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: May 3, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: That was the weakest batch of songs yet. The only one I liked was Leif at karaoke. Hopefully they were saving all the great stuff for the finale.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Homeland: I seemed to miss why the Russians did not kill Saul. Wasn’t him being dead a key to the whole plan? How did they convince the sister if he was dead when he was not? But in the end it was a nice full circle moment with Carrie playing the Brody role. But poor Frannie, both parents were considered traitors. Although, could make for an interesting storyline for the inevitable reboot in 5-10 years.

Killing Eve: There were always heavy lesbian themes but Eve kissing the crazy French assassin was a bit eye rolling.
You can download Killing Eve on iTunes.

Good Girls: Ugg, can they just kill the gangbanger already? Having the assassin shoot out someone else’s window was a bit annoying. Beth trying to fulfil the payment to the assassin will likely be more entertaining than the last season and a half.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: What the fork Ben? Early this season, Danni hatched a plan to get Rob out and Ben just blabbed it to Rob. Now he is outing the play to get out Tony to Tony himself. Then after gunning for Jeremy for week, who is the target this week, just flips his vote to get out Kim.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

The Challenge: Total Madness: So they nearly kill Jay and then just end it there on a cliffhanger? I had to rewind to see if I missed something. If why not just tell us if he is dead or not. It will be pretty anticlimactic if he gets pulled after that or if he comes back to just lose to Rogan. I had cheap editing like this.
You can download The Challenge: Total Madness on iTunes.

In the Dark: Okay, the blind chick’s two lovers stuck in the elevator was pretty funny. Almost as funny as the annoying new partner who ruined the plan. But of course the IRS guy did not want to fork the blind chick, she only attracts horrible people. She will probably fork the dead guy before he dies. Although, I have to say, I have the flash forward scenes.
You can download In The Dark on iTunes.

The Blacklist: So Ressler killed a dude. But I actually thought he was the other kid for most of the episode since the he looked much more like the other brother. How exactly did he go from brunette to a ginger later in life? Lizzy being able to clean up the trunk was more believable than Ressler’s hair throughout the years.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 26, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: C’mon, how are you gonna singe Here I Go without draping someone across the hood of a car? But anyway. I knew the title of the episode was Zoey’s Extraordinary Outburst, but oh my goodness did she go off on everyone harder than I was expecting. You just do not see a protagonist get that raw very often. Though very realistic because if you have to watch a loved one slowly die, you are about to explode eventally.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Killing Eve: Oh hey, Yara Greyjoy. Weird her smile.

Homeland: Well, Russian dude just ramped things up really quickly. Now, I could see Carrie sell out Saul to get that asset to retrieve the black box, but kill Saul? Oh my. That would be going out with a bang in the final season. Though I could see Carrie killing Saul, getting the black box, and then the final shot being a not very dead Saul.

Good Girls: I have long thought they should have gotten rid of the gang banger and brought in a new big bad every season to freshen things up. I really hope the sniper actuvlly kills him and then they have to spend a season trying to pay off the rest of the bill. That guy was a hoot.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Little Fires Everywhere: Well, that was unexpected. I believe the first line of dialogue was Lexi saying that Elena would find a way to blame this on Izzy. Well, of course, she was the one who dosed her stuff with gasoline first. I never really suspected the kids mostly because of that line. But the fire really took a back seat to the trial, but that ended anti-climatically as we did not even get to see the verdict being read, just the aftermath. I guess I should have seen the ending to that storyline coming as it pretty much line up with Mia’s story of stealing a child and living a life on the run. But what the whole, once a human touches a baby bird its mother rejects it, supposed to be a metaphor for Izzy with Mia and that is why Izzy bolted? Elena seemed to pretty much give up on Izzy long before Mia showed up. I wonder of Reece will try to squeeze another season out of this show like she did Big Little Lies. You could also have a search for Izzy and Maribelle but I am not sure how you can work in Mia and Pearl, cannot imagine they ever set foot in Shaker Heights ever again. Well, unless Pearl really did end up getting knocked up by Tripp and she felt guilty enough to keep the baby and did not want her kid to grow up without knowing her father. I am sure I would watch.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.

Survivor: Winners at War: We have had plenty of dumb player on the show that give up immunity, try to play fake Idols, vote for the wrong player which results them getting voted out but I figured on an all winner season we would not get many dumb movie. But I was shocked this week when not one, not two, but three people who somehow won this game gave a Fire Token to Tony. Okay, I could sort of get Jeremy who was in clear danger, but Nick and Ben have absolutely no reason to do this. I hope they at least got their tokens back that Tony then won.

Then Tony came up with the most convoluted plan. Instead of getting Kim and Denise who was with Jeremy the previous week, he goes with a three split vote to get out Sophie. Again, everyone he pitched it to were dumb enough to go along with it. Seriously, how did Nick win his season again? He has been nonexistent this season only to pop up to be creepy or make dumb moves.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

The Challenge: Total Madness: Why was everyone ganging up on Ashley? It was Mattie who fired the first shot by saying Ashley had worse things in her mouth. That seems worse than what Ashley said. If you do not want people to bring up your prison time, do not do anything that will and you in prison. Mattie slut shaming was a lot worse in my book.

In the Dark: Oh yeah, I forgot about the blind chick’s other evil boyfriend. She sure knows how to pick them. I somehow think he will not be leaving Chicago. But I was surprised the Queen Pin did not ask for proof that the other guy took care of him. Aren’t you supposed to ask for a finger when you kill someone?

The Blacklist: There have been weirder Blacklisters, but a dude who inseminates prostitutes with dead men sperm to extort their family for money has to be pretty high on the list. Then the twist of actually keeping the babies made it even weirder. It looked like there was a teenager there which means he has been doing this for a very long time. But what is going on with Ressler? Have we met hi brother before? Do we know what he did?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 19, 2020

Homeland: Mmm, is Carrie really going to burn Saul to get the Black Box back? Why not tell him of the Russians plans so they can devise a way do get the Black Box back without naming the mole? Just how is Carrie going to find out who the mole is, inform the Russians, all while under arrest?

Black Monday: Oh hey, the gang is finally back together. Only took half the season. Most other shows would have annoying done that by the end of the season premiere. Be interesting where all the allegiances align now and going forward. I do wonder if Ken Marino is still playing both Lehman Brothers. I would be a huge time commitment to put Ken in all that makeup and then film another version of him as the other normal brother.

Killing Eve: Meh, I was really hoping that the show lived up to its name with that final scene last season. Kind of had to know Eve was not really dead, I mean, she was in the marketing to the season. But after Eve stabbed the crazy French assassin at the end of the season, and the crazy French assassin shot Eve at the end of the second season, where exactly do they go from there? I am assuming the crazy French assassin was not the person to kill the son, but who did then? The Thirteen? The Crazy French assassin's even crazier Russian assassin trainer? are the crazy French assassin and Even going to team up to shoot her at the end of this season?

Run: This felt like someone dared Phoebe Waller-Bridge to write a show within twenty-four only with the rule that it starts with someone getting a text that simply reads, "run." Hopefully it adds a plot soon.

Briarpatch: Okay, mostly half watched most of the season because I found it mostly boring, so who killed the sheriff? I assume that can she reached for is a huge clue but I missed it. But watching the dude get eaten by a tiger just highlights how much better the show could have been had they added more escaped animals. That was pretty much the only thing that set the show apart for other paint by numbers murder mysteries but the animals just seemed to quickly disappear.

Little Fires Everywhere: What really struck me about last episode is that for the first five episodes, Elena was this picturesque put together almost Stepford Wife, in episode six we just saw her completely crack multiple times. And then we saw her finally snap at Izzy. Then I found it interesting is than in the very next scene we see Pearl just snap at her mother. They have been clearly tying together Mia and Izzy but I am just now realizing that Elaina and Pearl are more tied together. Of course it is Elaina tells Pearl who she really is, not her mother. That just kind of confirmed to me that Mia is the one that burns down the house. Really, Izzy is the only other suspect at this point.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.

Survivor: Winners at War: My least favorite episode of any season somehow got worse: a full half an hour of loved ones, and even more than usually. But you have to feel bad for Michele who only had her sister show up when other had a spouse and three children. Really Fiji airlines, she and the others who only have their fiancés show up could not also have a parent or also a buddy show up?

Speaking of Michele, why the fork did she vote for Tyson? Did she just want to be part of the majority or was hoping to avoid a tie which would lead to rocks? Then did the group of five fork up? Shouldn’t they have gone three-three? Did they know Michele was with them? And how did Nick find himself in the majority after being on the bottom the last two weeks? How did Tony go from wanting to align the big threats to find himself in an alliance full of hyenas this week? Maybe the editors should not have spent half the episode on the family visit.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: If Forrest was such a tech genius, how did he not realize that the reason Devs stopped seeing in the future was because Lily did something that it could not predict? When they first said that the program stopped when she went to Dev, my first thought was, oh, she just does not go to Devs. And yet both die anyway and meet up in a computer simulation. That may have been a more nonsensical ending than Annulation.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

Motherland: Fort Salem: I noticed this week that Will Ferrell and Adam McCay were producers. Wait, what?!? Have I been watching this right? I thought I have been watching a crappy sci-fi show, is this really a farce? I guess have the big bad being blue balloons makes more sense if we are not supposed to take the show seriously.

In the Dark: Two person consent laws are stupid. But seriously, the captain is really going to reinstate someone he knows murdered a child and is working for a drug queen pin because he says wants to bring her down? That is a stretch even by television standards.

The Blacklist: Well that was a weird episode. Red wants to go after the dude who makes guns after seeing someone get gunned down after murdering countless people himself after using the same weapon. Probably not the best vehicle to tell this story.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 12, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Well that was a very special episode. Nice work adding in the deaf actors signing instead of singing. But of course the one dude learned sign language to get laid.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Homeland: That was kind of a waste of an episode when it was pretty obvious Carrie would end up getting her hands on the Black Box. The only question would be if the Russian dude would turn on her or not. Oh wait, I forgot option three, she tries to fork another enemy of the state and then he still turns on her. I am going to miss this show.

The Walking Dead: Okay, the show has been a drag since… um, ever, maybe, but the weird purple haired chick is a riot. Hopefully she sticks around to liven things up.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: Wait, Leslie was not dead. Okay, I vaguely remember him “dying” only to be found hiding in his grandmother’s apartment. But how he ended up in prison is still a mystery to me. Really needed a recap of that. But now he is “dead” again but we do not get to see him die so I am guessing the gangsta has other plans for him.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Black Monday: Boo, I am going to miss Mo’s relaxer hair. That was comedy gold. But Mo being cleared that easily, was a bit of a stretch even by television standards. What could the FBI possibly want that would let him off the hook? Speaking of being left off the hook, it would also be a cheap stretch even by TV standards if Keith going to the Lehman Brothers’ Club Fed and being released early was just part of Mo’s plan and Keith is in on it.

Manifest: I know I should not have expected different, but that was extremely dumb. So frostbite dude comes back to life because he did good deeds? Kind of ruins the suspense of the death date. And now we are stuck with a lame love triangle.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

Little Fires Everywhere: Last week, Mia’s parents implied that the kid was not hers. I just assumed they meant biologically, but maybe they just meant legally because when you use a turkey baster, you kind of have to the biological mother. This definitely explains why she is so adamant that the co-worker should get the kid back. Hers were by far the more interesting flashback, but boy was young Elena scenes rough. You are certainly going through things if you are driving five hours to see an ex-boyfriend. But I wonder if they are trying to explain Izzy’s problems with the sip of wine Elena had at that dinner?
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.

Survivor: Winners at War: So I picked Adam to win solely because he seemed like the most random person who got to speak during the preview last fall. It seemed like I was more and more right as he kept on getting screen time despite being kind of insignificant. And yet, there were a bunch of little scenes made to make him look like a buffoon, like the inability to get his torch in the stand, so I actually kind of thought that weird thing was an Idol, but alas it was not and he was voted out. After all that, can he possibly be the one that comes back from Extinction and actually win? If so, that would be one of the weirdest bits of editing ever.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: I really kind of hate the trope of someone predicting the future, someone else says, all I have to do is not do the thing you say I am going to do, but then they always do that exact thing. I kind of hoped what ended the Devs future was the chick just did not go to Devs. Really the last half of the episode was kind of boring.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

Motherland: Fort Salem: Wait, did not one really notice the wicked witch raised the temperature, like fifty degrees? Huh?

The Blacklist: We finally get to learn Agent Park’s deep dark secret, broke a few laws to get to the person she thought was responsible for killing her mother, but of course Red was the one that arranged the meeting. Makes me wonder how long he has been following her.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 5, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Is it too soon to call this the best episode of the decade? Of course, who knows when Hollywood gets up and running, we may not get much new television after next month. You start off with a great rendition of Crazy. Zoey trying not to sing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Pressure was not far behind. Max was pretty astute that Zoey sang him a love song but sang Simon a lust song. Then they capped things off by making everyone cry. But are they really going to kill off Peter Gallagher? After the first episode I assume they would have him sing every week, but he has sung in less than half of the episode and just sits there bug eyed most of the time. Kind of seems like a waste of his talents.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Homeland: Last week I predicted one of Max or the Taliban dude would survive, probably both. Oops, wrong on both counts. Although the Talban guy ended up surviving the first round of bullets. Um, Pakistan, maybe it is time to get better soldiers if you can miss the head from maybe ten paces. But I do not understand why the Taliban’s son killed Max that way. Why not do it on camera?

The Walking Dead: Um, where did Carol go? That was pretty cheap to just leave Negan out there like that after he brought your mortal enemy’s head. And what was going on with Beta. Why steal Alpha’s head just to take it nowhere and kill her? Did he just want to show her the new horde he was making?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: So all that just for the boyfriend to chicken out at the end? Meh. Well at least he got his bird back. Maybe the children can get the chicks after the bird lays the eggs.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Black Monday: I hope we get to see the Rubber Room later this season, it sounds like comedy gold. I hope we do not see Horatio Sanz pull down his pants ever again.

Manifest: Um, why were the bad guys steal the hot cop’s nephew when they could have just as easily taken her instead? It is not like her half dead husband could do anything about it.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

Little Fires Everywhere: Well that took an unexpected turn. I actually had to rewind the scene a couple times and turn up the volume to make I heard what I was not hearing. So, at least according to her grandparents, Pearl is not Mia’s child? Oh wow. I thought the twist was that the baby daddy was abusive but the real reason is that Mia was a surrogate and really does not want anyone to know where she is because she does not want Pearl taken away. No wonder she feels so strong about her co-worker is the rightful parent because she was the one that gave birth to the child. Now the big question is, what does Elena do with this information? Will she be willing to blow up Pearl’s life just to stick it to Mia? Will she blackmail Mia to stop supporting the co-work so her buddy can keep the kid? Oh yeah, and there is the whole fire business. We see Izzy go pyro this week, but like her name getting thrown out in the first episode, it is so obvious; you have to assume it is someone else. But other than maybe Mia and the co-worker, not many other suspects right now.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.

Survivor: Winners at War: Oh man, we were seconds away from the darkest timeline: Rob coming back in the game with an Idol. Oh wait; the true darkest timeline would be Rob coming back in at five with two Idols after accumulating enough Fire Tokens for more. But I have to say the creepy Nick montage was the greatest bit of editing since Angelina almost died while searching for an Idol.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

The Challenge Total Madness: It is the biggest twist in the history of the show!!!!! Okay, calm down T.J., I am not sure it is top five. But it will be interesting how the power players who try to avoid elimination like the plague will play this. Do you try to go in early and make sure alliance serves you up a tomato can (and hope it is the type of challenge that favors you) or do you wait until you are near the end for fear if you go in early you may have to go in multiple times if you lose power? Granted this begs the question of if T.J. will even give them a head’s up. I probably would want to get it out of the way early.

Motherland: Fort Salem: What is with all the aging and de-aging? I get that they are witches, but I do not get what ends they are doing it in this episode.

Devs: Okay, when the old dude said to the young kid that got fired last week was nineteen, I was taken aback. The kid’s voice has yet to drop yet. So I did some googling and it turns out that young boy is actually a twenty-two year old woman in real life. That may have been the biggest plot twist on the show so far.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Ugg, I forget if the guy that Lizzie was looking for was Red as a younger man or his buddy that her mom abducted. I am pretty sure it is Red, which in case, good luck finding someone who no longer exists.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only Is Is On: March 29, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: You know what makes a good show: The small details. Like having some random extra with a fake baby deliver a line like, “That’s usually not a very good sign.” That just had me laughing throughout the commercial break. Just having a flash mob which Zoey, and, well me, thinks is one of her mental breaks was pretty brilliant too.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Homeland: Wait, they have lady judges in Pakistan? Who knew they were that progressive? But does the lady who was evil earlier this season, plotting with the military 80’s villain, really want peace now? Or is she the reason they changed the judge? So we were left with two cliffhangers: the Taliban leader is going to go in front of a firing squad any minute. Am I really supposed to feel bad for a dude who killed countless numbers of people, because I sort of did before remembering he was a mass murderer? Then Max is about to have his head cut off. But I really doubt after being so lucky the first half of the season, he goes out like that. So will it be the three man Russian crew (four if you count Carrie) or the American extraction team that saves him. Granted, since he did give Carrie all the information she needs to get the black box, so maybe they will shock us and kill both at the start of the next episode. Homeland season one would have killed at least one, later Homeland will probably find a way to save both.

Supergirl: Oh hey, our first Miss Tessmacher sighting in post Crisis. I believe when we last saw her, Lena essentially turned her into AI. I guess that did not happen. I predict she is back to being Lex’s mole inside Catco.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: Oh yeah, Michonne inexplicably left her children earlier this season to help some random dude find his family. And of course that random dude turned out to be crazy and almost killed her. But then led her to a ship that had something of Rick’s? Huh? And now Michonne is going to keep being away from her children to look for Rick with little clues? Huh? But speaking of people who have not been on the show for a while, the dream sequences reminded me that Maggie just disappeared without any explanation.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: That is pretty brilliant to bury a body in a cemetery. Doubtful anyone would dig up the other grave and find it. What was not brilliant was leaving the phone on so the boyfriend could find it. I thought the boyfriend would find the bird when he went over to Beth’s but instead he had a chance meeting with the bird when donating bird feed. How convenient. So I guess the boyfriend will continue to be a little bit of a problem going forward.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Black Monday: There are fewer things I needed to see than Horatio Sanz’s little Horatio. But I kind of want an episode in the Rubber Room. That place sounded interesting.

Project Blue Book: Wait, are they implying that Quinn went through some portal to Antarctica? Isn’t this show supposed to be based on fact? This is going to be a hard thing to sell if there is a next season.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.

Little Fires Everywhere: Well that escalated quickly. Elena just went after Mia who dished I all back. But is that custody battle really going to take up the rest of the season because it seems pretty open and shut. If you give up your child, you give up your child. You just cannot put a child on layaway indefinitely. Then what is up with Reece’s eldest? What teenage boy goes limp in the middle of sex? Seems as believe able as no assigned seats in high school.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.

Survivor: Winners at War: There is nothing more annoying on this show than whatever name gets thrown out in the confessional right after the Immunity Challenge and before the ad break almost never is the person that gets voted out. It is essentially a spoiler at this point. So when Yul said I was going to be Wendell, I knew at that moment is was almost certain to be Yul going home. Though I am not sure it was wise for Michelle and Nick to side with the guy at the last Tribal admitted he was willing to stab everyone in the back and front and could be bought with some Fire Tokens.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: Just a reminder people, do not talk on the phone while driving. Wifey just blew right through that stop sign. But I was not entirely sure what I was seeing for most of the episode.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

The Bold Type: So Kat was fired and just like the season that ended with Jane taking another job, she will be back at Scarlett within an episode or two next season. But shouldn’t she be in prison? Especially if dude’s daughter is some high powered lawyer who already threatened her. Although the look those two had at the end of the episode seemed a little thirsty.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.

The Blacklist: There was a point for sure that Red was the one killing everybody off. Although, it did turn out to be a pretty entertaining Ten Little Indians episode.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 21, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: They really need to get Lauren Graham some better music to sing instead of getting stuck with crappy last decade pop trash. And while I am making requests, can someone please give the weird barista her own show?
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Homeland: Wow, that new girl is really bad at her job. First she mess up that fake interview, then she lost Carrie’s tail, and later in the same episode she watches Carrie board a plane and just leaves when she is out of sight. Really, you just saw how sneaky Carrie was maybe five hours ago. At least watch the plane take off. But Carrie working with the Russian dude cannot be good.

Supergirl: Um, clearly the show is not safe if Supergirl leaves because Dreamer is just unwatchable. And did the dude really admit that he did this because he wanted to fork Dreamer and got mad when he found out (s)he used to be a dude? So stupid.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: So that did not make much sense. So Negan was working with Carol this whole time? But why abandon the gay dude? Why kidnap Alpha’s kid? Was the kid in that shack? So is Beta the main antagonist now? Negan? Carol?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: You know when gangbanger is starting to kill people in front of you, maybe this is the time to actually go to the police. Did the dead gay FBI guy not have any files on the guy? Is law enforcement this incompitant?
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

The Plot Against America: Well that was kind of boring. Hopefully it will get more interesting when the campaign goes into high gear.

Project Blue Book: Interesting twist of the bomb not being live. But weird to have an episode the featured Russian spies and it did not involve the woman they just found out was a spy. But we did get another twist in JFK himself bringing in his own case, this time a weird one, a UFO coming out of the water.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: Some really dumb moves on the Sele Tribe. First Michelle tells Wendell her plan to get Parviti’s Fire Tokens which made her look shady. Then Wendell gave such a bad Tribal performance I thought he would be going home. Just straight up admitting your vote could be bought seemed like a bad idea. When he was battering with Parviti, I was waiting for Nick and Ben would turn on him. Maybe Wendell told them that he would try to get Parvati’s Fire token and still voter her out like… well, I will get to that, but that also made Wendell look shady.

But Denise showed how to manipulate someone with Fire Tokens. Well at least do it better. I am not sure taking out the Queen, the biggest move this season, right before the merge was the smartest play because it now puts a huge target on your back. Making things worse is she unnecessary wasted an Idol on Jeremy. I think I would rather have the Idol in my back pocket than Jeremy still in the game. Plus the other tribe did not even split the vote so the point was mute.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: So the fuzzy video of Marilyn Monroe is vague enough but crystal clear Jesus speaking is bad because it may be off? That scene was pretty confusing.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Oh yeah, so Red thinks he killed Lizzy’s mom who may or may not actually be her mom and Aram is forking someone’s wife. At least we had a filler episode to get us back up to speed. I just wish Aram would break up with the wife for good or finally reveal she is evil or something because that storyline was stale before the break.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 15, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: The cursing into the title screen has becoming my new favorite running bit. But I am sad that dude broke up with the weird baristas. I wish they could find a way to keep her on the show. The place where Zoey works does seem to have an overabundance of bars, how about a coffee bar?
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Dare Me: So we are not getting an ending? Kind of presumptuous thinking it will get a second season. But I have already seen them promoting the Netflix release. I wonder if it will get a bounce similar to You that went from a barely watched Lifetime show to a worldwide smash hit. But this ending was a bit confusing. So the coach and her husband were at army dude’s apartment, and then she came back with the black chick to have an alibi? That does not make much sense. But I did laugh at the completely inappropriate gun theme cheer.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.

The Outsider: Um, so when did El Cuco scratch Holly. He was never near her in the cave. Did it happen before? They were never close before that scene. But that could explain why trigger happy neck guy decline to shoot her head out when he had the chance. I know it is required for horror movies, after the bad guy is vanquished, to tease that they are still around, but that mad no sense. At least make it the cop that smashed his head in, at lead there was a chance he was scratched first.

Homeland: Is it going to be that obvious that the 80’s action movie supervillain acting Pakistani Defense Minister was behind the president’s chopper being shot down? It cannot be that obvious. It did cross my mind that since the chopper disappeared for a couple minutes that it got swapped out; helping this theory is that the body got destroyed so they cannot confirm that it was him. It also crossed my mind that the Vice-President was involved but he seemed way too shook that this probably cannot be him, maybe he is a puppet and knew but did not think it would actually happen. Hopefully there is some sort of a twist soon.

Supergirl: So Andrea is now just realizing she had a super power? Kind of silly that this show is just kind of rebooting the first half of the season post-Crisis. But I guess I should not expect actual goo storytelling from this show.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: Was that supposed to be their version of The Long Night? Maybe not try that with tenth the budget. But at least I could tell what was going on.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: So it was the black chick who recognized the hockey jersey? Sure she did not realize it was a fake. But of course the gangsta wants a part of Beth money scheme more than he wants to kill her. And now it seems like we are right back to season one.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Manifest: So the plane went back in time, freaked out a bunch of pirates, and then went into the future without any one aboard noticing? What the fork?
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

Project Blue Book: They finally caught the Russian spy. Now what? That part of the show was always a drag but know that everything is on the table, maybe it will get more interesting.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: It should not have taken the merge to happen, but thankfully they finally got Rob out. Maybe this could be the best because now he has less time to amass Fire Tokens on Edge of Extinction. But they wasted way too much time on that boring buddy system. What they should have done was give us much more time with the Michelle / Wendell situation. Like, how exactly did that end. Clearly Wendell did something. Then my pre-season pick Adam, looked like a complete buffoon again this episode when he could not close the voting urn thing. Ugg, it is going to be depressing when he ends up winning.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: So this tech firm cannot even make believable CGI flames? I get that it was probably rushed and they did not expect anyone to steal it so they could go frame by frame, but c’mon. If you can make a dead guy walk and set himself on fire, flames should be easy.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 8, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Well that was the weakest episode so far mostly because the neighbor is the weakest character. Not the greatest song selection either between opera and Miley Cyrus. Okay, I did like the island themed songs.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Dare Me: Was the dude who date raped the Queen B in the dead guy’s room at the start of the episode? But my theory that the Queen B was involved in the murder was helped by her saying that they both have alibis now.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.

The Outsider: I caught on pretty early that the boys were in the past, but I thought they said one of their names was the same as neck guy? Granted I a calling him neck guy because I am unsure of what his name is. Speaking of neck guy, he does not really want to do any of the things El Cuco is telling him, is drinking brown liquor, but still manages to shoot the head off the guy who tasted copper in his mouth (should had heeded that sign dude)?

Homeland: One thing the creators of the show said early in its run that really stuck with me was you can no longer surprised an audience with something happening, you can only surprise them anymore with when it happens. That philosophy had them burning through a season’s worth of plot in two or three episodes early on, but now, there are not many surprising developments anymore. After everything was going so well in the first part of the episode, my inner voice said, okay something bad is going to happen at the end of the episode. And there we have at the end of the episode with a chopper going down with two presidents inside. And I am just going to go ahead and say the Pakistanis were involved.

The Walking Dead: So Beta just dug a tunnel into Alexandra? Okay, that was pretty cool. But very uncool to be taken down by a child.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: I guess that is one way to avoid getting killed by the dude who you just shot, imply he knocked you up. But what exactly did his really baby momma say to convince the doctor to lie?
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Manifest: Wait, what happened to the college dude? Did he just fall through the floor? Did he crawl to the sewers? But I guess that kind of helps the idea of a death day if he can avoid what really looked to be certain date.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

Project Blue Book: That was probably the most X-Files episode so far. Although I doubt the X-Files would had ended it as the government torturing a new family. So what was up with the bear guy? Was he in on it or just a crazy dude? And the government finally caught the lady Russian asset. The question is will they find out what she is up to?
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: They really need to change these sit out rules. It just really disadvantages the losing tribe if the other tribe gets to sit their weakest member every week.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Devs: Um, did they really spoil the big twist they played very coy about in the “This season on”? The chick who looks more like the daughter from The Middle with a bad haircut more than any Chinese person I ever met seemed to out the whole thing to Alison Pill in a future scene. I hope that was just a huge misdirection. They certainly implied they could see the past later in the second episode.
You can download Devs on iTunes.

The Bold Type: So Jaqueline has a brunette friend and a black friend? Kind of looks like the older version of the three leads. Except Jaqueline would make more sense as the Jane so it does not quite work.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 1, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: So is Zoey going to curse going into the title card every week because if so, I am all for it. Not the greatest week for music, I had to look up the song her mother sang. Too bad they did not have Zoey sing The Humpty Dance, that would have been great.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Dare Me: I think Queen B know, mostly because I think she killed the dude. Other than that, the most boring episode so far which is saying a lot.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.

The Outsider: Wow, people got jokes. Both car rides had a funny moment which may have been the first two moments of levity on the show. But I guess that was needed since there was the creeping impending doom of child rape and murder that almost happened. But I wonder if the old man got scratched. Kind of looked like it but I could not tell for sure. But in the most Stephen King ending, out heroes are going to chase El Coco into a cave for a final showdown… except there is two episodes left so maybe not the final one.

Homeland: So it was the Taliban leader’s kid that sold him out. And then he kicked the kid out of the compound. That is going to come back and bite him. The kid already tried to kill him once. And just a soon as he was captured, Saul gets released. Well that was a big ado about nothing. But Carrie’s Russian plot just gets hotter. I really doubt Russia dude is turnable, you do not capture an American spy and not have big plans for her.

Supergirl: So where was Saturn Girl? In the real timeline, she went back to the future with Mon-El and Toyman Jr. but in the fake timeline, both of them stayed and she was nowhere to be found. But what a complete waste of an episode. They solved the Lena problem with Crisis only for Lex to explain why she should be mad at Supergirl. They could have fixed it here but Supergirl decides to stick with this timeline. If you are not going to fix the storyline, stop acting like you might.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: So they ended the mid-season with the group on an island surrounded by a lake of zombie. And yet everyone survived it… well, I guess a couple people are still stuck in the cave. But we did not see the dead bodies so they may still get out. Then Alpha rewards Negan with sex which may be the grossest thing that has happened on a zombie show.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Good Girls: Beth finally learns that the gangbanger is still live. So did dude just shake down the info from his baby momma? But we will have to wait a week to find out what stupid reason he does not kill her for shooting him because no way they or going to kill off the lead. Meh.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Project Blue Book: I never realized that Dr. Hynek inspired Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But I guess they needed a little something extra if the big twist to their hearing was that they called a crazy person to the stand to show they need to counteract the crazy people out there. But future Hynek surely implied that he proved the existence of intelligence life outside out planet.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: So Adam wanted Parviti out to weaken Rob. Michelle thought it would be better to get rid of Ethan to weaken Rob. But you know what would have been a better way to weaken Rob? How about sending Rob to Edge of Extinction? Sending another of his buddies to Edge only helps Rob because they can start feeding him stuff. But at least Ethan gave his Fire Token to Parviti so as long as she is in the game, I guess Ethan will award his stuff to her… well if he is still in the game, the Promo Monkeys made it seem like he might die next week.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Almost Family: So Julia’s father is that the super alpha male she was raised by but her mother actually got knocked up by a homosexual? And that is not the only homosexual in the family because Edie’s one night stand with her soon to be ex-husband? Oh and Roxie new husband killed Julia at his reception? I know things are not looking good for a second season with Fox burning the last two episodes on a Saturday a month after the previous episode aired but I really hope Quibi or something else picks the show up.
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

The Bold Type: Okay, Jane getting an infection from a facial not on her face was gross enough, but was somehow less gross than Kat getting asked to go through the back door by the bartender. I really need to stop watching this crap.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: February 23, 2020

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: I wonder if they will eventually “cure” Zoey’s dad. It would be weird to hire Peter Gallagher only to have him sit there motionless every episode aside from a two minute musical number every week. But it turns out the pretty impressive 40 million YouTube viewers NBC has been hyping for the Pilot episode was less impressive when you learn those viewers only averaged about 8 minutes each and only a couple million watched the full episode. Still hard to tell if the show was a success. Live rating were not good but NBC calls it the highest Live +35 rating ever (granted that stat is maybe five years old). Did that count all 40 million YouTube viewers? Just how much do you have to watch be considered a viewer. Hopefully people are watching via somewhere NBC cares about (I am watching next day via Hulu) because I really need this show to go at least six seasons and a movie. If you have not watch the second episode, it is on YouTube now and as I write this Saturday, it has 11 million views, but who knows how many finished.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.

Dare Me: Since the first episode, I thought the Queen B would end up being the person who died. But now I wonder if she is the killer. I mean if the coach killed the dude, would she really call one of her students? I guess dude could have killed himself being distraught over the coach ghosting him, but that would be kind of boring. I kind of hope the Queen B killed the dude and set the coach up for the fall.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.

The Outsider: So is everyone finally on board to the evil entity thing now? Because it is time to start figuring out how to stop it.

Homeland: Well that was pretty bold of Saul to meet with a Taliban leader with only four bodyguards. Boy did that backfire bad. But were the Pakistani’s tracking him or the Taliban? I guess it was the latter if Saul did not really inform anyone. But why was none of the bodyguards guarding the back door, or at least his backside. Seems pretty sloppy for the military even of a car just got bombed. Then I thought that new officer was being groomed as the new Carrie, but she screwed up pretty big. I mean, not forking a Taliban sympathizer big, but that was a pretty big mistake.

Supergirl: Wow, the show just blatantly ripped off the horrible nineties movie The Lawnmower Man.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Good Girls: So the FBI dude just let gangbanger dude just freely roam a hotel room unattended? Of course he was going set you up. I really hoped gangbanger was dead because the show really needed a soft reboot. Worse is he really should kill Beth for shooting him, but we know he will not because she is the lead.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Survivor: Winners at War: Is everyone just going to let Rob run this game? They know his wife is on Extinction where she would undoubtedly feeding him Fire Tokens and other advantages, this would have been the perfect week to vote him out and use Danni’s irrational Parvati hatred to split the vote just in case. I know people are anti-big moves for fear they will put a target on their back but that would have been the easy movie. Although Rob knows very well sometimes a split vote can go wrong.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.

Stumptown: They are just giving everyone daddy issues now. The cop has to go up against his father in court and Grey sees his father for the first time in decades and Dex tried to do the same but ran into her mentally decaying aunt instead.
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.

Previewing Homeland: The Final Season

It struck me as I am slowly working on my best of the decade list is how different my greatest shows of the decade would look if I just ranked shows on their first season. I would not have to deal with the trash fires that were the last couple season of Game of Thrones. Mr. Robot would be much higher. But the biggest benefactor would undoubtedly be Homeland which had one of the best debut season ever but then the third was one of the worst ever and has been bouncing back and forth between good and bad for the next five season. This is not a problem confined to this decade; Lost also had a great first season but ended up in the middle of my top 100.

So here we are at the final season of Homeland and for all the talk we have about sticking the landing, after eight season, I am just glad we will finally get a conclusion be it bad or good. I kind of hope it ends with Saul and Carrie retiring because, boy have they been through so much this decade. Fork, Carrie ended the last season spending 213 days in a Siberian prison without her bi-polar medication. And yet, twenty-three minutes into the premiere, Carrie is back behind enemy lines doing spy work for her country despite a failed polygraph which most spies are taught to pass and still recovering from being tortured. Granted it is an interesting juxtaposition from the first season where you wonder if the Russians turned Carrie like the Taliban turned Brody.

But hey, Saul needs her in Afghanistan for a week or two. He is close to bringing peace to the region if it not for a Pakistani general who is acting like he is the villain in an eighties action film. Also in the region is Max, Carrie’s wire tapper she hired whenever she did not want her bosses to know what she was doing. Apparently Saul hired him to in an official capacity to repair a functional listening devise near an enemy camp. Also back is Beau Bridges who I forgot was promoted to president after his superior resigned last season. And he seems to be at odds with his VP as his predecessor was with him. But in Homeland world why you actually can lose your job as president for gross incompetence, I wonder if he will last the season. Maybe by the end of the series, maybe Carrie or Saul will fail all the way to the White House.

Homeland airs Sundays at 9:00 on Showtime.

The Ten Most Anticipated Events of 2020

10. Ghotbusters: Afterlife (July 10) / Bill and Ted Face the Music (August 21): Two ionic eighties comedies with questionable sequels will be getting a third movie almost three decades later. Ghostbusters looks like it will be a soft reboot with Paul Rudd and a bunch of kids taking the lead but the three original Ghostbusters are supposed to nr showing up (RIP Harold Ramis). While Bill and Ted now have teenaged daughters and we now live in a world where rock, which they were supposed to be the saviors of in the first film, is pretty much dead. I am cautiously optimistic of both.

9. The Return of Rock?: Or maybe the return of Bill and Ted will bring the return of rock. The fall was when all the big albums were released but with no one even buying CD’s as Christmas gifts anymore, we are getting a few big names releasing albums early this year. Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots (2/7), Huey Lewis and the News (2/14), The 1975 (2/21), Body Count (3/6), Weezer (5/15) all have release dates with possible albums by Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers (with John Fruscianti back for the first time since… well they last had a hit song), The Killers, and The Offspring. Last decade was pretty dire for rock music with Imagine Dragons taking the top three spots with Twenty-One Pilots taking three other places in the top ten. Will any of the great rock band of yesteryear regain some traction or are we just doomed for the watered down hybrid sound for another ten years? Well at least a reunited Rage Against the Machine are headlining Cochella this year so while we may not get much great rock this year, the acts I mentioned at least have a deep catalogue to return to so I guess rock will always live on.

8. West Side Story (December 18) / High Fidelity (February 14, Hulu): Two things that may not seem like they have a lot in common but they are both IP that were adapted into all-time great movies that will be getting remakes this season that, again, will be going into the cautiously optimistic basket. At least High Fidelity is not another attempt at a movie but instead is being turned into a show starring Zoe Kravitz whose mother Lisa Bonet was in the movie.

7. Little Fires Everywhere (March 18, Hulu): Reese Witherspoon is going for the prestige TV trifecta with her third book adaptation in four years with Big Little Lies on HBO, The Morning Show on Apple+, and now her third book turned show Little Fires Everywhere. The show is set in nineties Cleveland and also star Kerry Washington. Oh, and it premiere on my birthday. Fun times.


6. Snowpiercer (TBA, TNT… maybe): What a weird trip this show has taken to make it to air and we still do not have an airdate. TNT ordered the show back in 2016. It started filming in 2017 but delays took it over a year to finish filming. Then in May of last year it was announced the show would be moving TBS because it seemed like TNT was getting out of the scripted game (another long in development show got shipped off to the upcoming HBO Max), but then switched back to TNT in October. Despite all the turmoil, the show has already been renewed for a second season which has already started filming. Now when I first saw the film, I liked it but I thought it would have been better as a television show with each episode featuring on a different car on the train so hopefully after over three years of waiting we will finally get to see it.

5. The Olympics (July 24): My favorite two weeks of every two years. Where we get to see weird sports and wonder why things like Handball do not get more airtime in off Olympic years. It is a little of a downer that much of the events will be taking place while most of this hemisphere will be asleep. Though 8:00 PM EST is 10:00 AM Tokyo time so maybe we will be getting some early live morning events in primetime. This Olympics will see the return of baseball/softball for the first time since 2008, and new events karate, sports climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.

4. How do The Good Place (returning January 9, NBC) / Homeland (February 9, Showtime) End?: It is the end of the era with two all-time great first seasons. The Good Place has been steadily good since while Homeland fell off a cliff in season three before finally finding a solid footing except for that season where we had to watch Peter Quinn slowly die (man this show waits way too long to kill off characters way past their usefulness). We last saw Carrie completely broken after months in a Russian gulag and Eleanor was last seen waking up her soulmate who is the last chance to save humanity. Should not be hard for someone who loves decisions as much as Chidi.


3. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (premiere January 7, then timeslot premiere February 16, NBC): It has not been a good year for the Pitch Perfect cast, Britany Snow’s Almost Family and Anna Camp’s Perfect Harmony are putting up CW type numbers, the last hope (baring some streamer saving one of those two) is Skylar Astin whose new show, like his wife’s Camp’s show, involves singing, but instead of a choir, Astin works with Jane Levy who hears other people’s thoughts through elaborate song and dance numbers. Awesome. Hopefully this survives somehow. But it will be nicce to see Suburgatory's Jane Levy going back to doing something fun after being a scream queen for the last couple years.


2. The Great (TBA, Hulu): During last year’s upfronts, Hulu showed off promos for a bunch of shows, all of which have aired except one: The Great. I would think The Great would be the next up, but Hulu has already announced its next three premieres (Shrill being the one I have not mentioned) so hopefully it is coming soon because what I saw was hilarious. The show stars Elle Fanning as Catherine (Helen Mirran played an older more serious version on HBO last fall) and Nicholas Hoult as her future husband who looks off his rocker. Hopefully an announcement will be come soon but if Little Fires Everywhere is airing weekly we may not get this any sooner than May.

1. Women Can Be Superheroes Too!!!!!!: It was pretty abysmal for the fairer sex with superpowers. Supergirl back in 1984 sucked and it wasn’t until twenty years later until we got Catwoman, which also sucked. Marvel’s first try at ladies who can fight with Elektra a year later, also sucked. It then took twelve more years after that to get another female fronted with Wonder Woman and it, wait, this one was actually good! Marvel, finally gave a woman her first solo film in the MCU with its twenty-first film. After those two movie made decent amount of bank, things are exploded with three female fronted films this year. You can say four with The Eternals staring Angelina Jolie who is the biggest name in that cast, but really no superhero movies will be headlined white dudes who have dominated the medium up to this point.

First up is the movie I am most excited about: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (February 7), then Black Widow (May 1) in her first solo movie after appear in the MCU eight times already (and after apparently dying… I have not watched Endgame yet, so spoiler alert to me) and the lady who started the woman can headline a superhero film trend with Wonder Woman 1984 (June 4).

But again, I am extremely excited for Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn was the best (only good) thing about Suicide Squad. And where DC has had some head scratching casting for some of their male superheroes (like, say their last two Batmen), but have had some inspiring choices for the feminine ones. Joining Margo Robbie’s Quinn is Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary which is like my fantasy casting come to life. Now if only they will cast Jane Levy as Batgirl.



Then here is everything I will watch on television to start off the year:

Mondays
8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS, January 6)
9:00 - Brain Games (National Geographic, January 20)
10:00 – Manifest (NBC, January 6)
TBD – Cosmos: Possible Worlds (National Geographic Channel, March 9)

Tuesdays
9:00 – Mix’ish (ABC, January 7)
9:30 – Black’ish (ABC, January 7)
10:00 – Project Blue Book (History, January 21)
10:30 – Miracle Workers: Dark Ages (TBS, January 28)

Wednesdays
8:00 – The Goldbergs (ABC January 15)
8:00 – Survivor (CBS, February 12)
8:30 – Schooled (ABC, January 16)
9:00 – Almost Family (FOX, already back)
9:00 - Modern Family (ABC, January 8)
10:00 – Stumptown (ABC, January 8)

Thursdays
8:00 – Superstore (NBC, January 9)
8:00 – Grown’ish (Freeform, January 16)
8:30 – Perfect Harmony (NBC, January 9)
9:00 - The Good Place (NBC, January 9)
9:00 – The Bold Type (Freeform, January 23)
Briarpatch (USA, February 6)

Fridays
High Fidelity (February 14)

Sundays
9:00 – The Outsider (HBO, January 12)
9:00 – Supergirl (The CW, January 19)
9:00 – Homeland (Showtime, February 9)
9:00 – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC, February 16, sneak peak January 7 at 10:00)
9:00 – The Walking Dead (AMC, February 23)
10:00 – Dare Me (USA, already started)
10:00 – Kidding (Showtime, February 9)
10:00 – Good Girls (NBC, February 16)

The Most (and Least) Anticipated Questions of 2019-20 Television

The Challenge premiered last week, Wu-Tang: an American Saga started yesterday and Titans premieres tomorrow which means the slow start of the fall television is upon us until the flood gates upon in two and a half weeks when the networks unveil their line ups. As I usually do every fall, I am asking all the big questions heading into the new television year.

1. Will someone get into The Good Place for the first time in 521 years? You know it has gotten too hard to get into The Good Place when Doug Forcett is currently not on track to get there. But the judge has let Team Cockroach set up a new version to see if people can get in without having to worry about racking up negative point for doing things that in theory sound good like buying flowers for your mother because unfortunately too much gasoline was used to get them there. Of course The Bad Place it doing everything to keep their cupboards stocked by picking four people that will hinder The Brainy Bunch. Which adds a secondary question, who else did Shawn pick? We met an annoying blogger that triggered Tahani. When I heard Shawn got to pick, I initially thought Eleanor’s mom, Tahani’s sister. Chidi’s ex-girlfriend, and Donkey Doug, but the blogger really ruined that prediction. Chidi’s ex still seems very likely, but I really hope Donkey Doug makes an appearance.

2. Will Mr. Robot and Homeland stick the landing? Two shows that had meteoric rises that then had rough sophomore seasons. After seven seasons, Homeland has mostly ironed itself out (aside the season where Peter Quinn slowly and painfully died). Mr. Robot on the other hand has to iron itself quit quickly because this is it. Here is hoping one if not both of these shows can go out in the way they came in.

3. Will Disney+ be a Netflix killer? Netflix has been a behemoth for almost a decade now with even the deep pockets of Amazon, Facebook, and YouTube (who has already thrown in the paid streaming towel) unable to put much of a dent into it. But two companies with even deeper pockets, Apple and Disney are launching their own paid subscription streaming services this fall. Now if I am Netflix, I am not too worried with Apple (one word: Ping) who seems to be more along the lines of Amazon who seems more interested in selling other stuff (though that may change after Amazon bought the rights to tell Lord of the Rings stores for about a billion dollars) but Disney is pushing hard with big name IP (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, along with their classic animated movies) and a very nice price point at $7, one dollar cheaper than Netflix cheapest tier. Expect Disney+ gives you four log-ins to Netflix’s one, and 4K compared to standard definition For $13, Netflix will let you stream in HD on two screens while at that price, you still get Disney+ in 4K with four streams, but you also get ESPN+ and Hulu with ads (no Hulu ad free or live TV bundles announced yet). Disney+ also has discounted yearly rates. Sure these are introductory rates and I would expect a rate hike within five year, but I would still be worried if I were Netflix. And I have not even brought up HBO Max and the unnamed Comcast streamer both coming next year which will be taking two of Netflix’s biggest performers, Friends and The Office respectively.

4. How will Shameless move on without Fiona? After nine seasons it is an end of an era as Fiona finally cashed out and went south away from the bitterly cold Windy City. But there are still five Gallagher children left since Ian, who announced right after Fiona he was leaving the show only to announce his return months later; six if you count Franny and seven if you count Lip’s who is on the way (his baby mamma has been bumped up to series regular as well as Mickey who is regaining that status). So there will likely still be plenty of trouble brewing on the south Side.

5. Who is going to die/show up on Crisis on Infinite Earths? The former may be a bit easier to answer since Arrow has already cancel and the titular character has already been cast on a dude version of G.L.O.W. which I have zero interested in. Of course the comic book had two major death so there may be a surprised death (most surprising would be if it is the same as the comic book). So the bigger question is will there be any surprise appearances. Burt Ward from sixties Batman has been already announced as well as the voice of many Batman animated shows and movies Kevin Conroy. But will there been any surprise guest? Rumor that the three main Smallville actor may show up (Chloe is, um, otherwise busy). But can the lowly CW get anyone from the movies? Can they get anyone from the DC Universe show (the Swamp Thing cast is very avaiable right now) . I hear Ben Affleck is also very available to play his Batman. I just hope they land Black Manta or anyone from the upcoming Bird of Prey movie.


As the great philosopher Butt-Head once pondered, how would we know if something was cool if there weren't things that sucked; here are the five least anticipated questions:

1. Can the Titans defeat Trigon after he mind controlled Dick? Um, the trailer shows Raven with a gem in her forehead, so I am going to go ahead and guess yes.

2. What crappy IP can The CW exploit next? Half of The CW schedule is based on DC heroes (Batworman joins the fall lineup after a lackluster appearance in last season’s team up) that are not to say there is much for any new ideas. The only shows on the fall that are not based on existing IP is some football show and a show that is older than the network itself (granted two of the five midseason shows are original ideas) with dark Nancy Drew also joining the lineup. The Lost Boys has been in development there for a couple years, how long until they do dark Fat Albert?

3. Who will win the battle of Catherine the Great shows? Remember the nineties when there were two asteroid movies, two volcano movies, two Mars movies, and two insect animated movies release within months of each other? With the overabundance of airtime, we might get that version on television. Over the next couple months we are likely to have multiple shows based on a Russian Empress from the eightteenth century. Okay the two will likely be very different as seventy-four Hellen Mirren will star in the HBO adaptation starting October 21 while the Hulu version has twenty-one year old Elle Fanning playing a slightly younger version. No word when Hulu will premiere The Great but if you remember, earlier this year, Hulu surprise dropped their Frye Festival documentary just days before Netflix released their much hyped version. My guess is that the HBO show will get more viewers but the Hulu one will be much more entertaining.

4. Who’s going to watch CBS comedies? For most of this century, CBS comedies have dominated the rating but in the last couple years it has mostly being kept afloat by The Big Bang Theory. But that show is now gone and being replaced by… Bob Hearts Abishola. And as stupid as the name is, the trailer made it look really creepy as a hospital client starts to stalk his immigrant nurse. Then The Unicorn and Carol’s Second Act do not look much better. Compare that to NBC’s Thursday line up and the peacock may finally getting its Much See TV mojo back with the funniest show on television, The Good Place, the always solid Superstore and two freshmen show that look pretty good.

5. How can you make Survivor worse than Edge of Extinction? Well, have an island full of Idols that is inhabited by a giant bust of Boston Rob seems like a good start. Meh. Wake me up when they bring Lauren back.


Here is everything I will be watching this fall. Way too much on Sunday and Wednesday, the networks really need to stary spreading out their shows.

Mondays
8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS, September 23)

Tuesdays
8:00 – The Little Mermaid Live! (ABC, November 5)
9:00 – Mix-ish (ABC, September 24)
9:30 – Black-ish (ABC, September 24)
10:00 – The Purge (USA, October 15)

Wednesdays
Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu, yesterday)
Castle Rock (Hulu, October 23)
8:00 – Survivor (CBS, September 25)
8:00 – The Goldbergs (ABC, September 25)
8:30 – Schooled (ABC, September 25)
9:00 – The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 (MTV, Already Started)
9:00 – Not Just Me (October 2, FOX)
9:00 – Modern Family (ABC, September 25)
10:00 – Stumptown (ABC, September 25)

Thursdays
8:00 – Superstore (NBC, September 26)
8:30 – Perfect Harmony (NBC, September 26)
9:00 – The Good Place (NBC, September 26)
9:30 – Sunnyview (NBC, September 26)

Fridays
Titans (DC Universe, September 6)
Light as a Feather (Hulu, October 4)
Dollface (Hulu, November 15)
Reprisal (Hulu, December 6)
Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu, December 13)
8:00 – The Blacklist (NBC, October 5)

Sundays
8:00 – Ray Donovan (Showtime, November 17)
9:00 – Supergirl (The CW, October 6)
9:00 – The Walking Dead (AMC, October 6)
9:00 - Watchmen (HBO, October 20)
9:00 – Shameless (Showtime, November 3)
10:00 – Mr. Robot (USA, October 6)
10:00 – Silicon Valley (HBO, October 25)
10:00 – Kidding (Showtime, November 3)
Brain Games (Nat Geo, December 1)

The Most (and Least) Anticipated Questions of 2018-19 Television

Here we are a week after Labor Day and already fall television is starting to ramp up before the network start their new seasons. Four shows I am watch just lauched last night.
o here are some questions I am looking to be answered by the time we hit next summer.

1. What the Fork Is Going On in The Good Place? – The Good Place blew our forking mind when the ended the first season with Eleanor figuring out that they were, in fact, in The Bad Place. The show did their big twist a bit early in season two when The Judge sent Team Cockroach back to Earth to live out their lives to see if they would end up being worthy of The Good Place at the start of the list episode so we did get a sneak peak of what season three may be like. It may be a bit precocious to think this will be the whole season considering Michael’s second try only lasted two episodes of season two. All I know about the third season is that Jason better enjoy the Jacksonville Jaguars’ run through the playoffs last year.

2. Will DC Universe Succeed? – We have finally reached streaming saturation where we have to ask of every new service, can it survive? Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu seem to have their foothold with the big pockets of Disney, Youtube, Facebook Watch, and Apple TV lurking (granted deep pockets does not necessarily mean success, remember Ping?). Which begs the question is there a place for niche services? Seriously, who is paying six buck a month to get AMC or FX ad free? Do you at least get their movies uncensored? The latest to put their hat in the ring is DC which is offering a vague number of their comic book movies, shows, and actual comic books along with one exclusive series airing at a time released with weekly episode for eight bucks a month (or seventy-five for a yearly subscription). Does not seem enough to me for a permanent subscription, but I will likely sign up once a year or so for a month just so I can see Lyla Garrity in a superhero costume. Now if only they would greenlight a Saturn Girl spin-off.

3. How Will Homeland End? – How apropos that a show with a bi-polar lead would be the most uneven show in the history of television. As great as the first season was, the third season was equally bad. Since killing off Brody, the show has evened out (though the long slow death of Quinn was excruciating). Two seasons ago, the show backed itself into a Russian hacking storyline before it turned out to really be happening. The show recently announced next will be its last. We left off with Carrie completely off her meds for a lengthy amount of time. Kind of a shame the drama of freeing Carrie wasn’t itself the final season.

4. Will Manifest Be the Next Lost? – Lost launched thirteen years ago and during it six year run, every network tried to replicate its deep seeded mythology with sprawling cast to no avail. Very few got a second season and none I believe got a third. Since they all failed, it has been awhile since a network has tried something so ambitious. Can Manifest, about a plane (how Lostian) lands fire years with the passengers thinking it was a normal flight, capture the magic that Lost did or will it just go the way of The Event?

5. Will the Veronica Mars Reboot Be Any Good? – Veronica Mars has long been the holy grail of gone too soon television shows. We did get a movie thanks to Kickstarter but it was too fan servicey to be great itself. Four years later it looks like we may get a full television revival on Hulu (no official announcement yet but creator Rob Thomas has tweeted out multiple acticles on the subject without actually commenting on it himself). So will the reboot be any good? The movie was good enough and with Thomas and Kristen Bell back, I am definitely optimistic. And free of network constraints, just how dark and gritty will the show get? Can we expect a full frontal Dick Casablancas?


As the great philosopher Butt-Head once pondered, how would we know if something was cool if there weren't things that sucked; here are the five least antedated questions:

1. Who Will Get Roseanne’d Next? - A wise man once said, “Twitter is stupid and Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read.” Twitter has long been a cesspool for the angriest people to shout at each other and earlier this year Roseanne got axed from her highly rated show for being racist. Then about a month later Guardians of the Galaxy writer / director James Gunn was fired, also by Disney for making poor pedophile jokes on Twitter (or so some claimed were jokes; pictures at him at a pedophile themed party did not help his cause). Which begs the question, who will get fired because of Twitter next? Can I put money on Alec Baldwin, who has an upcoming ABC show and surprisingly has never been blacklisted for his very inappropriate tirades including calling his eleven year old daughter a “rude thoughtless pig.” I know it will not be Rian Johnson, another Disney employee and director of an upcoming Star Wars film, who recently deleted all of his tweets older than a year which is probably the wisest thing anyone can do besides never even going on Twitter.

2. What Will Be the Next Crappy Reboot? – Sure there are some reboots to be extremely excited about that may be coming soon like the previously mentioned Veronica Mars as well Alf, and a Deadwood movie. But for every worthy reboot, there seems to be ten crappy ones. Joining Will and Grace and Roseanne The Connors this fall include Murphy Brown, Magnum P.I. Last Man Standing, and Charmed. We will also be getting soon The Hills, Roswell. And also in the works are Bewitched, Designing Women, The Facts of Life, The Muppet Show, Party of Five, The Twilight Show, The Animaniacs, and a double dose of Melissa Joan Hart reboots in Clarrisa Explains it All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (though she will only appear on the former).

3. Where Did the Runaways Runaway To? – It took an entire season for the titular runaways to actually runaway, to the point I do not really care at this point. I am still kind of rooting for the parents.

4. Will FX Continue to Let Kurt Sutter Overindulge? - The first couple seasons of Sons of Anarchy were pretty good. Then the gang went to Ireland and things dragged on a bit. When they got back to California, it did not get much better because FX’s laisse faire attitude let creator Kurt Sutter make longer and long episode that got more and more excruciating to watch. I think there was even a two hour plus episode that included three musical montages in the final season, one sung by Sutter’s wife who was also a star of the show. Aw, nepotism. So his follow-up was a hard pass for me and apparently most of Sons’ viewers because it was canceled after one season. Sutter is back in the motorcycle game with the spin-off with Mayans MC. But if FX continues to give him carte blanche, I think I will pass. And my cable guide has the first episode at over an hour and thirty-eight minutes and episode two at an hour and a half, so definitely hard pass. Seriously FX, notes are good sometimes.
5. Can CW Succeed Going to Six Nights a Week?: The CW was launched twelve years ago and two years later it was outsourcing its Sunday schedule before abandoning the night a year later. A decade later the CW is reviving the night.

And here are the shows I will be watching this fall and when they begin.

Mondays
8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS, October 1)
10:00 – Manifest (NBC, September 24)

Tuesdays
8:00 – The Gifted (FOX, September 25)
9:00 – Blackish (ABC, October 16)
10:00 – The Purge (USA, September 4)

Wednesdays
8:00 – Survivor (CBS, September, 26)
8:00 – The Goldbergs (ABC, September 26)
9:00 – Modern Family (ABC, September 26)
9:00 – Vikings (History, November 28)

Thursdays
8:00 – The Good Place (NBC, September 27)
8:00 – The Big Bang Theory (CBS, September 27)
8:30 – Superstore (NBC, October 4)

Fridays
The First (Hulu, all episodes September 14)
Into the Dark (Hulu, new episodes on first Friday of the month starting in October)
Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu, all episodes December 21)
8:00 – Blindspot (October 12)
9:00 – Midnight, Texas (October 26)

Sundays
8:00 – Supergirl (The CW, October 14)
9:00 – Shameless (Showtime, September 9)
9:00 – The Last Ship (TNT, September 9)
9:00 - The Walking Dead (AMC, October 7)
9:00 - Ray Donovan (Showtime, October 28)
10:00 – Kidding (Showtime, September 9)
10:00 – You (Lifetime, September 9)
10:00 - Escape at Dannemora (Showtime, November 18)

The Ten Best Television Shows of 2017-2018

1. The Good Place 2.x (NBC)

2. GLOW 1.x (Netflix)

3. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 3.x (Netflix)

4. The Handmaid’s Tale 2.x (Hulu)

5. Good Girls 1.x (NBC)

6. Future Man 1.x (Hulu)

7. Claws 1.x (TNT)

8. Shameless 8.x (Showtime)

9. Homeland 7.x (Showtime)

10. The Americans 6.x (FX)


Shows that aired a majority of their season between July 2017 and June 2018 were eligible for this list.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/6/2018

Homeland: The Vice President seemed like a guy who would do the right thing at the right time, but oh boy he went hard on the Russian Ambassador and the Senator. But I was totally surprised Saul got out of Russia within the first twenty minutes. Except poor Carrie got left behind. But I wonder why she did not have diplomatic immunity like Saul? I guess immunity does not extend to people who got caught spying.

Then you have Keene’s speech, at first I thought she was going to get killed by the opposition party for her hippy type speech, but halfway through, I realize, oh snap, this is a resignation speech. Kind of out of character after everything she did to hold on to power for the past two seasons. I wonder if the writers were trying to nudge real life counterpoints. But then they yada yada’ed how Carrie was released. I was thinking that was going to be what next season would be about. Yet seven months later, Saul finds the random Russian guy and Carrie was exchanged. Would have been nice if they explained who that Russian was and how Saul found him.

Fear the Walking Dead: Oh wow, Nick was killed by a little girl (who is a shockingly good shot). That was shocking. Mostly because there was no real lead up to why Nick killed the other guy first. I guess maybe we will see just how that escalated to murder in the flashbacks. The guy being a douche while getting to food they were going after first does not seem like a murderous deed. But Nick should have followed Morgan’s do not kill rule.
you can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: I started this season thinking that the end of the series would feature Chuck and Axe is adjourning prison cells, but is this possibly going to end with only Wendy in jail? Or are Chuck and Axe going to team up to take down Connerty? That was my takeaway from the break the stick metaphor. But I never thought Chuck and Axe would team up after spending two and a half seasons of mutually assured destruction to try to take each other down.

Timeless: So Wyatt’s wife is Rittenhouse? I guess that makes sense? If you are going to save her life, might as well indoctrinate her and use her as another sleeper agent. Might as well do the same for Lucy’s sister. But Rufus is learning the same thing as Gemma on SHEILD in that sure you may not die, but you can get really hurt in the process.
You can download Timeless on iTunes.

Supergirl: Okay, I am a bit confused with the Worldkillers, we saw Reign come from Krypton, but were the other two Worldkillers from Krypton too? Were they sent at the same time as Reign? Are they Earthlings that Reign infected. I feel like I missed something.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Good Girls: What a horrible way to end an episode. I have not been this disappoint in a season one finale of a show I was enjoying since Lost.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.

Rise: So pregnant chick showed up two weeks ago virtually out of nowhere and now am I supposed to know who the girl who made the video is? And I know you want to pretend to be a guy and all, but c’mon, you really do not need to tell the doctor the kid is not yours.
You can download Rise on iTunes.

The Challenge: Vendettas: Good riddance Hennessy, possibly the most annoying person to ever be featured on reality television. But do the Champs now have majority control of both teams? I guess The Miz could change how tiebreakers work next week, but it will be a boring slog if they let the Champs to roll the Stars. But Champs vs. mini seasons have all sucked so far. And why were Tony and Shane throwing whole bags of balls? You could not possibly break anything that way. I feel like I was missing something.
You can download The Challenge: Vendettas on iTunes.

Legion: Wait, what exactly just happened. What I got was the Farouk morphed David’s sister into Lenny, but then why does she have Lenny’s memories. And really has her everything except the sister’s eyes?
You can download Legion on iTunes.

The Handmaid’s Tale: I tried to be vague in my critic of the new season in my preview on account that Hulu forbid me from mentioning that June was recaptured in episode three. But that was kind of a big letdown. Is season two just going to be a retread of season one? But even before the capture, this was least interesting episode in the series to date. Really, the June scenes in the last episodes were mostly a bore too. Hopefully something big changes things soon, or at least give us more Rory Gilmore this season.
You can stream The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

Survivor: Ghost Island: There are so many advantages in the game now that they are hiding real fake Immunity Idols now? Meh. But I do kind of like split Tribal twist. At least in theory. The two most likely to go home actually did. Sure there were almost fireworks, if only Donathan gave his Idol to the chick whose name I already forgotten. But she was kind of worthless. She goes to the jury and then had to have explained to her that someone had an extra vote advantage. Then we almost had some shenanigans in the other with everyone who could receive votes got one. But on the revote, Michael, the obvious one, was voted out unanimously.

So if only Michael voted for Laurel. That would have been wild. But what exactly was his play? Did he think Laurel was voting with him on Wendall and just hoped Kellyn flipped? And what is going on with Kellyn? She was the best thing about this season but has made to look really bad the last two weeks. First she tried to dictate a vote to Domanick last week, a big no-no on Survivor and this week she is big on Naviti sticking together even that just does not happen on this show in the past decade. And has not happened this season with already two Naviti on the jury and the first person voted out after the first swap was Naviti. I have a feeling Kellyn will be next.
You can download Survivor: Ghost Island on iTunes.

The Blacklist: So they took down the big bad last week and this week, Red sends the team on a wild goose chase which got Samar capture. So next week they have to find her. What a weird pacing for the last four episodes. But this whole season has been weirdly paced.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

The Americans: Oh snap, Philip just went after Elizabeth over killing the couple and straight up told her he was not going to entrap Kimmie. Though by the end he is willing to go to Chicago to help her. Something is going to go wrong next week. But one thing that has been bothering me about the travel business is isn’t their extra curricular activities funded by that? And wouldn’t the Russian funnel money through the business to keep them afloat?
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Krypton: Last week I wondered if Doomsday was a red herring or a Chekov’s Gun situation and then he appeared again in the “previously on” so I assumed it was the later. Except he was not shown in the actual episode or even mentioned. Are they just trolling us with that or did I just completely miss something? But I did like Adam Strange admitting he was a D-list superhero in his time. Very true.
You can download Krypton on iTunes.

Gotham: Well, I am sure Gordon survived that blast somehow because we know he will become commissioner eventually, but it is kind of silly, but there is no way that should be the case.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: Wait, Patterson’s father is Bill Nye playing himself? How random. And now that he has brought it up, what is Patterson’s first name.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Nothing says evil like going with a goatee. I do have a feeling going after that gravitonium in the Earth is what cracks it apart. Though I do wonder if Talbot is the real Destroyer of World why does Daisy get blamed for it in the future? But maybe the bigger question is why didn’t future Yo-Yo tell current Yo-Yo do not let Talbot near the gravitonium instead of telling her to do not save Coulson. How is Coulson more important than Talbot becoming Destroyer of Worlds?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.