57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 16, 2023

 

 

The Walking Dead: Dead City:  So no one notice Negan dispose of a body and clean up the crime scene?  Lucky for him I guess.  But trying to humanize Negan by being upset that the Croat killed someone when dude went around at this time bashing people’s skulls in is a bit much.

 

Cruel Summer:  Well, the girls now have motive with him trying to mack on both girls.  I wonder if they try to entrap him in a threesome but them torture him, but one goes too far.  Crazy neighbor seems more and more like a red herring.

 

Secret Invasion:  Of course she was not actually dead; Emilia Clarke is too famous to be killed off halfway through a show.  But what a stupid plot twist.  If you have to explain your plot twist with a flashback, it probably is not good.  It was still stupid of her not to shapeshift to get out of there.  But are they really going to do the same silly plot twist this week, but with her father?

 

Full Circle:  I like the moral implications of what do you do if someone claims to have kidnapped your kid but it turns out to be the wrong kid.  What do you do?  Except so many comedy of errors, this may have been a better show if it were an actual comedy. Oof, how exactly do you competently explain why the other kid had the exact same hoodie and same shoes?  And did the other kid not have an sort of ID probing he was not who they thought they kidnapped?  And did the guy really not notice he shot a dummy?  Shouldn’t the lack of blood be a huge clue?  Then I do not understand calling for a ransom if you are not going to take it and were just going to kill him anyway.

 

The Blacklist:  Ten years, and over 200 episodes and it was almost worth it to watch the absolutely laughable stupid ending.  Seriously, Red gets gored by a bull and never explains to anyone why he shut down his criminal empire?  Rood riddance.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 9, 2023

  

The Walking Dead: Dead City:  Did Negan just kill that dude by cheese grater to the face?  Seems like that would just be painful, not actually kill you.

 

Cruel Summer:  I said after the second episode that Isabelle and Parker had some unspoken connection and not so surprising when the Landry’s kicked her out, it looks like she moved into Parker’s.  Then you had Parker stirring things up by pushing her towards Luke even though she was with Jeff.  And was that the crazy neighbor Megan was helping, I do wonder how he fits into all this.

 

Secret Invasion:  Why did the Skrull cared so much that Fury had the kid of the person he was impersonating? And is G'iah really dead? Kind of strange for a shape shifter to not shift her shape when trying to escape. But I guess if G'iah really is dead someone who looks like Emilia Clarke is chilling in one of those pods and will be rescued as soon as next week.

 

The Clearing:  So Freya killed Asha, except maybe not because someone else said Adrianne did.   So did Adrianne convince Freya she killed Asha, or was the guy just trying to comfort Freya by putting blame elsewhere?  Meh, what a meaningless show.

 

The Blacklist:  Finally we have gotten to the endgame, Red is on the outs and people think he is dead, except, he forgot to put decoy bodies in the plane.  Ooops.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 2, 2023

 

The Walking Dead: Dead City:  When I first saw those helmet dudes, I thought the blades were a bit overkill, but I guess they could come in handy in a zombie apocalypse

 

Cruel Summer:  So Isabella has been connected to two drownings?  It seems way too early in the season for that not to be a red herring though.  I do wonder if we will see that summer with the dead chick at some point.

 

Secret Invasion:  Wait, Shooter McGavin is a Skrull?!?!?!  I feel so betrayed. 

 

The Blacklist:  Yet another week, yet another dismantling for Red’s criminal empire.  This season really did not need to be 22 episodes.  How is there still three left?  Let us just to Red's reason why he is doing it.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 25, 2023

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  They killed off the big bad already?  So is the unseen person who overheard the radio transmission going to be the new big bad?  Who is that?  We still have not seen Strand whom I only remember is still alive because he was mentioned in the aftershow.  Where exactly has he been?  I vaguely remember him being on a boat with Alicia.  But she may or may not be dead.

 

The Walking Dead: Dead City:  Holy Smash Williams sighting!  Though the anti-man cowboy look does not really suit him.  Who thought was a good idea? Well, it is about a good idea as Maggie teaming up with the dude who bashed her husband's head in.

 

Cruel Summer:  So Megan was pregnant?  I wonder if the blood she was cleaning up in the premiere was hers not the dead guy’s.  I am also wondering is possibly she was telling the truth that the dude did run away and was hiding out in the cabin and it was not her or Isabelle that killed her and the baby was the big secret they were holding.  But if not them, who?  The brother?  The gun crazy neighbor?

 

Class of ‘09:  So we are not going to learn who tried to kill Tayo or why?  Just that it was probably someone inside the FBI and Tayo was promoted to director for his troubles?  What a stupid show.  Good riddance.

 

The Blacklist:  Is Red dying… again?  He risks his life to see a ballet recital; he has been dismantling his criminal empire, trying to end blood feuds.  What else would he be doing things if not to get his affairs in order?  But unlike the last time when he had a miraculous recovery and Lizzie ended up dying instead, since the series is ended, he will probably actually die this time.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 11, 2023

 

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Wait, where are they that Morgan can easily head back to his hometown?  I thought Padre was South Padre Island, but Texas  is a bit of a hike to Atlanta. 

 

Cruel Summer:  I spent the first episode thinking that Isabella and Megan were hooking up and were extorting the nerd for money that went horribly wrong, but then spent the second episode thinking Isabella was hooking up Parker and were on some revenge trip on the brothers.  Isabella is definitely hooking up with someone of the fairer sex.

 

But what an absurd premise that this all hinged on people assuming Isabella was on the tape and not his current girlfriend, who just happens to have the same skin color as the person on the tape.  Though I believe it was Parker who first threw out Isabella’s name which could back up my thought from the second episode that they are in cahoots.  Except, it did not seem like they even bonded until they broke into the house together, so there goes that theory.

 

Class of ‘09:  Oh no, the dude I forgot was even on the show is dead.  Oh well.

 

The Blacklist:  So is the final Blacklister Red taking down himself?  It kind of seems like he is getting rid of all his assets, even his unknown shipping business.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: June 4, 2023

 

Fatal Attraction:  Wait, the daughter is some slutty stalkers because of one conversation with Lizzie Caplan?  Really?  And she chooses to stalk… Johnny Crowder?  And I though Lizzie Caplan being murdered by the new husband was going to be the most inexplicable twist of the season.  Who could have guessed those two insignificant characters in the previous episodes would end up being so important to the finale?

 

The Blacklist:  How lucky were we that we got three episodes over the past week?  Lucky in that we are three episodes closer to the finale.  Yet we still got a month and a half to get there.  We did get a little more Siya backstory but I am still waiting for some bigger connection to Red and the season as a whole.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Oh yeah, Daniel is still alive, but the only thing I remember from him last season was that maybe he was brain damaged.  I guess he has recovered.  But so much for a mother’s intuition, where is Maury to say “you are not the mother”?

 

Saint X:  Note to showrunners, if you are going to do a murder mystery, do not have the twist be there was no murder.  I never thought Gogo and Edwin did it, but c’mon, at least have the boring white dude do it.  Though I missed how the sister knew he saw his sister right before she died.  Oh well.  At least the show gave us the strong message that if you have anti-man sex, it will ruin your life.  Happy Anti-Man Pride Month everyone.

 

Class of ‘09:  Would the FBI really let Kate Mara continue to be a field agent after she lost an eye?  Seems like having peripheral vision would be very import if you are working in the field.  But I wonder if the computer guy is the same guy who died in the future.  But I do not care enough to look it up.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  That “race” looked like they were going five miles per hour.  But I am surpised they could not find a way to have both boys stay.  Speaking of boys, holy Zucko sighting.  Though clearly it is not Danny, who is likely in middle school with Rizzo and Frenchie.  Did everyone from the original movie have an older sibling?

 

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

 

Fatal Attraction: I am still pretty confident that Lizzie Caplan is not dead.  That is all I really can say because not that much interesting in this episode.

 

The Blacklist:  When they first called that person “agent Malik” I thought someone was impersonation Siya’s.  It was not until someone called her “Meera” that realized these were flashbacks.  Hopefully we get more of this the rest of the season because it is the only interesting part.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Not only did Morgan and Grace give up their kid, so did Dwight and Sherrie.  What happened these last couple years that all four just gave up like that?  We got some vague flashbacks last week, but it is still a bit puzzling.  Also puzzling, cutting of the index finger of someone you want to make a cure for zombieism.  That could come in handy, kind of stupid to cut it off.

 

The Clearing:  Yeah, I called the adult lady to be one of the kidnapped girls very early on.  Okay, I did think was going to be the most recent kidnapped girl.  I wonder if she will show up in the current timeline.  I wonder what happened to all those kids.

 

Saint X:  I have been saying the frumpy chick was the murderer all season, but after the penultimate episode, I am starting to have doubt.  I am beginning to think the “mistake” she talked about a couple episodes ago was to suggest the devil’s threesome.  Then after spending all season thinking that

 

Class of ‘09:  So they are done with the character of the week already?  Poor boring white dudes never got their own episode.  So are we to assume the one boring white dude lost his arm in the building collapse? 

 

Survivor:  Well, that was a bottom five season.  It has been a while since there has been a good one.  I looked back at my rankings and have not given any season over a “5” since David vs. Goliath. 

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  Why is Olivia’s parents given their blessing to her teacher?  How do they not think that is gross?

 

Yellowjackets:  I am confused.  Is that really the end of the Adam storyline?  Are the cops really going to believe that Kevyn killed him because Walter cyber framed him?  Are they just going to overlook that Kevyn had two bullets in him.  Oh, and that he actually died by being drugged.  And drugged at the same compound and day that a high school classmate also died from an overdose whose needle was injected into her chest.  Oh, and another one of his classmates and the owner of the compound had a bullet in her shoulder.  How exactly do they explain all that?  And wouldn’t six Yellowackets being on the premises  where two deaths and one shooting attract massive media attention.  Is this chapter really over or is Walter just being delusional when he said he fixed everything?  Feels like the Yellowjackets should be in a bigger mess than they were when it was just Adam.

 

But on the bright side, at least Coach Ben finally realized he should try to kill all those crazy benches.  Hopefully the writers take this extended writers’ strike to realize what went wrong and spend the downtown thinking up a coherent third season that can right the ship.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 14, 2023

 

Fatal Attraction:  Oh thank goodness, Lizzie Caplan killed the old lady (allegedly).  I thought she might have killed the dog.

 

The Blacklist:  I was befuddled when Red was still part of the task force assuming killing the one dude in a federal building without the FBI’s knowledge would be a step too far.  I guess it was as Red scrubbed himself from the record and did not show up to the meeting with the Committee Chair.  It just took a week longer than I expected.  But maybe the bigger news is that the new chick was adopted.  I have to assume this will somehow tie back to Red.  He cannot possibly be the father, van he?

 

Saint X:  My pick of the brunette chick got a good bump this week when she said she made a horrible mistake.  Though the preppy dude and the creepy pregnant couple were also implicated in that cold open.  Maybe everyone was there when she died. 

 

Class of ’09:  Well those first two episode were kind of a borefest.  Hopefully things pick up and soon.  Quantico was a pretty bad show, but at least it was not boring.

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  The show really needs to stop people like Tori and Kacee with their predetermined alliances on the show.  It makes it so boring to watch.   The veterans really ruined what could have been an entertaining season.  Those country specific shows were much more entertaining without them.

 

Survivor:  So are they not going to explain why the two chicks would rather the tribe breakdown to be 3-2-1 instead of 2-2-2.  That makes about as much sense as the guy with an Idol not playing it even though an Idol got played for the person he voted for.  What did he think would happen?  Clearly Tika was on to him so he basically had a one in four shot that the votes would come to him.  That may be a top ten dumbest play in the history of the show.  Almost as silly was the Tika saying they would be in the majority if the votes go their way.  It is still three-three and I believe they know that one of those three has an extra vote.  So they could easily get voted out with a three to four split.  Of course those two have to wise up and vote out a Tika next week and wise moves and been few and far in-between this season.  Thankfully only one episode left.  I am ready for this season to be over.

 

Titans:  That ending made no sense.  How did Superboy come back to life?  I knew he would, but at least put him under some yellow sun so it makes sense.  There are just too many of this inconsistency to name.  Good riddance to this poorly executed show.  It should have been much better.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  I did not think I needed an episode dedicated to the T-Bird and after this episode, I gotta say, I was right.  Those kids have absolutely no charisma, especially compared to John Travolta.

 

Yellowjackets:  I was getting ready to write that this was the first episode where the modern day scenes were more interesting than the 90’s… and then Shauna had to go and punch Misty out of nowhere and just wailed on Lottie, so I think it may be a draw.  But still, I am disappointed that it took so long for all the girls to get to the cult (one of them noticeably said “we’re all here,” does that mean everyone else is a goner?).  The Misty tank may end up going down as the most entertaining scene of the series.

 

Speaking of the “we’re all here,” prior to that I believe Lottie mentioned that most everyone was there, but they hid the face to begin and for a second I thought maybe she was talking to Ben, whom Misty just talked off a cliff, before revealing it was her psychiatrist who turned out to not be there.  So it looks like my prediction that Ben kills himself is wrong… for now.  Though I did not see him in the brawl at the end.  What a weird scene, we all assume Ben is a goner, this seemed like a perfect time for him to go, his imaginary lover seemingly abandoned him, but in the end, Misty talking about there been too many deaths stopped him.  So is he actually going to survive?  I cannot image he will kill himself now, after being talked off the ledge.  Will they actually give him some sort of heroic death?  Coach Ben making it to season three may be the biggest shocker on the show, but almost seems likely now.

 

So much going on this episode which unfortunately means no time for Javi to explain what happened to him once again.  So one even mentioned that if javi could survive two months, Crystal could survive a couple days, no one in that moment thought to ask, yeah, Javi, how exactly did you survive in the freezing cold all alone for that month?  They really are going to drag this out all season, aren’t they?

 

Then we have to add the question of what happened to <strike>Crystal</strike>Kristen.  At least Javi is a healthy teenage boy even if dead-ass Jackie could not survive the same storm, <strike>Crystal</strike>Kristen was spitting up blood when given chest compressions, there is no way she could have gotten far.  Though maybe the question should not be did she move, but did someone move her?  I know I have been saying that this is a mystery box show and it would be silly to suggest that the same people that kept Javi alive for months saved <strike>Crystal</strike>Kristen, but I will put it out there just in case this does turn into a mystery box show.

 

With so much going on, it is almost easy to forget that the two remaining redshirts were the first to bring up cannibalism.  Kind of a big moment for two characters that have been so insignificant so far. 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 7, 2023

 

Fatal Attraction:  I have not seen the original movie, but my big prediction is that Lizzy Caplan is not dead.  The daughter ends up killing her in the future.

 

The Blacklist:  Oh, so Red is not the Big Bad, or least not yet.  I was shocked that the episode started with Red with Agnes in the dining room.  At least he is not the Big Bad… yet.

 

Saint X:  Oh joy, they added another timeline.  At least they did not have any young kid Gogo this week and the new timeline bleed into present day.  But at whvt point does Gogo start becoming suspicious of this white girl who just keeps showing up around her?

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  So did Darrell have to get one less piece and still lost?  Is he and Kiki just really bad swimmers.  The editing of that Challenge seemed weird.

 

Survivor:  Oh no, the one person that realized that Tiki was playing both sides got voted out.  Though Frannie may up being Tiki’s demise as Caroline seems like someone who will go scorched earth because they voted out her girl.  But then again she seemed like someone who would go scorched earth against Yam Yam when he went against her and started working with her again.

 

Titans:  So is Mother Mayhem actually dead-dead this time? 

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  What exactly are they doing with Hazel?  It is weird that she is the main focus occasionally but she is not with the cheerleaders or with the pink Ladies nor does it seem like either are even fighting over her.  Why is she on the show at all?

 

Yellowjackets:   Some of the best viewer theories about the show centered on Shauna’s wilderness baby.  I came up with one where Jackie kidnaps the baby and raises it in the wilderness and they were the ones sending the postcards.  When Jackie died, I swapped her out and put Lottie in that same theory.  I got a tingle that maybe I was right when Lottie said, “our baby.”  Of course then I remembered Lottie was rescued and went straight to a mental hospital.  I also then remembered what I wrote a couple weeks ago that none of the theories are going to be correct because this show is not a mystery box show, it is a show about trauma and of course what happened to the baby was not going to be some shocking reveal, but just the most tragic outcome: he dies in childbirth.  Sigh.

 

The other big news this week is for the first time, all six survivors (that we currently know about) we in the same place at the same time.  Misty in the cult did disappoint (holy brass knuckles).  Well maybe a little, I wish we would have gotten more time with her.  I wonder how much time we will get with them all there.  I really doubt Van is actually going to leave with the way she looked at Lottie.  But there is that pesky murder thing with Shauna that three of them covered up.

 

For me the weakest part of the first season was Shauna’s bored housewife routine.  But I have to say, after it turned out Jeff turned out to be a pretty good husband (aside from the whole blackmail thing) and we have gotten more Callie this season, it is slowly becoming the second best present day storyline after whatever Misty is doing.  Jeff listening to Fork the Police and Callie talking about the cop’s weird balls were the best part of this week.

 

One thing that stood out to me this week that I had not noticed previously (maybe this was the first time she wore it) was that Akilah was where a purple neck cover this week.  I wonder if that is some subtle nod that she will end up being team Lottie.  I tried to see if there was some color coordination going on, but other than a two people in red, I really could not see any division by wardrobe and Akilah was the only one I noticed wearing purple.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 30, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  So the Big Bad of the season for not the buddy of the lawyer, but Red himself.  Okay, that makes this season slightly more interesting.  Though I am not sure why exactly Red would go back on his lucrative deal with the government that took out his adversaries and made him a lot more money.

 

Saint X:  This was a slow to the series, but I do have some prediction: Obviously the natives did not kill the older sister, I am pretty sure it was one of the other ladies at the resort, either the pregnant lady who was mad her husband was eye forking her, or the other college age girl who seems annoyed that she is taking all the boy.  My other prediction is the younger sister and Gogo are definitely going to fork.

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  Why did they build this up to be some awesome challenge?  One of them ran for about five feet (I think one even lifted the cover before they put in the key, the hardest part of the challenge), then other person drove in a straight line.  I miss the days when they would melt ice with body heat.

 

Survivor:  So Franny was the only one smart enough to realize the loser alliance is playing both side.  Seemed pretty obvious to me when you know someone has an Idol and who they are going to play it for and not change your vote or inform the people you are voting for that is what the plan is.  Though the loser alliance did all vote for the big dude.  Wonder if anyone from the other tribe will pick up that they voted with them last week and against them this week when strategizing next week.

 

Titans:  So this ended up being the Titan’s world version of the Doom Patrol.  So where exactly were The Chief and Elasta-Girl?  They did not even get a mention.  Beast Boy even got that big reveal about The Chief last episode.  It was a shame they did not pull in more people into… wherever they were.  It would have been cool had Stargirl been hanging around all episode too.

 

Love and Death:  I did not think this story need two television shows devoted to it, so I skipped the Hulu version mostly because Elizabeth Olsen is a much better actress than Jessica Biel, but after watching the first three episodes of the HBO Max, I think maybe it did not even need one show devoted to it.  The nineties movie might have been enough.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  I really hope this does not devolve into a Pretty Little Liars situation where the writers think a teacher statutory raping his student is some grand love story.  It is already creepy.  And if Jane is so worried about her reputation, maybe she should stop bouncing back between Buddy and the T-Bird.  But those old people are definitely going to get Hugo Chavez to switch some votes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 23, 2023

 

 The Blacklist:  Like I said last week, this is just going to be a greatest hits season.  Yawn.

 

The Mandalorian:  Well, that was a pretty straight forward finale, though, I was mildly surprised that IG-12 was named the new sheriff and they did not bring in Cobb Vance.  I wonder when we will see him again.

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  I was so happy to finally get rid of Kacee who grossly only seemed concerned that she was going to be kicked off the show and not at all concerned that her partner was being carted off to the hospital.  But then Amber had to go and get knocked up.  What is that, the third time a chick was kicked off for being knocked up?  And that does not even include Melissa who ran a final while pregnant.  You would think would think after the first time, they would make a pregnancy test to be part of the women’s physical.   What they should have done was bring back Jonna and have her team with Troy because at least she was more concern about Grant’s health than money.

 

Survivor:  Well, that was confusing.  So the firefighter played his Idol for Franny knowing that all the Tika players knew he was going to do it.  But if you think they are with you, why play the Idol?  And if you think they are not with they, why play it for Franny if there is a possibility they were going to switch their votes to someone else?  Then if the Tika people still voted for Franny know someone going to play the Idol, does that just show they are playing both sides and you probably should not trust them?  I feel like I am missing something.  Or maybe they are all just dumb.

 

Titans:  So Beast Boy was in The Red this whole time?  I still do not understand why the Previously On on the return episode was dedicated to him unless it was a mistake.  But it was nice to see Stargirl again, unfortunately it was not for very long and Wildcat was not with her.  I wonder what Doom Patrol Beast Boy ended up with, the one from his show, the one with its own show, or possibly a different one.  The one with its own show, the Cyborg on that lost his tech.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  Okay, I also kind of liked the song in the classroom this week too.

 

Yellowjackets:  We waited almost half a season and Javi is not talking aside from one cryptic statement of someone telling him not to go back.  Who told him?  Are there more people out there?  Was this person in his head?  We have to add those to the questions we still need to know like where was he and how did he survive out there when Jackie was turned into a Popsicle? 

 

Of course the biggest downside of Javi returning was that he was one more mouth to feed.  But Misty gonna Misty and took care of that problem but eliminating one mouth.  When they walked up to that cliff, I said to myself, this is the second time we have seen someone stand over this cliff, someone is going to go over.  I just did not expect it to be as soon as the second time we saw it.  But as soon as they started sharing secrets, I knew Misty was going to blab about the black box.  Even then, I was not expecting her to die because I figured the other girls would figure out what Misty did eventually and this would be how.  Nope.  R.I.P. Crystal… or whatever her real name was.

 

Speaking of Misty gonna Misty, what exactly is she going to do with Walter?  He kind of seems into it, but I cannot see her keeping that loose end open.  Speaking of loose ends, when is she going to make it back to town to clean up Shauna’s mess?  But her time with the cult will likely be an all-timer.  And speaking of the cult, Nat’s vision of the plane crash kind of looked like everyone died.  Hopefully this is not a Lost-purgatory situation where they all died and the ones that were not worthy of moving on were stuck in that place before they redeem themselves. 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 16, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  So is this season just going to be a greatest hits of former blacklisters?

 

The Mandalorian:  Who could have guessed Grogu was a Daniel Bryan fan?  I have to assume that is why he kept punching the “Yes” button.  Though I do not quite understand why the evil guys were so keen on killing all the Mandalorians, but just tied up Din.  Why spare him?

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  What a glorious two weeks with Wes and Johnny going out back to back.  But what was hilarious about Johnny going out, was that he was the biggest defender of letting the peanut gallery help people during the elimination, but no one bothered to tell him that he had the wrong sun.

 

Survivor:  That new twist would have been almost interesting if the Control a Vote happened in secret without anyone else knowing that it happened.  What is the point in having someone declaring to everyone whose vote they were stealing and who they were being forced to vote for?

 

Titans:  Why did the “Previously On” focus so much on Beast Boy when he was not even in either episode?  But I am really just ready for this show to end.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  Okay, the second debate song was the first song that was almost catchy.

 

School Spirits:  Huh?  So how exactly was Maddie able to hear the ghosts?  Why was ghost lady able to take over her body?  Why did Maddie become a ghost because of it?  Why was there so much blood?  None of that finale made sense.

 

Yellowjackets:  Three episodes and no sign of javi or adult Van and here we get them both in quick succession.  Now the question is, where exactly was javi this whole time and how did he survive when Jackie turned into a popsicle?  Does it have to do with the melted snow?  I could not tell what was poking out of it, kind of looked like a black rock.  When Van started to poke around, I thought she was going to find some sort of hatch.

 

Except it is becoming clear that Yellowjackets is not that kind of show.  Fan theories went wild in the offseason with many people believing, including myself, that Lottie was the leader of some wild cult that started back in the wilderness.  But it became clear this episode that Lottie is not some nefarious cult leader but both Lotties are severely broken.  The elder one is going to therapy and the younger one seemed to be unwillingly pushed into the prophecy role by some of the other girls.

 

We do know that the girls eventually break into factions, was this where the first division is?  Van was with Lottie at the bear heart ritual, but this week she was very adamant that it was Tai supernatural powers that found Javi.  But Mari was still backing Lottie.  Is this going to devolve into the people who think Lottie is their savior and those that worship Tai? 

 

Speaking of out of control fan theories, I thought Walter was going to be some big bad, but he is turning out to be just a male version of Misty.   I am shocked they did not end up forking.  But if there is something this show needs is a big bad for the girls to fight.  But like I said before, Yellowjackets is not that kind of show.  It is because clear this is just a show about generational trauma, and nothing else.

 

Had it not been for those two appearances, my biggest takeaway from this episode was Jeff saying, “We only have one kid.”  That eliminates that his first kid is just some twenty-five year old living his (Lottie did call the baby a “him”) life away from his parents.  So where is the kid?  My wild fan theories really want to say that he is still in the Canadian wilderness or grew up in Lottie’s cult, but it is becoming clearer that the baby did not make it back to civilization.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 9, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  I knew it, that guy was with Red the whole time.  I just did not expect it to be revealed the very next episode and then the guy dies minutes later.

 

Quantum Leap:  So Ben jumped into his own body from five years ago?  Jumping into yourself just kind of defeats the purpose of the Quantum Leap program.  I cannot believe the renewed this crap.

 

The Mandalorian:  So it took Mando multiple episodes to realize what I knew the moment that it happened: Bo-Katan could lay claim to the Dark Saber because she defeated the eye monster that defeated Mando.  Sigh.

 

Wu-Tang: An American Saga:  I am glad we got to the Rage tour by the finale, that that could have been a whole season.  I was actually working at my local amphitheater during this show and Wu-Tang started a full hour late because the group was playing back stage.  Then it was Rage that had the plug pulled on them because we had a very strict curfew in order.  Fun times.  Shame we did not get a season dedicated to the album bought by the Pharma Bro.

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  Nothing more anticlimactic than when an episode ends with no elimination because someone when home due to a medical DQ instead.  How exactly did Grant miss a giant balloon in the middle of the lake?  But poor Kellyanne, does not even get the satisfaction of throwing Jonna in out of spite.

 

Survivor:  Carson seemed like he was in one of the better positions in the game, but what a boneheaded move to tell someone they were the target.  He just became extremely untrustworthy and just gained the support of one dude for it.

 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies:  I have the same issue with this show that I had with Up Here in that the songs just are not that good.  They just take the steam out of the episode for three straight minutes.  Other than the Theme to Grease, the songs just did not add anything to this show.  I wonder if they will try to repurpose any of the original song because these new songs are not working.  But unlike Up Here where Jason Street is the only good character, I actually kind of like most of the characters on this show.

 

Yellowjackets:   I was a little off with Tai’s wife dying, though, give it another episode and it may still happen.  But the biggest takeaway this week with Tai is that she might not actually be sleepwalking.  It certainly made it seem like she has a split personality.  So who exactly is the other personality and what does she have to do with the Man with No Eyes?

 

Speaking of seeing things, Lottie is having visions again.  What exactly is that blood and dead bees (or yellowjackets) portend?  When the lady came up to talk to her, from behind, I thought that was young Nat for a second.  Speaking of Nat, when she was startled at the plane, I thought that was going to be Javi.  Thankfully it was not, because has he just been living there for the past two months and no one bothered to look there, that would have been silly.  But any ending where Javi shows up alive after all this time would be a little silly since Jackie froze to death… unless they are not alone.

 

Then Misty is gonna be Misty, in both timeline.  Of course she is going to give a very inappropriate gift at the baby shower (and what are we to make of Shanna getting a nosebleed at the very same time a bunch of birds died?)  Then getting the other Citizen Detective ordering to rough up Randy was hilarious.  But is he really going to buy that story about Adam?  And I was a little disappointed that Misty would need credit card records to identify the purple people (eaters).  Does she not already have a file on Lottie and knows her cult wears purple and was able to put two and two together?

 

I got serious Lost vibes with Coach Ben’s flashback, you know, the kind of flashbacks where you just knew that character was going to die at the end of the episode.  Except he did make it out of the episode alive.  But it hard to see he will survive the season.  The better quest may be just how will he die?  Does he get killed for meat?  Is it an accident like Jackie?  I kind of got suicide vibes from him.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 2, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  I am willing to bet that Red sent his buddy in to the evil dude’s crew to keep tabs on him and he is not really turning on Red.

 

Quantum Leap:  So that was what Ben was up to, he was trying to go to the future to stop some sort of nuclear fallout.  Did he go too far because it looks like it already happened.  This has gotten too confusing.  And just how exactly did Ben know something lie that was going down in the future?

 

The Mandalorian:  Holy Zeb sighting?  But the problem with all these Star Wars shows is I keep forgetting where they fall in the timeline.  I actually had to spend a minute thinking if this happened before or after Rebels.  We also got a tie in to the Pershing storyline with the evil chick trying to keep Tim Meadows from helping Greef.  I only also have to assume she also helped Moth Gideon escape too.

 

Wu-Tang: An American Saga:  Wait, did Ghostface really do a drive-by with the Del

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  Yet another cliffhanger this season?  But you gotta love the hubris of Wes who likes to pretend he is the smartest person on the room but really messed up by not drinking.  But I just do not under why Wes only lost five points when neither he nor his partner even tried but amber lost seven points even though her partner did finish.  But rules on this show rarely makes sense.

 

Survivor:  If this guy was hurt, why did they wait this long to pull him?  I feel bad for everyone who got voted out and they just waited until now to pull him.  But I was looking forward to losing two annoying people because that whole tribe was annoying except stupid Jeff had to cancel Tribal.  Meh.

 

Yellowjackets:   Um… so what happened to Jackie’s clothes?   Did they just burn off and leave a surprisingly great flavoring?  Then with Coach hightailing it out of there, you have got put him number one on who they kill first for food power rankings.  But there have been a lot of debate as to if there is something supernatural going on here, and that snow falling during sex scene really leaned into the supernatural.  And was Lottie just there watching or was Travis having vision her.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 19, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  So this guy was able to find the greatest pickpockets in the world, but could not find anyone who could hit a target?  For a mastermind, that was a very big oversite.  I did recognize the guy Red tried to poison, but cannot place him at all.  This show really could use “Previously On” montages when they bring back people like this.

 

The Last of Us:  Well that was a horrible finale.  If you have to sacrifice one person to save all of humanity, you do it.

 

Your Honor:   So this is how the show is going to end?  The judge is going to get on the stand and answer all the questions truthfully, exposing all the criminality, from police corruption that killed his wife, everything he did that kept his son out of prison, and all the gangster activities was the two warring factions.  Everyone but the young mother goes to prison.

 

The Mandalorian:  Um, did we really need an episode of Andor inside of this show?  Unfortunately I really do not care about two characters I barely remember.   So all of that was just an elaborate way to zap the doctor’s brain?

 

Wu-Tang: An American Saga:  Why were they wasting an episode on RZA’s brother this late in the series?

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  Seriously, they waited until the end to do the elimination?  This show really should stick to a one challenge and one elimination per episode  But poor Jujuy, stuck with someone giving the single worse elimination performance ever.  Everyone was helping Nelson and still he did not listen.

 

Survivor:  Is a dude ever going to be voted out?  I wonder what longer streak for one gender being voted out is?

 

School Spirits:  Why does the teacher have the cheerleader’s number?

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 12, 2023

 

The Blacklist:  I am trying to do the math on the new agent.  Just how old was her mom when she had her?   Though I guess there were some time jumps so maybe it has been more than ten years on the show since season one.  But the Whaler really looked like Lizzy’s mother, for a second I thought she returned.

 

The Last of Us:  Yippie, another lets meet another dead person of the week.  They really leaned into the video aspect this week with Joel getting antibiotics and his health meter instantly getting full. But where exactly did the rest of the resort people go as one of the buildings got burned down?  The resort just seemed to turn into a ghost town the moment Joel arrived even though there were at least twenty people at dinner.

 

Your Honor:   Wait, the baby mama is only seventeen?  For some reason I thought she was in college.  But I am beginning to think that trail is what will bring all the corrupt people in New Orleans down.

 

Quantum Leap:  Oh yeah, other leaper is back.  That guy was missing for too many episodes.  But where was he the whole episode?

 

The Mandalorian:  Why did Mando send Grogu to Bo-Katan?  Little dude has made much bigger creatures go to sleep with the force.  Why waste all the time traveling to the moon when he could have easily dispatched the eye robot?  But I could not tell is Mando put the Dark Saber back on his suit.  Doesn’t Bo-Katan have a claim to it?  The eye robot won it in battle from Mando and she won it in battle from the eye-robot.  If she refused it from Mando because it has to be won in battle, kind of seems like this satisfies the prophecy.   

 

Wu-Tang: An American Saga:  Yet another very special episode.  I wonder just how many more of these will we get.  Will Method Man get one?  He was conspicuously absent from this episode and really has not been in the season that much. 

 

The Challenge: World Championship:  Some questionable non-winners included in this cast.  I do not even remember Justine.  Ben was “medically separated” from his season and still seems hurt.  Neither Australia player even made the finals.  No comment on Argentina because for some reason The Mount is not airing that season until halfway through this season.  Then I do not like that the Global MVP’s are paired with “Legends” ( I had to put that in quotation marks because, c’mon… Theo? Nelson?  Kacee?).  Hopefully the MVP’s do not let the “Legends” dominate the game and let the same boring alliances from the main show dominate.

 

Survivor:  Here is the problem with modern Survivor.  All the smart players what to sit next to someone annoying at Final Tribal so it will be easier for them to win.  So when the annoying people used to go out first, now we have to spend an entire season them with them.  I was just flabbergasted that the one dude whose name I have not bothered to learn yet sided with the two most annoying people this season.

 

School Spirits:  I was not expecting high art, but the acting was somehow worse than I was expecting.  Okay, I do have to admit the gay homosexual dying from a nut allergy was pretty funny.  That chick really should have laughed at that.

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 29, 2022

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife:  There are fewer things I need to see in this life than seeing a dude perform oral sex on himself.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  So Strand is a good guy all of the sudden, ready to make peace just by seeing Alicia?  But then is a band guy at the end when he refused to turn off the beacon?  Make up your mind.  Even more bizarre was they just yadda-yaddaed Wes escaping a horde of zombies stuck in the bunker only to just have Strand murder him moments later.

 

The First Lady:  They seem to be hinting at lesbian all season and they just came out and explicitly showed it this week.  And yes, a Wikipedia deep dive did reveal a female reporter did move into the room next door and there were rumors a plenty.  Lesbians took front and center in Michelle’s storyline where they openly implied Michelle was behind Biden’s statement which seems like a bigger stretch.  Then in the seventies, Betty was planning Susan’s prom.  Okay, she also campaigned for the ERA.  I laughed when they mentioned Regan was courting the far right but campaigning against it.  Today’s far right would consider Regan a RINO.  And probably would think he eats babies.

 

I Love That for You:  I predicted that if (when) Patricia finds out Joanna is lying about her cancer, she would continue to milk it for ratings, but Patricia actually being diagnosed with breast cancer is making me rethink that.  Things may get rough for Joanna if Patricia starts asking for help.  Luckily for her, I believe they would be seeing different types of doctors.

 

The Challenge: All Stars: How does Darrell lose that?  He was inches away but just could not get that final push. But what was really annoying is how Wes weaseled his way out of elimination for the second straight elimination that he definitely would have lost mostly because Brad was in a position of power.

 

Survivor:  Oh no, Probst said that stupid Do or Die twist was one of his favorite new twists.  They were lucky that both times they did it; the person did not die.  But the proposition of someone eventually “dying” is bad because it would be extremely lame if there is a Tribal Council where no one actually gets voted out.  Speaking of useless new twists, the Shot in the Dark was a huge dud.  They had a one in six chance and I believe it was played six times, but not one person got lucky.  Then the Turn Back Time twist got crushed by fans and players alike.  I think the only new twist introduced in “new” Survivor was the Caught Red Handed twist which was extremely literal.  I fear what dumb twists are coming next.  But it looks like they are actually casting disabled people again.  Survivor has talked a lot about diversity, even instituting a 50% people of color casting mandate, but disabled people are severely underrepresented.  There was a time where there was a deaf woman and two amputees, but then there was a large lull.  The amputee next season is reportedly a Paralympian so she will not be a pushover.

 

Oh, yeah, and Maryanne won.  She did give a much better Final Tribal performance and had the last big move of the season getting Omar out.  Though I still think Mike had a much better season as a whole.  But it was a blowout, much like every season has become a blowout ever since they switched to this forum Final Tribal format.  Maybe it is time to go back to the Q&A format just to get some more drama back into the final reveal.

 

The Flight Attendant: Rosie Perez getting on a flight for an airline she used to work for while being a wanted fugitive seemed like a really bad idea and Suspicious Minds seems like a horrible song to play at a wedding (though, I will say that is my favorite Elvis song) but after a sophomore slump, the finale was... perfectly fine.

 

I predicted Cheryl Hines was the doppelganger after the second episode because Grace became too obvious and Hines being the big bad did make sense (though, I do not understand what that thing in Cassie's pocket was that made the alarm go off).

 

I am glad the weird AA woman was not the big bad but turned out to be someone important to the story in a different way, though maybe a reveal that should have been in the penultimate episode.  Despite the sophomore slump, I am still looking forward to a potential third season.

 

Obi Wan Kenobi:  That was nice they put up a four minute “previously on” reminding us what happening episodes 1-3.  You know, if you cut the prequels down to four minutes, they are not half bad.  I thought maybe starting with Order 66; we were going to see how Grogu escaped the massacre.  But we did get a few surprise appearance, most notably a young Princess Leia.  Oh, and Flea.  I am sure I can nit-pick, but I really enjoyed this even if the prequels in full lengths were bad.

 

The Blacklist:  So no Aram or Park next season?  Will we be getting new agents?  But it looks like we already got a new Big bad as Marvin turned that assassin against Red and left him with a list of people Red informed on.