57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 15, 2022

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  They have been teasing people dying all season, Alicia go bit, Charli got radiation poison, and then they also revealed this week that John had radiation poisoning, but they still killed him at the end of the episode.  I wonder if his death saves the other two.  But I just do not understand Strand’s motivation.  John admits to framing Howard, but then kills his closest ally to team up with a guy who admits to betraying him who then, shocker, betrayed him again.  Then why not punish the people who stayed?  I get you need June as a nurse, but why not the other two?

 

The First Lady: I once again broke my Wikipedia rule to refresh my memory of if we have seen Lucy on the show before.   It is kind of fascinating how the affair came to public light which I will not go into in case it is covered on the show.  There is also another potential affair that his son claims happens that I wonder if the show will comment on.  This seemed like the hardship episode.  Eleanor had to deal with the affair, we see the start of Betty’s addiction, but Sasha having a very treatable ear infection does not really have the same emotional sting.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:  Would quantum fusion really throw the world in chaos that quickly?  Oil is so ingrained over the world; we cannot even integrated electric cars into society.  You know conspiracy theorist would keep about 20% of this country on combustible engines for decades. 

 

The Challenge: All Stars:  Ugg, Wes said he is going to ruin the show and I fear he will do just that.  Though surprising he played it safe when he had the power by going with the second to last players being sent in (granted there were five other people in on that decision) then when Jordan had the chance to replicate after putting the sabotage on him, he was fine with putting Mark in over Wes.  It seemed like everyone but Brad wanted Wes sent in yet they still let Brad save Wes.  And Wes definite is not winning that elimination.  Ugg, that guy is going to weasel his way to the finals.

 

Then we have a new twist with stvrs being added to anyone who wins elimination.  At first I thought this was kind of like the skulls they used on the main show where you are not allowed to run TJ’s final without a skull.  But it seems like you can rack up the stars, Tina now has three.  I do wonder if you beat someone with multiple stars, do you get all of them.  Now I am thinking you will get some sort of advantage in the final; the more stars, the bigger the advantage.  Another question is, will anyone volunteer for elimination just to get a star?

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Wait, did Julie and Jamie fork two decades ago?  Was this common knowledge?  I know my memory is not as great as it used to be. 

 

Survivor:  Yep, the Do or Die still is stupid.  But I wonder what would have happened had Lindsey chosen to sit out.  Does Johnathan win Immunity by default and there is no Do or Die?  Does Johnathan get the Do or Die by default.  I wonder if production did not think of that outcome.  Even when bribed with food, not that many people sit out.

 

It took a couple weeks but they finally got Drea and all of her advantages out.  Mike is a better actor than I would have guessed because I really thought he had been bamboozled.   The advantage is called Knowledge Is Power and that is two straight seasons where the powerful knowledge was not held with the person with the advantage but with who they told the advantage’s power to.  Way too many people in modern Survivor have loose lips.

 

The Flight Attendant:  Oh my, a very special episode of the show.  Granted, I liked Cassie much more when she was a fun drunk.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  Yet another hour plus episode but at least very little crazy mother this week.  I did not like that they told the story out of order just to have the plot twist that the oldest brother was in on it the whole time.  It just made this episode hard to follow.

 

Made for Love:  Only two more episodes left?  So much to figure out.  Hazel has to find a way to get back control of her body.  The scientists need to get out of the cube.  The FBI need to find the cube.  We need to figure out how the ex-wife fits in to this all.

 

Hacks:  Oh my, suing someone and keeping them in your employment is extremely cruel.  Ava may end up being an indentured servant by the end of the season.  Unless Debra grows a heart and only demands restitutions of a dollar.

 

Halo:  So Master Chief forks.  I got a kick at the incels who got mad at that.  Though maybe not hook up with an evil chick.  Granted she may no longer be evil.  She did take out her retractable laser nail.  The irony with this episode being entitled “Allegiance” was there were a lot of floating allegiances this week to point where I am not entirely sure where everyone stands with each other by the end of the episode.   

 

Big Sky:  Prediction time:  Travis teams up with Ren to take down her father and part of their agreement is she moves out of Montana.  This would be a shame because the Indian drug lords have been the only interesting part of this show.

 

The Blacklist:  So Marvin was behind this the whole time.  I guess that is better than someone we did not already know.  But when did Red figure this out?  He did not kill the lady so he must have had the inkling at some point between when he got the name from the bank and when he kidnapped her from FBI custody.

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: 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.

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 6, 2022

 

Killing Eve:  So the crazy lady assassin is religious now?  Okay, I guess she is still not above feline murder.

 

The Walking Dead:  So who is left back in Alexandra?  We gained from last week, Maggie was still there.  One armed guy is the only other person that I could think of off the top of my head.  Eugene was also conspicuously absent this week, but he was in the “Next Week On” so he was in Alexandra somewhere, we just did not see him.  Then Princess was almost unrecognizable without that puffy jacket.  But how long do we hvve to get to see that confrontation between Daryl and Maggie?

 

Billions:  Episode 6:  If you are in the same room as an instructor, why do you need a screen of the instructor two feet in front of your face?  But anyway.  Almost confusing is a Chinese company having a plant in Wisconsin.  Couldn’t it be cheaper to produce the product in their homeland?  Do they do this solely to slap “American made” on their product?  I am also a little confused to how Chuck is going to use Prince’s alma mater.

 

Snowpiercer:  Well, that escalated quickly. Pike and Layton were fighting Wilford two episodes ago, Pike tries to kill Layton last episode and Layton kills Pike this week.  But Layton kind of had to since Pike had the information of the Horn of Africa being a scam.  But is he just going to kill everyone that lady tells because she really let that slip fairly quickly to Pike.  And of course, people may find out sometime.  Are there really going to find a habitable place in Africa?  It would be weird doing Snowpierer without people actually living on Snowpierer.

 

The Endgame:  I missed how people think the evil lady’s husband was dead in the first episode only to see him talking to the agent’s husband.  How does no one know that someone who is prison is not dead?  Did he fake his death and part of the plan was him to get himself incarcerated with the husband?  What is this plan?  Is she just doing this to expose corruption within the government?  Is she just going to bring don a new official every week?

 

Resident Alien: The only thing funnier than cat murder: octopus murder apparently.  They just drug out that scene until it was not funny anymore and then continued some more until it was funny again.

 

The Dropout:  There is nothing I appreciate more than when shows populate their cast with recognizable actors no matter how small the role.  Sure William H. Macy, Laurie Metcalf and the lady from 24 are big enough for more than two scenes in three episodes, but I appreciate the character work.  Then you got Stephan Fry and the guy from Ghost as lab technicians who I am not sure we will see much of after the initial three episodes.  The dude from the Blacklist just pops in for a couple scenes to ask what fork is going on.  I also spotted Cameron Frye in the “This Season On.”  Having recognizable actors, especially in a large ensemble makes it easier to remember who is who.

 

I have not been following this story very closely, just knowing the headline, but I was not ready for just how weird everything is.  It is interesting to watch this at the same time as the Uber show.  Travis built his whole brand on false bravado, while Elisabeth is just this weirdo with zero confidence, and when she tries to exude confidence, I am not sure she can even convince herself, she certainly does not seem to be convincing anyone else, at least not yet.  But as long as Elisabeth does some white girl dancing in every episode, this show may end up being my favorite show of the year.

 

Big Sky:  Silly me thinking Drew Carey’s brother was dead… again.  He already survived a bullet between the eyes, why would I think having his skull bashed in would be any different?  But it is time to wrap up both storylines; I am getting tired of both of them at this point.

 

The Blacklist:  So they waited until Park left to arrest the Conglomerate because they did not want to put her in danger?  Arresting everyone right after an agent leaves seems like the best way to put a target on her back.  Nothing says set up quite like a raid after someone leaves.  That seemed as dumb as no one realizing that the bug could still be on Lizzy after not finding it on her clothing.  That was the first place I thought of.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: January 16, 2022

 

Dexter: New Blood:  So we are never going to learn just how Kurt found out that Dexter killed his son?  That is something fairly big to yada yadda.  But I guess that was a fitting to Dexter Morgan’s story.  Well, having his son kill him so he could not kill anyone else.  Not the part where Angela being so adamant for Dexter to be locked up for killing the evil people, but letting Harrison go and acting like she killed Dexter.  I just hope they do not try and spin off a Harrison show with Dexter talking to him, that actor was really boring.

 

Claws:  My prediction of a Desna and Jenn split really had a roller coaster.  First Desna let Jenn run the new show.  Expect one of the first things Jenn does was assault a rival which set them up for blackmail.  Oh, to avoid getting sued for assault, Desna just shot her son.  Huh.  She is willing to sue you for assault, maybe she will report you for murder.  But since Desna is the star, of course that did not hvppen.

 

Yellowjackets:  So Lottie said something is coming and they will not be hungry for long.  Well, that was ominous.  She also said he doesn’t belong to her about Travis to Jackie, but her visions can be fairly vague so maybe not.  But if it is those two, who does Travis belong to?  By the looks of it, everyone else.  But a letdown with the ritualistic killing because we know Travis was not going to die (though it cross my mind for a half a second that maybe Javi was posing as adult Travis, but alas).

 

I was halfway through the season by the time everyone got to watch the first episode and I was surprised with how obsessed Reddit was with whom they dubbed the “Antler Queen” was and they finally got that reveal.  Though that does not necessarily mean Lottie will still be the one wearing antlers when we get to that scene in the Pilot, but my theory that Lottie is the girl in the pit is not looking very good.  One thing that may complicate things is it looks like Misty’s wheels were spinning and maybe she does more drugging and tries to out Lottie as she looks to be the leader of the Wild Bunch clan.  I got strong leader vibes from her in that scene from the Pilot.

 

Another theory that went up in flames this week was that Jackie was sending the postcards (as well as another Reddit theory that Adam was really Javi).  While I found the reveal that Jeff was behind this the whole time because he owed Loan Sharks disappointing, I weirdly enjoyed Adult Jackie’s storyline for the first time this season.  I loved how Jeff said she could not get away with the murder because they watched too much Dateline to know she could not.  But still, all of this does not add up.  Like Nat brought up, why would Jeff murder Travis?  And who cleared out his bank account?  If Jeff cleared it out, why would he still need to blackmail Tai and Nat?  So maybe my Jackie theory is still in play. 

 

I also have a prediction that Jackie steals Shauna’s wilderness baby and if that baby is what Lottie says is coming that will make them hungry no more, I could see Jackie being the one sane person not tripping on shrooms and heads off into the wilderness to keep it from being eaten.   I do wonder if Jeff knows about the wilderness baby.  After reading Shauna’s diaries, I was expecting he would bring that up.  Did she tell him already and claims it died out there?

 

Misty psycho watch:  has she actually become friends with the person she kidnapped?  I thought maybe the reporter was just playing along hoping being nice would get her released but maybe she has been successfully Stockholmed because she did not even call for help when Nat was at the door.  That would have been fun, Misty saying she would help clean up the body if Nat did not tell anyone about the person in her basement.  But we should definitely get the reunion in the finale and hopefully we learn of another survivor or five.  Though, who else graduated with them?  Van seems like the only other Senior on the team, maybe Lottie.

 

The Book of Boba Fett:  Oh wow, bringing in the guest stars.  First Steven Root.  Then Young Nat from Yellowjackets pops up still sporting that mullet with bangs, but at least it was one color.  But maybe not wise to make her do an accent.  Which was confusing because this is Luke Skywalker’s planet and he had an American accent.  Then the guy who brought in the monster for the Hutt’s really looked like Danny Trejo and when they finally gave him a close up I realize, oh, wait, that really is Danny Trejo.

 

The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles: Poor David, could not make it to the end of another season.  But two straight seasons where a cast member did not make it to the end.  Maybe for season three, stop goading them in to these past traumas until someone breaks.  Just let them have fun.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: That was some weird editing, Darrell and Janelle were in second place while Nehemiah and Melina were dead last and wasted a lot of time going to the caves first.  Sure Darrell and Janelle went to the memory game not realizing they read the wrong directions, but then got the full memory board the very next try.  So how exactly did Nehemiah and Melina, who twisted her ankle, edge out Darrell and Janelle?  Did the bike just really gas you out for the rest of that part and just one team doing it first and the other doing it last make the difference.

 

But it seems like production did not expect everyone to take that long to run TJ’s final because they had to use headlights to provide lighting because the sun went down before anyone could finish.  It seems like production forgets these are middle aged people doing these challenges.  But the team that came in third (and only because the other team quit) ended up winning because Darrell still did not learn to read.

 

The Blacklist:  One thing that never crossed my mind was how was Dembe involved with Lizzy’s murder.  I really rather they not go back to that storyline because it was bad enough the first time.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: January 9, 2022

 

Dexter: New Blood:  I believe this was the very first time Dexter took down the Big Bad before the finale… unless he is the Big Bad and Angela takes Dexter down in the finale.  That would be a fitting end to the series… except they are definitely going to do another season eventually.  I thought we were going to get a full flashback episode like a lost episode of the original show, maybe with the whole gang returning, but alas.  Dexter cut that story short and waited to give the full story until they got into Kurt’s dollhouse. 

 

So that is where the podcaster at.  But much like how we never learned just how Kurt figured out Dexter killed his kid; we do not know how she ended up down there.  We know Kurt lured runaways to his hotel and locked them up, and he did try that once with the podcaster, was she actually dumb enough to go with him again?  Not that Kurt is very bright either.  Did he really think he would roll up on Dexter’s cabin in a large and loud tanker, spray the entire cabin with gasoline and wait for them to come out after the cabin was on fire?  Has anyone was actually there, they would have heard the tanker pull up.  Not that Dexter has a great plan either, alerting Kurt that he found his underground bunker.  What if he was close and locked them in?  And again we are treating that screw as some sort of smoking bullet.  How could that possibly tie back to Dexter?

 

Claws:  So the judge kept on bring up how Brice was not the biological father and then gives custody of the children… to his uncle who is not biologically related to the children.  Huh?  But I still think Jenn will eventually joining Uncle Daddy and Quiet Ann and eventually the whole group will turn on Desna.

 

Yellowjackets:  So Van was not the first to die and managed to survive having a wolf chew off half her face and make it back a couple of miles back to the cabin where they only have rudimentary antibiotics, most of which was used on coach’s leg.  Though there was something weird with her POV; could something mystical have kept her alive?  But we did not have to wait long to have an actual first death… assuming Laura Lee did not manage to survive that plane exploding the way Van survived being mauled.    I must say, when Nat talked to her sponsor, my first though was, oh, that is adult Laura Lee based solely on her looks.  C’mon Lottie, you saw Laura Lee encased in red a couple episodes, why are you letting her fly that plane?  Maybe give the talisman that she gave to Van that Tai stole and give it to Laura Lee.

 

We also got the big reveal that Adam was the blackmailer and has no digital footprint.  That really leans into the theory that Adam is really Javi.  Though I never bought into that theory because Javi have been very insignificant to this point, basically Shauna gave him a few pages of her diary and that was about it.  Plus the timeline does not really line up if Adam graduated in ’04, which would have made Javi about ten in 1996.  Javi at the very least looks like a middle schooler if not an underclassman.  But of course Adam could be lying about when he graduated.  If that really is Javi, then is he really behind the postcards and killed his brother?  The keep on pointing out that only family can get banking information so seems very likely he emptied the account.  But that would be a huge letdown if Javi was behind everything.

 

Psycho Misty update:  she did blow for the first time.  And a lot of it.  Aswesome.  Then she had to profusely apologize to her bird.  But just how long is she going to keep that reporter down there?  Until she solves Travis’s murder?  Then what?  Is she actually going to kill her or let her go?

 

But just how much time does Callie spend at her friend’s house?  She just came home to get a change of clothes.  She then eats with her parents but then Shauna said Tai could stay in her room because she was going back to the friend’s house to spend another night.  Things do seem like they are going to pick up next week with Homecoming (unless they save that for the finale).  Will we finally get to learn of some of the other survivor?  Will One Eyed Van show up?  It will be annoying if of the other survivor besides the main four decide to skip the event and we are still left guessing.  And Jeff was Homecoming King?  Was Jackie the queen then?  This may be as awkward as that dinner with Jackie’s parents.

 

The Book of Boba Fett:  Holy Hutt sighing.  But those twins are giving off big time Lannister vibes.  Do they really need to be that close to each other?  It does seem like maybe the Hutt’s are behind the assassination plot from last week and are in cahoots with the Mayor.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Well, there goes my prediction of Jodi and Brad winning,  I thought they might pull I out because it seemed like Brad had the much better strategy than Darrell, but on the flip side Janelle seemed to have a better strategy than Jodi and Darrelle managed not to keep hitting Janelle on the head with cinderblocks.

 

The Blacklist:  I do not think I really needed to see what happened to Ressler between the seasons, but after watching this episode… I still think I did not need to see that.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 12, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  Holy Angel Batista sighting.  I was not expecting anyone for the original show to show up except the three that were already in the main cast.  I wonder if anyone else will pop up.  Granted, who is still alive?  Masuka and Quinn.  Then there is also Eshter and Cody.  I wonder is Harrison is lying about Hannah.  I also rolled my eyes when Angela gears started going when Batista mention Harrison’s name as that is not a common name.  Though it does makes sense for her to look Dexter up after her kid mentioned that Harrison mentioned that Jim was not actually Jim.  But does she confront her?

 

And Dexter is getting sloppy after so much time without a kill.  First he went after the guy when the police had just as much information as him not thinking they would check out the same diner.  Then he enters the dude’s house then puts on the gloves.  He better hope the police buy his staged overdose and not dust that window for prints.  But how exactly did he get the guy clothed and take down the kill room in time?  Dexter talked about remembering the Code, but he forgot the first rule, only go after people the law could not get.  The police had both guys seemly dead to rights.  Let the law run its course.  Then go after them if they do not get them.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  I actually saw the news of Kim Dicken returning to the show while watching the show and assumed that was a spoiler that Madison would have a cameo in this episode.  Thinking she would be at Padre.  Except she never popped up.  I guess she was the big surprise guest they hyped for Talking Dead and was also the big announcement.

 

Except Alicia never got to Padre because she absurdly thought the zombie Senator would lead her there.   Oh, and she got bit by said zombie and cut off her arm, but may not have cut it off in time.  Didn’t they already do the Schrödinger’s Cat with Alicia thinking she may have been infected?  C’mon, girl’s just got an infection, no one takes that long to turn into a zombie.  Just get some antibiotics.  But it turns out she is not sick enough to declare war on Strand.  I wonder if Madison is already in the compound or if Alicia eventually finds Padre with Madison inside.

 

Yellowjackets:  I am a big fan of karma, but boy, mocking someone for not knowing if the safety is on or off and then accidentally shooting yourself in the face because you forgot to put the safety on is even a bit much by karma standards.   But my favorite part of the episode was, when all the other girls were wearing athleisure wear that they brought to a soccer tournament, for no apparent reason, Jackie brought along an argyle sweater and was wearing it around the Canadian wilderness.  For this week’s Misty psycho watch, it certainly seems like she trip coach on purpose after she was the only one to raise her hand to cut the deer’s throat but the coach still picked someone else.

 

But finally things start to tie into the past with Taissa and Shauna after meeting in the first episode about the postcards and never talking about it after.  The former was haunted by woodland animals while the latter was actually sees Jackie (in her argyle sweater) and says something very ominous when relating to their time in wilderness.

 

 The Walking Dead: World Beyond:   Pretty blah finale, Huck redeemed herself with a suicide mission, so did her husband.  Evil chick got a promotion.  The outpost just moved into a mall.  Oh… and then then there was the end credits scene.  Apparently there are fast moving, 21 Days Later type variants in Europe.  What!?!

 

Hawkeye:  Well that was a letdown.  We were left with the cliffhanger of Jack putting Clint’s own Ronan sword to his throat only for that to be diffused very quickly.  I was interested with what Kate’s mom talking about Black Widow being able to be killed.  What exactly does the world know about what happened to Black Widow.  We know she was not killed, but sacrificed herself.  Black Widow’s own sister seems to be easily convinced that Clint killed her.  Is it not commonly known that Black Widow scarified herself to get an Infinity Stone that brought back half of them?

 

Survivor:  When DeShawn talked about his truth bomb, I thought he was going to throw Danny under the bus as multi-millionaire football player who would not need the money.  Instead, he bizarrely blew up Erika’s game which was not going to help him in the moment.  But it will lead to an interesting dynamic going back to camp with DeShawn still in the game and Heather now knowing her closest ally planned on dumping her before Final Tribal.  But with so few people left and Ricard still having the largest target on his back, the truth bomb may not change unless Ricard wins the next Immunity Challenge.  After that, it is fire.

 

The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies: How do you get the easiest puzzle quickly and not get the simplest at all?  Tori even gave Emmanuel the cheat code of put five in the middle.  But pretty convenient for Tori to get the strength elimination and Devin to get the brains one.  It would have been interesting had those been flipped.

 

So now we are back to teams with TJ saying you do not want to be on the losing team.  Would he really cut half the finalists in one swoop?  It seems more likely that the losing team will have to go into the area with only two moving on.  This could lead to Nany vs. Kacey or CT vs. Devin could be a Johnny backpack situation, all I know is I do not care who wins at this point.  I am tired of everyone left at this point.  Nineteen ninety minute episodes is just way too much (which does not even count the likely two reunion shows that will follow).

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Oh Tina, so entertaining, but you cannot just flame out like that even if there was no way you are beating Melinda.  At least go half speed.  Casey at least tried multiple times even though this challenge severely disadvantaged the vertically challenged.  But like I brought up last week, these two alliances that have formed still leave out half the cast.  What exactly are those people thinking?  And at what point do the burn votes of Tyler and Casey end up actually get voted in?  If I were those two, I would be a little worried.

 

Guilty Party:  So that was it?  Beth and an escaped convict are just going to travel to Wyoming together to hunt down the real killer with possibly a dead person in the back of the van?

 

Big Sky:  If Tonya went to the ranch alone, why did she exit the passenger’s seat?  What a weird continuity error.  And am I supposed to know who the kid of the weird dude was?  I was drawing a black at that reveal.

 

The Blacklist:  I know there was a time jump, but they aged Agnes up way too much to the point it is a little distracting as I spent too much trying to figure out how old she is compared to how old she should be.