act having a great big hit. Areatha Franklin’s death made wonder whatever happened to the musical comeback. Back in the eighties and nineties there were plenty of artists who would have late career resurgence after a decade away from the charts but cannot think of anyone who that has happened to since Santana earlier this century. Is it simply because there is no Clive Davis type figure around anymore to will it? Oh, and of course the most important thing we need to happen next year, if nor earlier, impeachment.

The Affair: Oh snap, Anton straight up called Noah a psychopath in that paper. Speaking of psychopaths, really cold to show up to the funeral of the person you killed. We did get I believe was the first ever three part episode. After a whole season of being absent from the whole show except in the title sequence, the daughter finally showed up. I do not remember her being that cheery. But I called it, Vic gets his legacy from the starlet’s daughter. At least Helen’s story added some levity to the episode so we did not end the season on the depressing Alison death.

Sharp Objects: Murder mystery shows routinely give huge red herrings in the penultimate episode, but that looked like it was definitely Adora. Unless Camille was just imagining Adora as the Woman in White (the show does get a little too artsy). But this whole time I thought Camille’s sister was brutally murdered like these girl. Well it did turn out they were killed by the same person. Except the one thing that does not add up is did Adore really mutilate these bodies? I wonder if Adora had an accomplice. The sheriff gets a little too comfortable with her and I remember it being very striking when they revealed that the girls had their teeth pulled and a couple scenes later he was seen fixing a stop sign with pliers. Oh, and Camille having sex with a teenage murder suspect who up to this point I thought was a homosexual was really creepy.

Fear the Walking Dead: So is this back half of the season just going to be pairs of cast members and how they survive (or don’t survive) this hurricane?
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: When Kam announce she had a big plan, my first inclination was that it will backfire. And I was right, TJ again pointed out he is the dirtiest player in the game by introducing Mercenaries (Smashley and someone so inconsequential, I have never bothered to learn his name, yawn). Except her big grand plan was to pit the two weakest teams was super lame. Seriously, she could have gotten Kyle and Brad vs. Zack which would have seen at least one or possibly two of the strongest guys out (although I like either of them against those Mercenaries). Just stupid and yet Kam thinks she is the smartest player out there.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Harlots: Oh my, Quigley has a Mini-Me. Although the Mini-Me turned on her by helping lock her up. It was pretty unclear just where the Mini-Me stood all season. It will be interesting if Mary Wells get back to London without fear the gallows. I actually would be interesting to see just how her talents could be used in Virginia at that time period.
You can stream Harlots on Hulu.

Castle Rock: What the fork just happened? Okay I get Ruth has Alzheimer's and her mind sometimes lives in the past. But did they just confirm that the prisoner is some version of Reverend Deaver? Does he just want Ruth to think that? He said more this episode than the previous one’s combined so was that him or in Ruth’s mind? But it seems pretty real that Ruth did, indeed kill Pangborn. But I miss the timeline. Last week they ended with Pangborn entering the house in disarray, but other than an overdrawn bath, it did not seem to happen unless that was when Ruth was pushing her way through the funeral. But when did Panborn get out to the shed. Maybe a more coherent version of events will be shown next week.
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/18/2018

Claws: So they arrested Desna at the end of an episode and made me assume the cops were going to use her to flip the Russians, but the cops made her look like the bat ig fish, only for the cops to pull the reveal this week that they were using Desna to get to the Russians. But where exactly was the cops when all murder was going down? Shouldn’t they set up shop next door? But that was a plenty shocking ending. But who shot Virginia? Uncle Daddy? The Haitians? The Russians? But they really did not killer her, right? She is the best part of the show.
You can download Claws on iTunes.

The Affair: Wait a second, has the Fiona Apple theme song been a huge spoiler this whole time. Hearing it an episode after we learned Alison died just seemed to tie everything together. “I have only one thing to do and that's be the wave that I am and then sink back into the ocean,” is just eerier now. Then we had the weird two parts both being Alison. The show typically has had two sometime wildly different narratives. Does this confirm than Alison is the unreliable narrator? Granted just this season Noah and Helen had different telling of events. Maybe the second act is always the truth versions of events. But surprisingly we did get confirmation that Ben did kill Alison (assuming that the second act is reliable). So is next season going to be Noah and Cole teaming up to find the truth? I would actually be happy if Noah and Cole team up My Two Dad style to raise Joanie.

Sharp Objects: Amma is still on top of my suspect list and her drug filled episode just solidified that even more, but the cheerleader has vaulted into second on the list. She cares way too much about getting into Camille’s article. And the “baby killer” comment, does everyone know that she has an abortion? Could they be referring to the girl?

Fear the Walking Dead: Does one really need to make their own Scrabble game in the zombie apocalypse? It just seems like you could go down to the local Target and find a copy or two.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: When they announced this new voting format I really hated it because I assumed everyone would just vote for who they thought was the weakest team in case they got picked to go in against them. Except half the teams are even bigger cowards than I gave them credit for because half the teams admitted to burning their vote. Though it will be extremely funny if they all burned their vote on the same team, sending that team in for an epic backfire.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Harlots: The season started with Quigley in a jail cell and here we are at the end and Margaret is in the same jail cell. Except Margaret could not wiggle out her charge yet still left the prison alive. Just how long does it take someone to die by hanging? Then there was the other big reveal of the episode in that Emily Lacey lied about being pregnant. I had a feeling that it might be the case. And now she is picking up more clients to see that her lie becomes true. We end the episode with Margaret being sent away which begs the question how long before she finds herself back to London. I have to think her return will be important to the downfall of Quigley.
You can stream Harlots on Hulu.

Castle Rock: Oh, hey, Henry has a kid. Who knew? I believe that was the first time his birth parents were mentioned. What happened there? So it was weird when kid Molly killed Henry’s dad, or at least that is what it looked like, I was not sure how reliable the perspective was at the time. But Molly claims that Henry killed his dead through Molly? Wait, what? So when Henry disappeared, did he go inside Molly? But I have to say the mysterious guy is less scary the more he talks. Though if a bird dropped out of the sky for the second time this week, who else is at that psychiatric hospital? Or is this one of those Stephan King Easter Eggs that will not be explained. What better be explained next episode is what he did in the house this week. Who’s blood with that and what exactly happened to Henry’s mom and where was his son during all this?
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/12/2018

Claws: Well that was an, um, interesting way to end the penultimate episode before what is presumably explosive final episode. We will get to finally see what side the Russians are on. And I only have to guess Desna has a contingency plan know that she knows her future husband owns all that property.
You can download Claws on iTunes.

The Affair: Well, that was shocking. When they said Alison was dead, my initial cynic television watcher was it really was not her. But then Noah identified the body. Although I have a sinking suspicion that we do not know the whole story. We do have two episodes left so it seems safe to assume we will get Alison’s perspective of her last days. But is it going to be next week or the finale. Do we even need a conclusion to the Helen and Vic storyline?

Sharp Objects: Well we knew she cut herself, but that was a lot of scars on Camille, some I wonder how exactly was she able to contort her body into making. But nothing changed this week to made me question my prediction that Amma had something to do with the murders.

Harlots: So Lucy has shacked up with a killer and is not at all fazed by the news. Oh, and he is in cahoots with Liv Tyler’s brother. Battle lines are being redrawn. But that is not the worst news for Margaret Wells, her plan to unseat Quigley completely unraveled. But hey, at least she got one daughter back. Although she may not be with her daughter long after confessing to murder. Did she do that just to get Lord Fallon arrested? Lucy cannot take the fall if her mom already confessed.
You can stream Harlots on Hulu.

Castle Rock: Oh wow, they let the nameless inmate out. And he noticeably did not shake the lawyer’s hand so clearly just a touch can make people go insane. And maybe even less than a touch because it seemed by the just the presence caused that family to get very aggressive with each other. But he does seem to like high places, kind of reminds me of the mascot from what think was the first episode. So Tessa Altman talks about how all this weird stuff happened in this town before she was born and it presumably stopped when the warden first took the inmate, which we now know Pangborn knew about, and now things are getting weird again. But how long until we know what exactly is going on. Sure the inmate told Pangborn that he is not the Devil but of course the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to make people think he doesn’t exist.
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/5/2018

Claws: I was convinced when Desna was arrested the task force was just using her to get to the Russians. But apparently she was the big fish they were talking about. And it does not seem like Desna is interested in giving them the Russians in exchange for some deal because Slata gave her a great lawyer. Instead she makes a deal with Slata to kill her fiancé in exchange for more franchises even though the Feds are on to her. There has to be another play here because that does not seem wise.
You can download Claws on iTunes.

The Affair: Wait, what? So hot starlet beds Vic two weeks ago and then this week, all but confesses to Helen and then has sex with her too. Is a threesome coming in two more episodes? It still seems like an obvious solution to have her carry Vic’s baby. Then we had two Whitney mentions this episode yet in episode seven we have not actually seen her yet despite the actress still being in the title sequence. But are we already to the flash forwards from the start of the season? That seems quick, but it has been a few episodes since they did one of those scenes.

Sharp Objects: I came away from the first three episodes thinking three different people did the murder. There was an interesting theory of two different people killed the two girl, but I am even more convinced that Amma was involved in at least one, if not both murders.

The Bold Type: Wait, they are not really going to have this big decision storyline for Jane where she struggles between choosing the humanitarian doctor or the douchebag writer, are they? That has to be one of the easiest decisions ever. Although for some reason, a lot of female television character ends up picking the bad boy.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.

The Challenge: Final Reckoning: Well, that had to be up there with one of the worse episodes in the history of the show. Without any actual challenges, the first three fourths of the show was a bore. Then eliminating people on the double cross was just lame. That was made even worse by only Big Brothers competing to get back into the game. I know I say this a lot, but I really wished The Challenge would just go to the Survivor format of one elimination per episode.
You can download The Challenge: Final Reckoning on iTunes.

Harlots: Oh my, there is a little Quigley growing inside Emily Lacey. Or so she says. Interesting that Lucy has been mostly away from everyone this season.
You can stream Harlots on Hulu.

Castle Rock: I had a sinking suspicion the prison guard would not be on the show long. But I have to wonder if touching the man in the box was what hastened his demise. The dude did tell his cell mate not to touch him and the next day the Nazi dies of aggressive cancer. Did that fist bump inspire the shooting spree? As for other unanswered questions, just what happened to Henry? The creepy old man told Henry that h knew that he never touched him. Did he just admit participation in the abduction? And does Henry really know? I do not believe we have heard his version of the story yet. Not even a “I have no memory of the time I was missing?” And just what happened to his father? Is what we saw Molly do last week reliable, or is that just what she thinks she did? The father did write “Henry did it.” But did what? Is pushing him over the cliff too obvious.
You can stream Castle Rock on Hulu.

Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger: Early in the season, I notice the actress who plays Dagger on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist which led me down a rabbit hole of her music career, including a soundtrack for the show where she covers soft rock gem Come Sail Away. So as the opening strums of the song playing as the voodoo priestess told of each Divine Pairing, I knew what was coming… and it was horribly awesome. As for the show itself, I am not entirely sure what is going on with Evil Cop. Did Cloak kill him? Is he in some dream state in Cloak’s mind, sort of like the scientist? Can Cloak bring him back whenever he wants? And is Lady Cop just Lady Swamp Thing now? I would be fine with that as long as she does not start growing moss on her skin.
You can download Marvel's Cloak and Dagger on iTunes.

Previewing Castle Rock

One thing that all comic book adaptation do, whether the show is good or not, is throw out a constant barrage of Easter Eggs for the fanboys to salivate over and make them come back for every episode, myself included. There are very few other things that have enough content to flood a screen with references of their work, but Stephen King is definitely one of them with fifty-nine novels and over two hundred short stories under his belt. And now he is getting an television show based on the amalgamation of his work, Castle Rock.

No, this is not an Avengers type team up where Pennywise will come face to face with Carrie (though the actors who portrayed them in movie versions are actually in the new cast as different characters). Instead, the show is sprinkled with plenty of references to King’s work like the titular city is the setting of twenty-four of his stories and the local prison is named Shawshank. In a measure of full disclosure, I am not the biggest Stephan King reader, so my latter example is one of the few Easter Eggs I got and had to be told of the former.

So I am coming at Castle Rock as a King novice. Sure It scared me as a kid like nothing else did (that forking spider still occasionally haunts my dreams) and most recently I made it through Under the Dome that got significantly worse with every passing episode. Naturally Castle Rock is about a town where dark things happen; scene three features a, um, interesting way to try to kill oneself. A town where all the men from there either work at the state penitentiary, which actually looks like a castle from the outside, or they are currently living there.

The show centers on a prodigal son (André Holland, A Wrinkle in Time) who is a death row lawyer who comes home when a whistleblower informs him an inmate (Bill Skarsgård, Deadpool 2) has been discovered at his hometown prison. And of course both men have mysterious pasts. The lawyer, back in 1991, went missing as a child in the dead of winter only to be discovered unharmed days later. While at the prison, an entire wing is shut down despite overcrowding and, you guessed it, the mysterious inmate has been living in this quarantined wing all by himself for an undisclosed amount of time.

To be honest, the first episode is kind of a bore. Thankfully Jane Levy (season one Mandy Milkovich on Shameless) shows up in the second episode to add some levity to the show but is not there long enough to really get a feel for why the character is there. She just pops up randomly in a church group and asks the lawyer questions the audience certainly wants to know (not that he give a satisfying answer). Weirdly Mickey Milkovich gets more screen time on the first couple episodes as a prison guard than his on screen sister.

Levy also has a job as assistant to the town’s local real estate agent (Melanie Lynskey, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) who may be the weirded of the town folks we meet in the early in the series. She lived across the lawyer as a child and, um, the connection, we learn, gets really weird.

For better or worse, Castle Rock is the general thought of King’s work, really creepy and kind of slow. Despite dying in the third scene, that character may best sum up your typical thought of a King creation with his Verse of the Day calendars stopping on the same verse every year even when the verse was on different days. And lhe leaves of with the most ominous and Kingsian line so far, “I used to think the Devil was a metaphor but the devil was a boy.” The start of Castle Rock may not be great, but it was good enough to hook me in. Granted, so did Under the Dome and that took a creative nose dive in season two.

The first three episodes of Castle Rock are on Hulu today with new episodes every Wednesday.