57 Channels and Only This Was On: July 17, 2022

 

 

Westworld:  With Neo-Delores gone this episode I came to the realization that that storyline is my favorite this season.  Weird they put her in the “Previously On” when she was not in the episode.  But it was cheap they led us to believe Caleb’s daughter was captured only to have her escape at the end so we would know that was not his real daughter at the very last moment.  But what exactly is Charlotte going to do with him?  But welcome back Bernard who is apparently now Dr. Strange living out every possible outcome looking for the one.  But at least Dr. Strange did not take years (decades?) to do it.

 

The Chi:  Oh joy, a Christmas episode in the squelchering heat of July.  The one problem with the switch to shorter season is that we rarely get holiday episodes anymore, but when we do, it just feels awkward watching those months away from the actual episode.   I took the way under on Emmitt’s celibacy, but is he really going to break it with Keisha?

 

Flatbush Misdemeanors:  Okay, that funeral was funny.  But c’mon, instead of wearing a salmon suit, wear darker, less dressy attire.  A dark shirt seems better than a salmon suit.

 

In the Dark:  Murphy Mason, this is your life.  Everyone that has ever been on the show popped up in the trial… well, one person was conspicuously missing.  I have a feeling she will end up being a surprise witness in the next episode.  Will she actually admit to be the one who killed Nia?  But it was really annoying to see Murphy and Darnell have it out in the courtroom when we know they are going to be chummy chummy later in the season before he gets shot.

 

Only Murders in the Building:   "Soooooo, how was prison?" Martin Short is just one of the best at line readings. Casting the evil girl from Fear the Walking as Lucy was an... interesting choice. But she works better than some of the other casting this season. I felt really bad for Mabel when she started feeling around Lucy like how Charles and Oliver feel around her. I found it really interesting that Del the Funky Homosapien sampled the Brazzos song because whenever someone says Mrs. Gambolini, I always hear it in the cadence of Mistadobalina. So maybe that is not a coincidence.

Okay, onto theory corner. I have suspected Howard ever since spotting his black eye in the first episode and I believe his Nina punched him excuse as much as his the cat did it excuse. Though we have now seen the killer twice (or at least presumably it is the killer); last episode attacking Bunny and this episode with Lucy inside the wall and neither really looked like Howard to me. Maybe I need to go back and look, but to me, it looked like a tall thin man, who could only mean one person: Jane Lynch.

I did put the presumably in parenthesis because, why, after killing Bunny, climb a couple floors to Charles' floor? Unless they live on that floor (like Nina but after threatening to get revenge on Bunny's killer, likely not her). Or were they already going to plant the bloody knife? Now I definitely need to re-watch to see if the killer had a bloody knife.  And the (presumed) killer sneezing also makes me think they are probably not a cat guy, who has been my guess most of this season.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  Shocker, the president is still alive.  But why let the vice president take power? 

 

The Challenge: USA:  You got to love any challenge that involves heights and being smart.  But the elimination was confusing, that one dude seemed to be peddling the hardest but his team always seemed behind.  Was his teammate that bad?  I feel like there was something they were not showing up.  The other team failed getting the memorization in one try too.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Like most Marvel properties, this show just sputtered to the end because they have a third act problem and a villain problem.  I did like the Home Alone montage and everyone just randomly popping up at the high school but the fight itself was meh because they never really seemed to figure out who the bad guy was.  Kamron kept going up to the line but never crossed it.  Damage Control was doing shady things, but it was mostly just the one agent who has not gotten much screen time.  But overall, the still ended up being the second best Disney+ show after Loki, and probably the second best thing in Phase 4 so far.

 

The Old Man: So Jeff Bridges is not playing the titular character?  It is not even John Lithgow?  That was a plot twist I did not see coming.

  

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 10, 2021

 

Westworld:  One of the big questions going into the season was if the Man in Black was still alive after Charlotte slit his throat at the end of last season.  Dude hitting hole in one after hole in one like he was Kim Jung Un pretty much confirmed he was a robot.  But shocker, it turns out the real William is being kept alive by Charlotte mostly out of spite I guess.  I wonder if Maeve will actually free him by the end of the season. 

I am just glad we are going back to the park, or a park.  I found it bizarre that a show called Westworld spent I believe one episode in Westworld last season.  I wonder what other parks fake William created.  And just who dropped the can that Caleb picks up in the Next Time On promo.  Did they recreated Deloras or has she been recast?

 

The Chi:  Well, the mayor’s exile did not last very long.  If he was funding Trig’s whole operation, why not just counter blackmail him in a mutual assured destruction before leaving town?  But it is nice to see that teenagers today are familiar with the great Method Man / Mary J. Blige (or, more likely, a middle aged writer forced the teenager to learn the song).  Oh and I am taking the way under on Emmitt’s celibacy.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:   Oh, so the old alien was in Cambodia, the show just yadda yadda’ed how the other two got there.  But it really just felt like the writers new the first season was not great and wrote in a soft reboot of what a second season might be.  But honestly, I would be fine if there were not a second season.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  I cannot believe the show actually made me feel sympathetic towards Bunny, but there are fewer people more sympathetic than life long Knicks fans. Then they made me realize how much of an antagonist she was again by threatening flogging to the courtyard party and unretiring, only to be sympathetic once again at the end when she was not invited into the party. And now we know how she got the tye-dye hoodie. Probably a bad look that the three amigos were the ones that put it on her.

While the new president went to the top of the murder board for the trio, I am still highly suspicious the cat guy. He did not have a black eye at the meeting, but had one the day of the memorial. The murderer also did not look like a very pregnant lady.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  Why didn’t Tally just use one of those song spells on the hunters?   And are these hunters that bad if they are setting up everyone in a mansion?

 

The Challenge: All Stars: Meh, always disappointing whenever Wes wins.

 

The Challenge: USA:  They did some bad casting for this show.  Survivor is the only show I watch and most of them were headscratchers, am not even sure Desi was on the show, even though her chyron says she was.  I am not entirely sure why Love Island was included at all especially considering it is not even on CBS anymore.  Then it just seems extremely unfair that there were six people from the same Big Brother season, four of which were very closely aligned (and inexplicable that when two were sent in first, they did not send in the other two to make sure at least half the alliance went home, that will come back and hunt everyone).

 

Then instead of needing stars or skulls from elimination wins you need $5,000 to run TJ’s finale which can easily be accomplished by win a daily.  If you do not win a daily, you will have to win a few eliminations (or just beat someone who won at least one daily or won a couple eliminations since you win all of the loser’s money).  I guess we will see how this plays out, I am guessing it will not have much of an effect because there will be plenty of chances to win money.  The more interesting twist is the algorithm which forces you to not have the same partner twice until you have partnered with everyone.  That should shake up some alliances… hopefully.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Well, that ending was confusing.  I get the dagger to bangle sent Kamala back in time, but how did she get back to her present.  And just how did the evil lady close that rift when her henchwoman just died?  And how did her powers transfer to Kamal?  And if Kamal the big bad now that they will have to take down in the finale?  Or has Damage Control been the big bad this whole time?

 

The Old Man:  Those night scene in the desert were The Battle of Winterfell dark. Thankfully nothing happening besides two people talking. And my interest in the show really dipped when the dogs got dropped off at the kennel. Hopefully they do not spend too much time in Morocco but I have a feeling we will spend the rest of the season there.

 

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

 

Westworld:  So is Neo-Delores (am not going to bother learning her new name) some sort of descendant of whoever the robot was modeled after (Ford’s mother I think).  Is this taking place in robot heaven, where Teddy’s conscience went off to?  But then, how did Neo-Delores get there?  Season three was pretty bad, yet, I did not have the premiere.  But this season is early.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:   Oh wow, the FBI dude got shot by his subordinate.  I did not see that coming.  And I am not sure exactly why she did it.  But I kind of checked out early in the episode because way too much torture for me.  But is he dead-dead?  When you shoot someone, then walk up to do another shot up close is usually to make sure their dead.  But I guess the question, will some alien technology bring him back.  Speaking of murder, also was not expecting the daughter to jut push her father off the side of the cliff.  I found the horse murder to be a bit sympathetic because it was sick, but then she just goes full psychopath,  But I guess the old alien is not in Cambodia.

 

Irma Vep:  It was not until I listen to a podcast that I realized that Irma is not an actual vampire, just a thief pretending to be one.  I feel so stupid, but then again, I zone out whenever the director is on screen.

 

In the Dark:  Are the cops stupid, they were clearly talking about drugs on the tape, yet they somehow did not think to at the very least drug test the nerd.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  I kept on seeing people talking about Easter Eggs in the title sequence and even after knowing they were there, I never noticed one until the second episode of the second season when I noticed Bunny walking her bird instead of the dog she usually walks a dog.  Ha, good one title sequence creators.  As for the episodes themselves, the new episodes were dominated by stunt casting, which mostly worked in season one.

 

But, oof, off to a bad start so far this year (well aside from Shirley McLaine trying to cut the cheese, I cannot believe that is something I just wrote).  I do not understand what Amy Schumer is trying to do.  Usually celebrities play a meaner version of themselves, like Sting hating dogs and telling Tim Kono to kill himself, but she seems to being playing much nicer than her public persona.  Maybe she just playing nice to get Oliver to sign over the rights of the podcast and there will be a heel turn eventually.  Then Cara Delavigne just cannot act (and that kiss was very awkward).  Surprisingly, Michael Rappaport, who I will never forgive for ruining his season of Justified, was the least annoying.  But I did love how Mabel spent most of her interrogation mocking him.

 

As for the mystery of who killed Bunny, nothing happened that swayed me from my way too early prediction last season that Tina Fey did it to give her true crime podcast some content.  Though Cara Delavigne does seem shady but I feel like she is the Teddy Dimas of the season, someone who did something illegal, but not necessarily murder.  She probably is the forger.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  In the aftershow, they mention how the actor playing Raelle got in a car accident.  So that explains why she randomly just disappeared.  I guess she may just be in bed for a couple episode.  I did recognize her mom, but have little clue who that bad dude was.

 

The Challenge: All Stars: Kaylah definitely cheated and the shoe really needs to put up curtains in the puzzles because even when they put up blinders, someone like Kaylah is going to blatantly cheat.  But I feel like I jinxed Kellyanne by rooting for her as she keeps bombing, even in the paddle boarding which dominated earlier in the season.  But back to back wins may actually get her back in the hunt.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Were we really supposed to care for the new mentor who just showed up, gave a huge exposition dumb right before he (presumably) died?  But I did get a laugh when his apprentice said, “I always wanted to say that.”

 

The Old Man:  The first two episodes were very strong, but Amy Brenneman is really dragging the show down.  Maybe he should have not just killed her in her dream.  I do not even understand that whole divorce threat and how that would stop him from killing her.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 26,2022

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife:  So we are supposed to believe there are five fetuses just stuck in time somewhere?  Gross.  Plus it does not make any sense.  Henry did not manifest his powers until he experienced a traumatic experience when he was about ten, but these fetuses could do it before they are even fully formed.  Huh?  And Ygritte plan is to just fork younger Henry’s until one stick just seems just as dumb. 

 

The First Lady:  So the show ends with Eleanor losing her husband and getting a new job, Betty opening up a rehab facility and Michelle, well Michelle is dealing with a douchebag moving into her house.  I said it before, but way too soon to include Michelle on this show.  But it turns out that Eleanor ignores her children so much to the point I was surmised when the only child we saw said she had six.  We rarely saw any Ford children besides Susan, but they did show up.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:   Oh yeah, I remember those nun from the episode where the FBI guy birth the cow.  I do not remember why he went there, chasing the alien, I guess.  I know we are supposed to think the FBI guy is evil, but shooting a nun in the back was a little too cold.  And that nun bleeding in the shape of angel wings was a bit much.

 

I Love That for You:  They got me with Joanna admitting she was lying only to be revealed that they cut the feed.  But I was correct that they were going to keep the ruse even if they found out she was lying.  But no way are they going to let her leave for HSN because they could just extort her to stay.  I would also like to say, great INXS deep cut.  They are considered an eighties band, but they did have some great music they put out in the following decade.  I will stand by Welcome to Wherever You Are. 

 

In the Dark:  They said it was an hour to the cabin, but was the sister lawyer really able to get the case files about the queenpin, make it to the prison, get though the visitation hurdle, convince the queenpin not to kill her brother, and then have the queenpin get in contact with her henchmen in time?  That is just a completely absurd jump of logic.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  Ooops, I forgot to search for a recap on YouTube before watching the new season, that Previously On was not nearly enough information.

 

The Challenge: All Stars: Ugg, I really hate when they leave the episode on a cliffhanger.  I was going to say especially since there was obviously not going to be a women’s elimination since Veronica broke her toe while walking down the steps (?) but the next time on has KellyAnne and Kahlah with helmets on while holding on the stick.  T.J. can be very trollish, but would he really wait until he is just about to blow the whistle before saying, just kidding, you are both safe?  Sure, I would find that hilarious, just do not make us wait a week to see it.

 

Obi Wan Kenobi:  My two favorite lines in the episode, if not the entire series, were, "This ends today." I had a good laugh at that. No it doesn't. I am not one to whine about stakes, but that was just a trollish line from the writers. The other was, "Goodbye Darth." So Obi Wan is just on a first name basis with an evil sith lord already. Okay.  But the Third Sister just turned out to be completely useless and made little sense and was just one of way too many people this season who were inexplicably defeated but for some reason were not finished off.  After this and Boba Fett, hopefully Andor puts the Star Wars universe back on track.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Brown Jovi was great, but why do you not have them play Livin’ on a Prayer during the fight sequence?  Why not have Brown Jovi soundtrack the whole series?

The Old Man:  Just by seeing her in the cast list, I assumed Maeby was the daughter before seeing she was in the CIA.  Thankfully they did not wait that long to make that reveal.  I am also glad that they confirmed fairly quickly that the Old Man stole the Warlord's wife because that was my first thought as to why the warlord wants the Old Man.  Now I just need for them to reveal why the Warlord waited 30 years to seek his revenge and why the CIA is helping.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 19, 2022

 

The First Lady:  So the show ends with Eleanor losing her husband and getting a new job, Betty opening up a rehab facility and Michelle, well Michelle is dealing with a douchebag moving into her house.  I said it before, but way too soon to include Michelle on this show.  But it turns out that Eleanor ignores her children so much to the point I was surmised when the only child we saw said she had six.  We rarely saw any Ford children besides Susan, but they did show up.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:   There is home security and then is biological weapons than make someone’s head explode.  I think I have to concede that Newton is still alive after that plot, yet something still seems off with his conversations with Faraday.  I just get strong Kal-El talking to his dead parents in the Fortress of Solitude vibes from those scenes.  But then we get the explosive reveal at the end that Newton’s plan is to bring his people to Earth.  So what becomes of the humans?  Just how many of his people are left?  Will Faraday even go along with this?

 

I Love That for You:  Okay, I laughed so hard when Ryan Philippe came in at the end.  We were told he was a gust at the telethon, but I certainly was not expecting him to show up as the only to have an audio response to Joanne admitting she was not actually sick. I have predicted that Patricia would still want to profit off of the fake sickness if she ever found out, but now that Ryan knows, can she still keep up the ruse?

 

In the Dark:  So Murphy is out already… with the drug lord drugs with her.  Oops.  So that is why Darnell get shot?

 

The Challenge: All Stars: There have been dumb answers throughout the years in trivia, but “Lance Armstrong” being the first person on the moon is up there as the dumbest ever.  But it was nice to see The Treehouse go from the majority to the minority in two short weeks.  No confirmation from TJ, but will be actually have the final start next week without the Sabotage anymore?  Based on the episode count, seems like there will be one more elimination.  Maybe the mercenaries is why we no longer have a sabotage.

 

Obi Wan Kenobi:  If the Third Sister was really hunting Darth Vader this whole time to get revenge for her fellow younglings, why has she not done it already?  I am pretty sure she was alone with him an episode or two ago.  But anyway.  Gotta love any plan that hinges on a ten year old understand advanced electronics.  Why exactly did they build that place so small no normal human person could fit into it?

 

Ms. Marvel:  Illumin-aunties may have been the greatest nickname ever.  So the new dude is evil (calling him your cousin is a weird way to hide your crush’s identity)?  Never trust a dude who recreates Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  Though his mom might be the real Big Bad.

 

Players:  I really enjoyed American Vandal and only gave this show a try because it was by the same people.  I am not sure it is because I know nothing about e-sports or the key of the other show was potty humor and this show lacks it, but, man, this show I boring.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 12, 2022

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife:  Wait, so the time traveler is dating Ygritte and the blonde at the same time?  I do wonder at what point do they just have an orgy with multiple versions of the time traveler.  If dude is willing to soak his own deck, you have to imagine he would be down for that.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  We learned before the last break that Madison was coming back but did they really have to wait until the very last episode and an episode after Alivia (seemingly) died?  For a second, I thought the zombiefied version of the mother kind of looked like Alicia, I wonder if that was intentional.  But I am really having trouble believing someone who needs oxygen could survive a zombie apocalypse very long.  No way Madison is aking it long enough after the mother destroyed her tank.

 

The First Lady:  I am glad they finally got Betty out of the White House because she probably as the most active post-White House life of any First Lady other than Hilary Clinton.  Actually they could have gotten her out sooner because two and a half episodes do not seem like enough.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:  I have had an issue with tone while watching this show; it just seems all over the place.  But this was the first episode that actually felt cohesive.  I liked the devise of the alien talking to his wife.  The show may have been better off if had just been him telling his story on Earth to his wife.  But they found the original alien?  Living unground in a mountain in Cambodia?  Alrighty.  I have questioned if he was actually still alive or not and… and I still am questioning if that is really him.

 

I Love That for You:  Oh my, I was not expecting that good ol’ southern boy to be having sex with a woman.  But now that Beth Ann is on to Joanna, thinking she is dating her father who is pretending to be her doctor, I wonder how long until she figures out the entire ruse. Oh, and I really hope clip on bangs are not a real thing. 

 

Irma Vep:  I liked this show when Alicia Vikander was on screen, but really disliked it whenever the Fresh director was on screen.  Hopefully he gets fired from the film.

 

In the Dark:  Ugg, they are doing the stupid, three months earlier trope.  Let me guess, the blind chick gets released early for turning on the queenpin and the bald chick shoos her buddy.  But why is she not telling the guard that someone put a razor in her sandwich?

 

The Challenge: All Stars: Good riddance to treehouse.  Is Sylvia really that horrible of a person or is she trying way too hard to be part of a possible rivals season?  I just cringed at her completely unnecessary hate towards Kellyanne.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  This show just cannot get through a whole season without someone leaving.  Though they seem to be having a harder time getting casts back together if they had to jump from season two to nine.  Next up would be Back to New York, but I am guessing you are not getting The Miz to take two weeks off.  Rumors they may have to jump to Austin (season 16) or Key West (17).  My suggestion is go back to the start and get as many from San Francisco and as many from London and just combine seasons if you cannot get a full cast to show up.  Or maybe it is time to try Road Rules Homecoming.  Who would not want to see a bunch of forty and fifty ear olds spend a week or two in a Winnebago?  I was kind of hoping someone from Road Rules would show up and steal their robotic dog again.  Oh well.

 

Obi Wan Kenobi:  Why knock out the Stormtrooper and drag them into an empty room if you are not going to steal their armor? A disguise would have made things a bit easier. But I guess you cannot hide Leia in the suit.  Then Boba's lay down Bacta Tank seems like a much better alternative than having to be suspended like Darth and Obi-Wan were. But nothing gets me more than the lighting up a lightsaber in a dark room. Chills every time.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Well, that was a delight.  It has been a while since I laughed as hard as I did when the dad walking in in his Hulk costume.  For a second, I thought the show was just going to straight up murder a teenage girl with Thor’s hammer.  Hopefully the show does not get ruined by Ms. Marvel actually getting powers.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 8, 2022

  

Fear the Walking Dead:  Oh Luciana, why are you lying to Daniel about his daughter just moments after the guy literally murdered a dude who lied about his daughter.  But to be honest, I have no clue what happen to his daughter and part of me thinks she could very well end up in the tower.

 

The First Lady:  I found it interesting that there were multiple wheelchairs in the episode, Betty’s student and Michelle’s dad, but none in the timeline with possibly the most famous wheelchair user.  But I found it odd that this was the marriage origin episode but Franklin did not show up until the scene before the wedding.  Instead Eleanor spends most of the episode at boarding school.  And he was the only actor who played a husband that I actually recognized (reuniting him with his Looking for Alaska co-star who played young Betty).  I wonder if we will get more episodes with the younger versions in future episodes, there are still decades until they move into the White House, but on the other hand, you have Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson, are you really going to sideline them for multiple episode.  But then again, maybe the reason they signed on for a ten episode season was they would get a few episodes off.

 

I did break my one rule of watching based on real events shows/movies, going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole while watching.  I was stuck that Eleanor’s maiden name was also Roosevelt I just had to look right away to see if she married her cousin.  Later in the episode FDR made it a point to mention they were just fifth cousins.  I kind of forgot Teddy, who was actually Eleanor’s uncle, and Franklin were distantly related.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:  Honestly, I am kind of more interested with what happened to Newton when he arrived on this planet.  So the scientists took his eyes, when crazy and killed all but one of them.  When is that flashback episode?

 

The Endgame:  Well, at least we learned why the evil lady hated Elana, but I feel like that reveal should have come earlier.  The president seemed like a more formidable big bad.  To learn he was just a puppet just fell flat.

 

The Girl from Plainville:  Elle Fanning was great in the show, but ultimately, this story was not really worthy of an eight episode series when all you have are basically a bunch of text to base the show on.  If you are going to stretch this story to eight episodes, you really needed to have more musical number / dream sequences. 

 

Moon Knight:  If Layla’s sprit animal is a Hippo, why did she get budget Wonder Women wings?  I guess being really hungry would be a lame superpower I guess.  But again, the blackouts were fun in the first episode was funny, but how do you yadda yadda the final battle?  Did they just do that to save the reveal everyone knew coming for the post credit scenes? 

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Oh Julie, not only are you a bigger mess than when you were first time in New Orleans, you got caught admitting you are playing things up for the cameras.  Number one rule of reality television, do not get caught manufacturing drama for camera time.  

 

Survivor:  So we do not get a reaction from Drea about RocksRoy’s all dude’s alliance.  Oh well.But this seems the episode where you really have to put Omar as the frontrunner to win.  Will anyone realize he is playing all sides before it is too late?

 

The Flight Attendant: Guess my prediction that the two kidnappers were the ones who were found in the lake.  So I guess those two are going to be someone we are not familiar with.  But there are certainly trying to make it seem like Cassie’s handler is a bad guy but I am just not buying it.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  Yet another episode over an hour.  They really could have cut the homelife storyline, which adds nothing to the show.

 

Halo:  It was a bit strange to have a whole episode without Master Chief, especially after the bif reveal of The Halo last week.  Well no real Master Chief, just a fever dream of him.  I did like there was a video game homage with Kwan keep on respawning after he kills her.  But I missed where Swhere Soren left the planet, and then just showed back up this week.  But I got a good laugh where he got shot, the bunker that was supposed to protect him from the blast has slits that let the flames in, but still managed to walk out of the bunker all right.

 

Big Sky:  Didn’t Jenny just join the force?  A bit weird she became the defacto leader after the chief got shot.  Is there no one with more seniority?

 

The Blacklist:  I am glad they revealed that Aram was still under the influence shortly after Park died, because I pegged it a dream when he was happily riding his bike  It was weird they kept going from Aram’s dream to real life all episode.  I wonder if Samar will be haunting Aram for a couple more episodes because she was there at the end and it would be strange to bring her back just for basically one scene.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 1, 2022

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  I was not expecting this show to do a teen rom-com episode.  That was weird.  Though one of the teens died and the other one is dying.  At first I thought June and Charlie were playing up the sickness to get the dude to turn off the beckon, but it turns out she really is sick.  Which would make her the second main character seemingly with a terminal diagnosis.  Though, maybe I should use main in quotations because I spent most of the episode trying to remember when the last time we saw Charlie was.  I think she may have been with the group who were holed up in the fort after the bomb went off, but I do not remember her ever being around Morgan since the explosion.

 

The First Lady:  I forgot how racist the media was against Michelle Obama.  She was so beloved during her time as First Lady; it was shocking to remember how some tried to portray her as the “angry black woman.  Oof.

 

The Endgame:  Elena has panned everything out so meticulously, but she did not have a plan in place for the president to just say fork it and bury her alive?  You would think she would have Snow White monitoring the place in case she was ever removed from Fort Tottem.  How do you not see that coming?

 

The Girl from Plainville:  Involuntary intoxication… I may have to remember that one.  Though I guess it is not a great defense if there is a warning at the start of the episode basically saying very few professionals believe it is a thing.  And though I could see it coming from a mile away, the title of the episode was Teenage Dirtbag, but seeing a bunch of grade schoolers sing the song to Michelle was creepy but still fairly entertaining.

 

Moon Knight:  While it is not uncommon for people to create a new persona when dealing with trauma, I was under the impression the primary creates the new persona to deal with the grief, not to be the one who only remembers their mother and a nice and caring person.  That was a little weird.  But R.I.P. Steven?  Though if Mark created him once, I guess he could do it again when he makes it to the land of the living again.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Oh no, it looks like Julie was trying to make up for the months she did not drink during her first visit to New Orleans in one night.  But why doesn’t Tokyo just leave?  Danny also wanted to stay, let her be his problem and let them get an Uber later.

 

Survivor:  Oh joy, another special episode.  But what makes Drea look bad was that she voted out Chantelle and was talking about stealing Maryanne’s Idol.  Seems like she was perfectly fine with getting rid of half of the black people left, she just got mad when he closest black ally got voted out.  I do wonder if anyone will explain to her the reason why Rocksroy was booted was because he was trying to start an all dudes alliance. Then Maryanne was perfectly fine going to Tribal and voting out another black person when the last Tribal she went to another one was voted out then had to be told by Drea why she should be offended.

 

But I was sure Tori would be the first successful person to play the Shot in the Dark.  I have been talking all season we knew Tori would not go home because the opening montage showed her find something so I was extremely shocked that she went home before she found anything.  I re-watched that opening montage and Jeff talked about the dumb phrase advantage while there was a close up of Tori making a shocked face but it seems like I just somehow morphed that into that she found something.

 

The Flight Attendant: So are the two bodies found in the lake the two people who were in Cassie’s house?  And did fake Cassie alert someone to the bodies being there so they would be found?  But doesn’t Cassie have a pretty good alibi of being in Iceland at the time?  Sure, she was not on the manifest, but her FBI buddy and the person who seat she took can vouch for her.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  I know this is based on re al events, but the show does not need a murder mystery, the Mormon family drama in the eighties is interesting enough.  I could do without the cop stuff.  With both episodes going over an hour, I definitely could have also down without the Joseph Smith flashbacks too.  Then the second had way too much dog murder.

 

Made for Love:  Did they really think they could do weeks of treatments without someone noticing?  I understand dude is a bit of a recluse, but wouldn’t he need to go to the grocery store eventually or pick up his meds?  He is just never going to go for a walk?  At least he figured it out by the end of the episode.

 

Halo:  After the big battle last week, this week was a bit of a letdown.  I did like when Master Chef locked the doctor up to see if she put a failsafe in Cortana, but the rest fell flat, especially the reveal of the titular place which really means nothing to someone like me who never played the game.

 

The Blacklist:  So Red basically started the episode working through if Mr. Kaplan was really and how silly it sounds that she could be the one be to kill Lizzie, basically saying pretty much what I said last week.  But I am now thinking that the sister is behind it all.  They did make a point to say how much she looks like her sister.  But how convenient that neither Red nor Harold bothered to join the raid.  I knew that place was going to blow up the moment neither got out of the car.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 24, 2022

 

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Oof, that was a fairly week way to return from a hiatus.  Then they killed off the only mildly interesting part of it.

 

The Endgame:  So the cameraman turned out to be the president who stole all the gold in the Federal Reserve.  What?!?  This show is just getting batshirt crazy and I am all for it.  How does he get all that gold out of there?  How did Elena know this?  That heist deserves its own episode.

 

The Girl from Plainville:  They have been telling us of the altercation between Coco and Co, it almost feels like a letdown to finally see that.  Not to mention, Coco kind of deserved it.  Though to see him flack off on his job to play video games on top of his attempted suicide, it does seem like that kid needed a lot more help than what he actually got.

 

Moon Knight:  I am not up on my Egyptian mythology, but that was not Ammit at the end, was it? And Mark freeing Steven but sees another person trapped inside a tomb and just keeps walking seems very cruel of him.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  It was interesting they had the cast enter much like they did the first time but they did not have <strike>David</strike>Tokyo meet Julie on the trolley, leaving her to enter the house last.  Though, considering everything that happened after the original show, not that surprising that had Julie enter last by herself..  Speaking of things that happened after the show, it is a shame they filmed this at the same time as The Challenge: The Senior Tour 3 so we would have gotten a possibly even more awkward reunion of Julie and Veronica; you think writing a defamatory letter is bad, Julie almost murdered Veronica.  But anyway.  Who would have guessed that Tokyo would have been the biggest voice of reason twenty years later?  But I have very little relocation of Danny or Jamie from the original season.

 

Survivor:  My goodness, just how many advantages does Drea have now?  That has to be a record for most at a single time.  I do routinely complain about all these new twists, but I have to admit, I did like that the new caught red handed beware advantage turned out to be literal.  How she did not go straight to the ocean after getting back to the beach is beyond me.  I wonder if Tori will do anything after catching Drea literally red handed.  Would anyone believe her?

 

The Flight Attendant: I thought for sure after the first episode the new flight attendant was Casey’s doppelgänger, but after the second, I am not quite sure.  It is really doubtful it is the lady in the couple that copied Casey’s phone and abducted her neighbor.  Cheryl Hines does give me older Casey vibes, but why would someone high up in the CIA set Casey up herself?  The show set up a lot of questions in these first two episode, we will see if they can successfully answer them all.

 

Halo:  Oh wow, our first action sequence since the first episode.  You would think a show based on a first person shooter would have a little more action.  But I guess television has a budgetary restraint.  I guess that is why we do not get any live action video game television shows.

 

Ghosts:  I thought for sure someone would get sucked off this episode, instead we just got a sucked off fake out.  Though Sam and Jay almost got sucked down.  Is this show just going to turn into The Money Pit in season two?

 

The Blacklist:  One thing I am surprised red did not ask was who even would know where this person hiding the safe was and where Red even got his safe.  But it looks like Red sound out the who… or at the very least who this person wants to think is behind all this. I am having a hard time believing that Mr. Kaplan was behind Lizzie’s death, oh and she threw herself off a bridge five years ago.

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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