Welcome to the 16th Annual Scooter Television Awards honoring show that aired a majority of their season between July 2019 and August 2020. Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2020 STA's:
Best Scripted Show: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Best Comedy: The Good Place
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show: Castle Rock
Best Comic Book Adaptation: Watchmen
Best Period Show: The Great
Best Animated Show: Harley Quinn
Best Reality Show: The Challenge
Best Remake, Reboot, or (non-comic book) Adaptation: Veronica Mars
Best Miniseries: Little Fires Everywhere
Best Talk Show: Pardon the Interruption
Best New Show: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: Zomboat
Worst Show I Made Though an Entire Season Of: Dispatches From Elsewhere
Best Hour of TV: Zoey’s Extraordinary Glitch (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)
Best Half Hour of TV: A Very G.L.O.W. Christmas (G.L.O.W.)
Biggest Shocker: Cal was Dr. Manhattan this whole time (Watchmen)
Best Line: “Look: I’m stomping on your fish!” (Bane to Aquaman, Harley Quinn)
Worst Idea: Launching your streaming service without access to seventy percent of digital media players
Worst Moment: Roger Ailes groping and sexualizing his employees (The Loudest Voice)
Biggest Disappointment: Run
Best Musical Moment: The last seven minutes of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s finale
Best Karaoke: Crazy – Zoey Clarke (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)
Best New Title Sequence: Little Fires Everywhere
Best Character: Jason Mendoza (The Good Place)
Best Recurring Character: Vicky (The Good Place)
Best Guest Appearance: Jason Bateman (The Outsider)
Best Cast Addition: Lizzie Caplan (Castle Rock)
Best Duo: Catherine the Great and Peter III (The Great)
Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Michele Fitzgerald (Survivor)
Most Annoying Reality “Star”: Rob Mariano (Survivor)
Most Anticipated New Show of Next Season: Only Murders in the Building
Show That Should Be Brought Back: The Good Place (or at least a Jason prequel in Jacksonville)
Biggest Question for 2020-2021: What is television going to look like during the Coronapocalypse?
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Well that was sad. The longer the season went on, the more obvious that this would be the outcome, but it stlll was sad. But oh my, that last scene, a six minute (mostly) one shot musical was just amazing piece of art.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Killing Eve: They brought back Eve’s husband just to have someone stab him through the neck? Although they jumped around way too much, I kind of got lost of what was going on.
You can download Killing Eve on iTunes.
Supergirl: They really should not have postponed this episode for over a month because I mostly forgot everything that happened as this episode was going on. But Miss Tessmacher being a deadly assassin was sillier that her being Lex’s mole. But at least she is no longer a robot, or whatever Lena turned her into earlier this season.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Nathan Lane as a grizzled detective is a hard sell, but hanging out in a car full of old Jews seems much more his speed. Too bad they killed half of them. I would have enjoyed a season of a bunch of old Jews hanging out in a car solving crimes.
Good Girls: Well that almost, kind of worked as a season finale. Sure, you have to forget that the assassin plot just disappeared. But I wonder if now that the new FBI agent is on to them, will she use them to get the gangbanger like the last one. Sure, that did not work out well for him.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: When the first Tribal Council happened about a half an hour in, I thought, this is going to go for a while or we are actually going to get the Edge of Extinction return challenge this week. That and the second Tribal were pretty short and early affairs, and yet we did not get the return challenge. Instead we get a lengthy confessional from amber, disturbingly similar to Chris’s who seemingly at the time got a random confessional the episode before the finale and we know how that turned out. After that we got a lengthy recap followed by a lengthy preview of the finale. Meh. The editing has been pretty poor for a season that finished filming about ten months ago.
Nick got a rare confessional taking about how his first vote was not about this Tribal but what will get him to day 39. Which made me think, great, he is finally going to turn on Tony and vote with Jeremy and Michele… and he voted for Jeremy instead. Meh. Michele rightfully ripped into him leading him to put Ben at a disadvantage which hilariously made her safe and lead to Nick to be voted off. Seems apropos.
So is everyone just going to let Tony win? Sarah seems pretty content. Ben is probably too delusional to realize it, but might finally be realizing he is the hyena not the lion after getting the disadvantage and not have one person give him a Fire Token or advantage. Denise pretended to be checked out but, really, it does not seem like she was acting very hard. Tony and Michele seem to be the only one left trying. Oh, and there will be one more person who comes back in the game and I really fear Tony will be the Rick of this season and whoever comes back will pull a Rick.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
The Challenge: Total Madness: There was nothing more annoying when it would take the show two or three episodes to actually eliminate someone. How hard is it to eliminate someone each week? Survivor manages to do it. I figured that when the Challenged moved to 90 minutes, we would actually get eliminations every week. But not only did we not even get to elimination at the end of the episode, they did not even get to nominations this week. Instead we got a half an hour of relationship drama that was very skippable followed by a forty-five minute ad for a movie that is not even coming out this year. Meh.
You can download The Challenge: Total Madness on iTunes.
In the Dark: C’mon, evil criminal in jail shanks drug dealer guy and does not manage to kill him? About as believable as evil cop not at least putting drug dealer in isolation for helping him.
You can download In The Dark on iTunes.
Blindspot: So Reade was the one who “died.” I put that in quotations because I would not be surprised if he was rescued before he perished. When the evil chick lead the mercenary to someone out of focus, I actually thought that was going to be Reade first before the random person came into view.
The Blacklist: So the warden was just doing a Suicide Squad but for criminals? Sad thing is, I kind of think this is one of the more believable episodes.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: That was the weakest batch of songs yet. The only one I liked was Leif at karaoke. Hopefully they were saving all the great stuff for the finale.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Homeland: I seemed to miss why the Russians did not kill Saul. Wasn’t him being dead a key to the whole plan? How did they convince the sister if he was dead when he was not? But in the end it was a nice full circle moment with Carrie playing the Brody role. But poor Frannie, both parents were considered traitors. Although, could make for an interesting storyline for the inevitable reboot in 5-10 years.
Killing Eve: There were always heavy lesbian themes but Eve kissing the crazy French assassin was a bit eye rolling.
You can download Killing Eve on iTunes.
Good Girls: Ugg, can they just kill the gangbanger already? Having the assassin shoot out someone else’s window was a bit annoying. Beth trying to fulfil the payment to the assassin will likely be more entertaining than the last season and a half.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: What the fork Ben? Early this season, Danni hatched a plan to get Rob out and Ben just blabbed it to Rob. Now he is outing the play to get out Tony to Tony himself. Then after gunning for Jeremy for week, who is the target this week, just flips his vote to get out Kim.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
The Challenge: Total Madness: So they nearly kill Jay and then just end it there on a cliffhanger? I had to rewind to see if I missed something. If why not just tell us if he is dead or not. It will be pretty anticlimactic if he gets pulled after that or if he comes back to just lose to Rogan. I had cheap editing like this.
You can download The Challenge: Total Madness on iTunes.
In the Dark: Okay, the blind chick’s two lovers stuck in the elevator was pretty funny. Almost as funny as the annoying new partner who ruined the plan. But of course the IRS guy did not want to fork the blind chick, she only attracts horrible people. She will probably fork the dead guy before he dies. Although, I have to say, I have the flash forward scenes.
You can download In The Dark on iTunes.
The Blacklist: So Ressler killed a dude. But I actually thought he was the other kid for most of the episode since the he looked much more like the other brother. How exactly did he go from brunette to a ginger later in life? Lizzy being able to clean up the trunk was more believable than Ressler’s hair throughout the years.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: C’mon, how are you gonna singe Here I Go without draping someone across the hood of a car? But anyway. I knew the title of the episode was Zoey’s Extraordinary Outburst, but oh my goodness did she go off on everyone harder than I was expecting. You just do not see a protagonist get that raw very often. Though very realistic because if you have to watch a loved one slowly die, you are about to explode eventally.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Killing Eve: Oh hey, Yara Greyjoy. Weird her smile.
Homeland: Well, Russian dude just ramped things up really quickly. Now, I could see Carrie sell out Saul to get that asset to retrieve the black box, but kill Saul? Oh my. That would be going out with a bang in the final season. Though I could see Carrie killing Saul, getting the black box, and then the final shot being a not very dead Saul.
Good Girls: I have long thought they should have gotten rid of the gang banger and brought in a new big bad every season to freshen things up. I really hope the sniper actuvlly kills him and then they have to spend a season trying to pay off the rest of the bill. That guy was a hoot.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Little Fires Everywhere: Well, that was unexpected. I believe the first line of dialogue was Lexi saying that Elena would find a way to blame this on Izzy. Well, of course, she was the one who dosed her stuff with gasoline first. I never really suspected the kids mostly because of that line. But the fire really took a back seat to the trial, but that ended anti-climatically as we did not even get to see the verdict being read, just the aftermath. I guess I should have seen the ending to that storyline coming as it pretty much line up with Mia’s story of stealing a child and living a life on the run. But what the whole, once a human touches a baby bird its mother rejects it, supposed to be a metaphor for Izzy with Mia and that is why Izzy bolted? Elena seemed to pretty much give up on Izzy long before Mia showed up. I wonder of Reece will try to squeeze another season out of this show like she did Big Little Lies. You could also have a search for Izzy and Maribelle but I am not sure how you can work in Mia and Pearl, cannot imagine they ever set foot in Shaker Heights ever again. Well, unless Pearl really did end up getting knocked up by Tripp and she felt guilty enough to keep the baby and did not want her kid to grow up without knowing her father. I am sure I would watch.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.
Survivor: Winners at War: We have had plenty of dumb player on the show that give up immunity, try to play fake Idols, vote for the wrong player which results them getting voted out but I figured on an all winner season we would not get many dumb movie. But I was shocked this week when not one, not two, but three people who somehow won this game gave a Fire Token to Tony. Okay, I could sort of get Jeremy who was in clear danger, but Nick and Ben have absolutely no reason to do this. I hope they at least got their tokens back that Tony then won.
Then Tony came up with the most convoluted plan. Instead of getting Kim and Denise who was with Jeremy the previous week, he goes with a three split vote to get out Sophie. Again, everyone he pitched it to were dumb enough to go along with it. Seriously, how did Nick win his season again? He has been nonexistent this season only to pop up to be creepy or make dumb moves.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
The Challenge: Total Madness: Why was everyone ganging up on Ashley? It was Mattie who fired the first shot by saying Ashley had worse things in her mouth. That seems worse than what Ashley said. If you do not want people to bring up your prison time, do not do anything that will and you in prison. Mattie slut shaming was a lot worse in my book.
In the Dark: Oh yeah, I forgot about the blind chick’s other evil boyfriend. She sure knows how to pick them. I somehow think he will not be leaving Chicago. But I was surprised the Queen Pin did not ask for proof that the other guy took care of him. Aren’t you supposed to ask for a finger when you kill someone?
The Blacklist: There have been weirder Blacklisters, but a dude who inseminates prostitutes with dead men sperm to extort their family for money has to be pretty high on the list. Then the twist of actually keeping the babies made it even weirder. It looked like there was a teenager there which means he has been doing this for a very long time. But what is going on with Ressler? Have we met hi brother before? Do we know what he did?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Well that was a very special episode. Nice work adding in the deaf actors signing instead of singing. But of course the one dude learned sign language to get laid.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Homeland: That was kind of a waste of an episode when it was pretty obvious Carrie would end up getting her hands on the Black Box. The only question would be if the Russian dude would turn on her or not. Oh wait, I forgot option three, she tries to fork another enemy of the state and then he still turns on her. I am going to miss this show.
The Walking Dead: Okay, the show has been a drag since… um, ever, maybe, but the weird purple haired chick is a riot. Hopefully she sticks around to liven things up.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: Wait, Leslie was not dead. Okay, I vaguely remember him “dying” only to be found hiding in his grandmother’s apartment. But how he ended up in prison is still a mystery to me. Really needed a recap of that. But now he is “dead” again but we do not get to see him die so I am guessing the gangsta has other plans for him.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Black Monday: Boo, I am going to miss Mo’s relaxer hair. That was comedy gold. But Mo being cleared that easily, was a bit of a stretch even by television standards. What could the FBI possibly want that would let him off the hook? Speaking of being left off the hook, it would also be a cheap stretch even by TV standards if Keith going to the Lehman Brothers’ Club Fed and being released early was just part of Mo’s plan and Keith is in on it.
Manifest: I know I should not have expected different, but that was extremely dumb. So frostbite dude comes back to life because he did good deeds? Kind of ruins the suspense of the death date. And now we are stuck with a lame love triangle.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.
Little Fires Everywhere: Last week, Mia’s parents implied that the kid was not hers. I just assumed they meant biologically, but maybe they just meant legally because when you use a turkey baster, you kind of have to the biological mother. This definitely explains why she is so adamant that the co-worker should get the kid back. Hers were by far the more interesting flashback, but boy was young Elena scenes rough. You are certainly going through things if you are driving five hours to see an ex-boyfriend. But I wonder if they are trying to explain Izzy’s problems with the sip of wine Elena had at that dinner?
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.
Survivor: Winners at War: So I picked Adam to win solely because he seemed like the most random person who got to speak during the preview last fall. It seemed like I was more and more right as he kept on getting screen time despite being kind of insignificant. And yet, there were a bunch of little scenes made to make him look like a buffoon, like the inability to get his torch in the stand, so I actually kind of thought that weird thing was an Idol, but alas it was not and he was voted out. After all that, can he possibly be the one that comes back from Extinction and actually win? If so, that would be one of the weirdest bits of editing ever.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Devs: I really kind of hate the trope of someone predicting the future, someone else says, all I have to do is not do the thing you say I am going to do, but then they always do that exact thing. I kind of hoped what ended the Devs future was the chick just did not go to Devs. Really the last half of the episode was kind of boring.
You can download Devs on iTunes.
Motherland: Fort Salem: Wait, did not one really notice the wicked witch raised the temperature, like fifty degrees? Huh?
The Blacklist: We finally get to learn Agent Park’s deep dark secret, broke a few laws to get to the person she thought was responsible for killing her mother, but of course Red was the one that arranged the meeting. Makes me wonder how long he has been following her.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Is it too soon to call this the best episode of the decade? Of course, who knows when Hollywood gets up and running, we may not get much new television after next month. You start off with a great rendition of Crazy. Zoey trying not to sing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Pressure was not far behind. Max was pretty astute that Zoey sang him a love song but sang Simon a lust song. Then they capped things off by making everyone cry. But are they really going to kill off Peter Gallagher? After the first episode I assume they would have him sing every week, but he has sung in less than half of the episode and just sits there bug eyed most of the time. Kind of seems like a waste of his talents.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Homeland: Last week I predicted one of Max or the Taliban dude would survive, probably both. Oops, wrong on both counts. Although the Talban guy ended up surviving the first round of bullets. Um, Pakistan, maybe it is time to get better soldiers if you can miss the head from maybe ten paces. But I do not understand why the Taliban’s son killed Max that way. Why not do it on camera?
The Walking Dead: Um, where did Carol go? That was pretty cheap to just leave Negan out there like that after he brought your mortal enemy’s head. And what was going on with Beta. Why steal Alpha’s head just to take it nowhere and kill her? Did he just want to show her the new horde he was making?
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: So all that just for the boyfriend to chicken out at the end? Meh. Well at least he got his bird back. Maybe the children can get the chicks after the bird lays the eggs.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Black Monday: I hope we get to see the Rubber Room later this season, it sounds like comedy gold. I hope we do not see Horatio Sanz pull down his pants ever again.
Manifest: Um, why were the bad guys steal the hot cop’s nephew when they could have just as easily taken her instead? It is not like her half dead husband could do anything about it.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.
Little Fires Everywhere: Well that took an unexpected turn. I actually had to rewind the scene a couple times and turn up the volume to make I heard what I was not hearing. So, at least according to her grandparents, Pearl is not Mia’s child? Oh wow. I thought the twist was that the baby daddy was abusive but the real reason is that Mia was a surrogate and really does not want anyone to know where she is because she does not want Pearl taken away. No wonder she feels so strong about her co-worker is the rightful parent because she was the one that gave birth to the child. Now the big question is, what does Elena do with this information? Will she be willing to blow up Pearl’s life just to stick it to Mia? Will she blackmail Mia to stop supporting the co-work so her buddy can keep the kid? Oh yeah, and there is the whole fire business. We see Izzy go pyro this week, but like her name getting thrown out in the first episode, it is so obvious; you have to assume it is someone else. But other than maybe Mia and the co-worker, not many other suspects right now.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.
Survivor: Winners at War: Oh man, we were seconds away from the darkest timeline: Rob coming back in the game with an Idol. Oh wait; the true darkest timeline would be Rob coming back in at five with two Idols after accumulating enough Fire Tokens for more. But I have to say the creepy Nick montage was the greatest bit of editing since Angelina almost died while searching for an Idol.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
The Challenge Total Madness: It is the biggest twist in the history of the show!!!!! Okay, calm down T.J., I am not sure it is top five. But it will be interesting how the power players who try to avoid elimination like the plague will play this. Do you try to go in early and make sure alliance serves you up a tomato can (and hope it is the type of challenge that favors you) or do you wait until you are near the end for fear if you go in early you may have to go in multiple times if you lose power? Granted this begs the question of if T.J. will even give them a head’s up. I probably would want to get it out of the way early.
Motherland: Fort Salem: What is with all the aging and de-aging? I get that they are witches, but I do not get what ends they are doing it in this episode.
Devs: Okay, when the old dude said to the young kid that got fired last week was nineteen, I was taken aback. The kid’s voice has yet to drop yet. So I did some googling and it turns out that young boy is actually a twenty-two year old woman in real life. That may have been the biggest plot twist on the show so far.
You can download Devs on iTunes.
The Blacklist: Ugg, I forget if the guy that Lizzie was looking for was Red as a younger man or his buddy that her mom abducted. I am pretty sure it is Red, which in case, good luck finding someone who no longer exists.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: You know what makes a good show: The small details. Like having some random extra with a fake baby deliver a line like, “That’s usually not a very good sign.” That just had me laughing throughout the commercial break. Just having a flash mob which Zoey, and, well me, thinks is one of her mental breaks was pretty brilliant too.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Homeland: Wait, they have lady judges in Pakistan? Who knew they were that progressive? But does the lady who was evil earlier this season, plotting with the military 80’s villain, really want peace now? Or is she the reason they changed the judge? So we were left with two cliffhangers: the Taliban leader is going to go in front of a firing squad any minute. Am I really supposed to feel bad for a dude who killed countless numbers of people, because I sort of did before remembering he was a mass murderer? Then Max is about to have his head cut off. But I really doubt after being so lucky the first half of the season, he goes out like that. So will it be the three man Russian crew (four if you count Carrie) or the American extraction team that saves him. Granted, since he did give Carrie all the information she needs to get the black box, so maybe they will shock us and kill both at the start of the next episode. Homeland season one would have killed at least one, later Homeland will probably find a way to save both.
Supergirl: Oh hey, our first Miss Tessmacher sighting in post Crisis. I believe when we last saw her, Lena essentially turned her into AI. I guess that did not happen. I predict she is back to being Lex’s mole inside Catco.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.
The Walking Dead: Oh yeah, Michonne inexplicably left her children earlier this season to help some random dude find his family. And of course that random dude turned out to be crazy and almost killed her. But then led her to a ship that had something of Rick’s? Huh? And now Michonne is going to keep being away from her children to look for Rick with little clues? Huh? But speaking of people who have not been on the show for a while, the dream sequences reminded me that Maggie just disappeared without any explanation.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: That is pretty brilliant to bury a body in a cemetery. Doubtful anyone would dig up the other grave and find it. What was not brilliant was leaving the phone on so the boyfriend could find it. I thought the boyfriend would find the bird when he went over to Beth’s but instead he had a chance meeting with the bird when donating bird feed. How convenient. So I guess the boyfriend will continue to be a little bit of a problem going forward.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Black Monday: There are fewer things I needed to see than Horatio Sanz’s little Horatio. But I kind of want an episode in the Rubber Room. That place sounded interesting.
Project Blue Book: Wait, are they implying that Quinn went through some portal to Antarctica? Isn’t this show supposed to be based on fact? This is going to be a hard thing to sell if there is a next season.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.
Little Fires Everywhere: Well that escalated quickly. Elena just went after Mia who dished I all back. But is that custody battle really going to take up the rest of the season because it seems pretty open and shut. If you give up your child, you give up your child. You just cannot put a child on layaway indefinitely. Then what is up with Reece’s eldest? What teenage boy goes limp in the middle of sex? Seems as believe able as no assigned seats in high school.
You can stream Little Fires Everywhere Hulu.
Survivor: Winners at War: There is nothing more annoying on this show than whatever name gets thrown out in the confessional right after the Immunity Challenge and before the ad break almost never is the person that gets voted out. It is essentially a spoiler at this point. So when Yul said I was going to be Wendell, I knew at that moment is was almost certain to be Yul going home. Though I am not sure it was wise for Michelle and Nick to side with the guy at the last Tribal admitted he was willing to stab everyone in the back and front and could be bought with some Fire Tokens.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Devs: Just a reminder people, do not talk on the phone while driving. Wifey just blew right through that stop sign. But I was not entirely sure what I was seeing for most of the episode.
You can download Devs on iTunes.
The Bold Type: So Kat was fired and just like the season that ended with Jane taking another job, she will be back at Scarlett within an episode or two next season. But shouldn’t she be in prison? Especially if dude’s daughter is some high powered lawyer who already threatened her. Although the look those two had at the end of the episode seemed a little thirsty.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.
The Blacklist: There was a point for sure that Red was the one killing everybody off. Although, it did turn out to be a pretty entertaining Ten Little Indians episode.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: The cursing into the title screen has becoming my new favorite running bit. But I am sad that dude broke up with the weird baristas. I wish they could find a way to keep her on the show. The place where Zoey works does seem to have an overabundance of bars, how about a coffee bar?
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Dare Me: So we are not getting an ending? Kind of presumptuous thinking it will get a second season. But I have already seen them promoting the Netflix release. I wonder if it will get a bounce similar to You that went from a barely watched Lifetime show to a worldwide smash hit. But this ending was a bit confusing. So the coach and her husband were at army dude’s apartment, and then she came back with the black chick to have an alibi? That does not make much sense. But I did laugh at the completely inappropriate gun theme cheer.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.
The Outsider: Um, so when did El Cuco scratch Holly. He was never near her in the cave. Did it happen before? They were never close before that scene. But that could explain why trigger happy neck guy decline to shoot her head out when he had the chance. I know it is required for horror movies, after the bad guy is vanquished, to tease that they are still around, but that mad no sense. At least make it the cop that smashed his head in, at lead there was a chance he was scratched first.
Homeland: Is it going to be that obvious that the 80’s action movie supervillain acting Pakistani Defense Minister was behind the president’s chopper being shot down? It cannot be that obvious. It did cross my mind that since the chopper disappeared for a couple minutes that it got swapped out; helping this theory is that the body got destroyed so they cannot confirm that it was him. It also crossed my mind that the Vice-President was involved but he seemed way too shook that this probably cannot be him, maybe he is a puppet and knew but did not think it would actually happen. Hopefully there is some sort of a twist soon.
Supergirl: So Andrea is now just realizing she had a super power? Kind of silly that this show is just kind of rebooting the first half of the season post-Crisis. But I guess I should not expect actual goo storytelling from this show.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.
The Walking Dead: Was that supposed to be their version of The Long Night? Maybe not try that with tenth the budget. But at least I could tell what was going on.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: So it was the black chick who recognized the hockey jersey? Sure she did not realize it was a fake. But of course the gangsta wants a part of Beth money scheme more than he wants to kill her. And now it seems like we are right back to season one.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Manifest: So the plane went back in time, freaked out a bunch of pirates, and then went into the future without any one aboard noticing? What the fork?
You can download Manifest on iTunes.
Project Blue Book: They finally caught the Russian spy. Now what? That part of the show was always a drag but know that everything is on the table, maybe it will get more interesting.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: It should not have taken the merge to happen, but thankfully they finally got Rob out. Maybe this could be the best because now he has less time to amass Fire Tokens on Edge of Extinction. But they wasted way too much time on that boring buddy system. What they should have done was give us much more time with the Michelle / Wendell situation. Like, how exactly did that end. Clearly Wendell did something. Then my pre-season pick Adam, looked like a complete buffoon again this episode when he could not close the voting urn thing. Ugg, it is going to be depressing when he ends up winning.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Devs: So this tech firm cannot even make believable CGI flames? I get that it was probably rushed and they did not expect anyone to steal it so they could go frame by frame, but c’mon. If you can make a dead guy walk and set himself on fire, flames should be easy.
You can download Devs on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Well that was the weakest episode so far mostly because the neighbor is the weakest character. Not the greatest song selection either between opera and Miley Cyrus. Okay, I did like the island themed songs.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Dare Me: Was the dude who date raped the Queen B in the dead guy’s room at the start of the episode? But my theory that the Queen B was involved in the murder was helped by her saying that they both have alibis now.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.
The Outsider: I caught on pretty early that the boys were in the past, but I thought they said one of their names was the same as neck guy? Granted I a calling him neck guy because I am unsure of what his name is. Speaking of neck guy, he does not really want to do any of the things El Cuco is telling him, is drinking brown liquor, but still manages to shoot the head off the guy who tasted copper in his mouth (should had heeded that sign dude)?
Homeland: One thing the creators of the show said early in its run that really stuck with me was you can no longer surprised an audience with something happening, you can only surprise them anymore with when it happens. That philosophy had them burning through a season’s worth of plot in two or three episodes early on, but now, there are not many surprising developments anymore. After everything was going so well in the first part of the episode, my inner voice said, okay something bad is going to happen at the end of the episode. And there we have at the end of the episode with a chopper going down with two presidents inside. And I am just going to go ahead and say the Pakistanis were involved.
The Walking Dead: So Beta just dug a tunnel into Alexandra? Okay, that was pretty cool. But very uncool to be taken down by a child.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: I guess that is one way to avoid getting killed by the dude who you just shot, imply he knocked you up. But what exactly did his really baby momma say to convince the doctor to lie?
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Manifest: Wait, what happened to the college dude? Did he just fall through the floor? Did he crawl to the sewers? But I guess that kind of helps the idea of a death day if he can avoid what really looked to be certain date.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.
Project Blue Book: That was probably the most X-Files episode so far. Although I doubt the X-Files would had ended it as the government torturing a new family. So what was up with the bear guy? Was he in on it or just a crazy dude? And the government finally caught the lady Russian asset. The question is will they find out what she is up to?
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: They really need to change these sit out rules. It just really disadvantages the losing tribe if the other tribe gets to sit their weakest member every week.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Devs: Um, did they really spoil the big twist they played very coy about in the “This season on”? The chick who looks more like the daughter from The Middle with a bad haircut more than any Chinese person I ever met seemed to out the whole thing to Alison Pill in a future scene. I hope that was just a huge misdirection. They certainly implied they could see the past later in the second episode.
You can download Devs on iTunes.
The Bold Type: So Jaqueline has a brunette friend and a black friend? Kind of looks like the older version of the three leads. Except Jaqueline would make more sense as the Jane so it does not quite work.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: So is Zoey going to curse going into the title card every week because if so, I am all for it. Not the greatest week for music, I had to look up the song her mother sang. Too bad they did not have Zoey sing The Humpty Dance, that would have been great.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Dare Me: I think Queen B know, mostly because I think she killed the dude. Other than that, the most boring episode so far which is saying a lot.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.
The Outsider: Wow, people got jokes. Both car rides had a funny moment which may have been the first two moments of levity on the show. But I guess that was needed since there was the creeping impending doom of child rape and murder that almost happened. But I wonder if the old man got scratched. Kind of looked like it but I could not tell for sure. But in the most Stephen King ending, out heroes are going to chase El Coco into a cave for a final showdown… except there is two episodes left so maybe not the final one.
Homeland: So it was the Taliban leader’s kid that sold him out. And then he kicked the kid out of the compound. That is going to come back and bite him. The kid already tried to kill him once. And just a soon as he was captured, Saul gets released. Well that was a big ado about nothing. But Carrie’s Russian plot just gets hotter. I really doubt Russia dude is turnable, you do not capture an American spy and not have big plans for her.
Supergirl: So where was Saturn Girl? In the real timeline, she went back to the future with Mon-El and Toyman Jr. but in the fake timeline, both of them stayed and she was nowhere to be found. But what a complete waste of an episode. They solved the Lena problem with Crisis only for Lex to explain why she should be mad at Supergirl. They could have fixed it here but Supergirl decides to stick with this timeline. If you are not going to fix the storyline, stop acting like you might.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.
The Walking Dead: So they ended the mid-season with the group on an island surrounded by a lake of zombie. And yet everyone survived it… well, I guess a couple people are still stuck in the cave. But we did not see the dead bodies so they may still get out. Then Alpha rewards Negan with sex which may be the grossest thing that has happened on a zombie show.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.
Good Girls: Beth finally learns that the gangbanger is still live. So did dude just shake down the info from his baby momma? But we will have to wait a week to find out what stupid reason he does not kill her for shooting him because no way they or going to kill off the lead. Meh.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Project Blue Book: I never realized that Dr. Hynek inspired Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But I guess they needed a little something extra if the big twist to their hearing was that they called a crazy person to the stand to show they need to counteract the crazy people out there. But future Hynek surely implied that he proved the existence of intelligence life outside out planet.
You can download Project Blue Book on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: So Adam wanted Parviti out to weaken Rob. Michelle thought it would be better to get rid of Ethan to weaken Rob. But you know what would have been a better way to weaken Rob? How about sending Rob to Edge of Extinction? Sending another of his buddies to Edge only helps Rob because they can start feeding him stuff. But at least Ethan gave his Fire Token to Parviti so as long as she is in the game, I guess Ethan will award his stuff to her… well if he is still in the game, the Promo Monkeys made it seem like he might die next week.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Almost Family: So Julia’s father is that the super alpha male she was raised by but her mother actually got knocked up by a homosexual? And that is not the only homosexual in the family because Edie’s one night stand with her soon to be ex-husband? Oh and Roxie new husband killed Julia at his reception? I know things are not looking good for a second season with Fox burning the last two episodes on a Saturday a month after the previous episode aired but I really hope Quibi or something else picks the show up.
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.
The Bold Type: Okay, Jane getting an infection from a facial not on her face was gross enough, but was somehow less gross than Kat getting asked to go through the back door by the bartender. I really need to stop watching this crap.
You can download The Bold Type on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: I wonder if they will eventually “cure” Zoey’s dad. It would be weird to hire Peter Gallagher only to have him sit there motionless every episode aside from a two minute musical number every week. But it turns out the pretty impressive 40 million YouTube viewers NBC has been hyping for the Pilot episode was less impressive when you learn those viewers only averaged about 8 minutes each and only a couple million watched the full episode. Still hard to tell if the show was a success. Live rating were not good but NBC calls it the highest Live +35 rating ever (granted that stat is maybe five years old). Did that count all 40 million YouTube viewers? Just how much do you have to watch be considered a viewer. Hopefully people are watching via somewhere NBC cares about (I am watching next day via Hulu) because I really need this show to go at least six seasons and a movie. If you have not watch the second episode, it is on YouTube now and as I write this Saturday, it has 11 million views, but who knows how many finished.
You can download Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on iTunes.
Dare Me: Since the first episode, I thought the Queen B would end up being the person who died. But now I wonder if she is the killer. I mean if the coach killed the dude, would she really call one of her students? I guess dude could have killed himself being distraught over the coach ghosting him, but that would be kind of boring. I kind of hope the Queen B killed the dude and set the coach up for the fall.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.
The Outsider: So is everyone finally on board to the evil entity thing now? Because it is time to start figuring out how to stop it.
Homeland: Well that was pretty bold of Saul to meet with a Taliban leader with only four bodyguards. Boy did that backfire bad. But were the Pakistani’s tracking him or the Taliban? I guess it was the latter if Saul did not really inform anyone. But why was none of the bodyguards guarding the back door, or at least his backside. Seems pretty sloppy for the military even of a car just got bombed. Then I thought that new officer was being groomed as the new Carrie, but she screwed up pretty big. I mean, not forking a Taliban sympathizer big, but that was a pretty big mistake.
Supergirl: Wow, the show just blatantly ripped off the horrible nineties movie The Lawnmower Man.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.
Good Girls: So the FBI dude just let gangbanger dude just freely roam a hotel room unattended? Of course he was going set you up. I really hoped gangbanger was dead because the show really needed a soft reboot. Worse is he really should kill Beth for shooting him, but we know he will not because she is the lead.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes.
Survivor: Winners at War: Is everyone just going to let Rob run this game? They know his wife is on Extinction where she would undoubtedly feeding him Fire Tokens and other advantages, this would have been the perfect week to vote him out and use Danni’s irrational Parvati hatred to split the vote just in case. I know people are anti-big moves for fear they will put a target on their back but that would have been the easy movie. Although Rob knows very well sometimes a split vote can go wrong.
You can download Survivor: Winners at War on iTunes.
Stumptown: They are just giving everyone daddy issues now. The cop has to go up against his father in court and Grey sees his father for the first time in decades and Dex tried to do the same but ran into her mentally decaying aunt instead.
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Finally watched the premiere because I did not want to wait six weeks to watch the second episode. It was really good. It is nice to have Jane Levy back doing something fun after spending most of her post-Suburgatory years being a scream queen.
Dare Me: There are fewer things I need to see in my life than a bag full of used tampons. Then I saw a promo for next week claiming someone might die. “Might?” Gee, that is really going to get me to turn in to see if someone might die. I have thought that the mean girl was going to die at the end but after she sort of got date raped, I am a bit unsure.
You can download Dare Me on iTunes.
The Outsider: What a great scene with the private investigator giving her boogieman theory. But the thing is, it is the only theory that makes sense. How else do explain one person being in the same place at the same time? But that was not even the best scene, which belongs to the neck guy getting beat up by his dead mother. Just pure Stephan King right there. Now the PI is in big trouble diving to the middle of with the neck guy. Granted the last guy committed suicide by cop so he might just do the same to himself before he does anything to her.
Manifest: Really, this disappearing thing dates back hundreds of years and for some reason it involves magical tarot cards. This show just gets sillier and sillier.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.
10. Ghotbusters: Afterlife (July 10) / Bill and Ted Face the Music (August 21): Two ionic eighties comedies with questionable sequels will be getting a third movie almost three decades later. Ghostbusters looks like it will be a soft reboot with Paul Rudd and a bunch of kids taking the lead but the three original Ghostbusters are supposed to nr showing up (RIP Harold Ramis). While Bill and Ted now have teenaged daughters and we now live in a world where rock, which they were supposed to be the saviors of in the first film, is pretty much dead. I am cautiously optimistic of both.
9. The Return of Rock?: Or maybe the return of Bill and Ted will bring the return of rock. The fall was when all the big albums were released but with no one even buying CD’s as Christmas gifts anymore, we are getting a few big names releasing albums early this year. Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots (2/7), Huey Lewis and the News (2/14), The 1975 (2/21), Body Count (3/6), Weezer (5/15) all have release dates with possible albums by Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers (with John Fruscianti back for the first time since… well they last had a hit song), The Killers, and The Offspring. Last decade was pretty dire for rock music with Imagine Dragons taking the top three spots with Twenty-One Pilots taking three other places in the top ten. Will any of the great rock band of yesteryear regain some traction or are we just doomed for the watered down hybrid sound for another ten years? Well at least a reunited Rage Against the Machine are headlining Cochella this year so while we may not get much great rock this year, the acts I mentioned at least have a deep catalogue to return to so I guess rock will always live on.
8. West Side Story (December 18) / High Fidelity (February 14, Hulu): Two things that may not seem like they have a lot in common but they are both IP that were adapted into all-time great movies that will be getting remakes this season that, again, will be going into the cautiously optimistic basket. At least High Fidelity is not another attempt at a movie but instead is being turned into a show starring Zoe Kravitz whose mother Lisa Bonet was in the movie.
7. Little Fires Everywhere (March 18, Hulu): Reese Witherspoon is going for the prestige TV trifecta with her third book adaptation in four years with Big Little Lies on HBO, The Morning Show on Apple+, and now her third book turned show Little Fires Everywhere. The show is set in nineties Cleveland and also star Kerry Washington. Oh, and it premiere on my birthday. Fun times.
6. Snowpiercer (TBA, TNT… maybe): What a weird trip this show has taken to make it to air and we still do not have an airdate. TNT ordered the show back in 2016. It started filming in 2017 but delays took it over a year to finish filming. Then in May of last year it was announced the show would be moving TBS because it seemed like TNT was getting out of the scripted game (another long in development show got shipped off to the upcoming HBO Max), but then switched back to TNT in October. Despite all the turmoil, the show has already been renewed for a second season which has already started filming. Now when I first saw the film, I liked it but I thought it would have been better as a television show with each episode featuring on a different car on the train so hopefully after over three years of waiting we will finally get to see it.
5. The Olympics (July 24): My favorite two weeks of every two years. Where we get to see weird sports and wonder why things like Handball do not get more airtime in off Olympic years. It is a little of a downer that much of the events will be taking place while most of this hemisphere will be asleep. Though 8:00 PM EST is 10:00 AM Tokyo time so maybe we will be getting some early live morning events in primetime. This Olympics will see the return of baseball/softball for the first time since 2008, and new events karate, sports climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.
4. How do The Good Place (returning January 9, NBC) / Homeland (February 9, Showtime) End?: It is the end of the era with two all-time great first seasons. The Good Place has been steadily good since while Homeland fell off a cliff in season three before finally finding a solid footing except for that season where we had to watch Peter Quinn slowly die (man this show waits way too long to kill off characters way past their usefulness). We last saw Carrie completely broken after months in a Russian gulag and Eleanor was last seen waking up her soulmate who is the last chance to save humanity. Should not be hard for someone who loves decisions as much as Chidi.
3. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (premiere January 7, then timeslot premiere February 16, NBC): It has not been a good year for the Pitch Perfect cast, Britany Snow’s Almost Family and Anna Camp’s Perfect Harmony are putting up CW type numbers, the last hope (baring some streamer saving one of those two) is Skylar Astin whose new show, like his wife’s Camp’s show, involves singing, but instead of a choir, Astin works with Jane Levy who hears other people’s thoughts through elaborate song and dance numbers. Awesome. Hopefully this survives somehow. But it will be nicce to see Suburgatory's Jane Levy going back to doing something fun after being a scream queen for the last couple years.
2. The Great (TBA, Hulu): During last year’s upfronts, Hulu showed off promos for a bunch of shows, all of which have aired except one: The Great. I would think The Great would be the next up, but Hulu has already announced its next three premieres (Shrill being the one I have not mentioned) so hopefully it is coming soon because what I saw was hilarious. The show stars Elle Fanning as Catherine (Helen Mirran played an older more serious version on HBO last fall) and Nicholas Hoult as her future husband who looks off his rocker. Hopefully an announcement will be come soon but if Little Fires Everywhere is airing weekly we may not get this any sooner than May.
1. Women Can Be Superheroes Too!!!!!!: It was pretty abysmal for the fairer sex with superpowers. Supergirl back in 1984 sucked and it wasn’t until twenty years later until we got Catwoman, which also sucked. Marvel’s first try at ladies who can fight with Elektra a year later, also sucked. It then took twelve more years after that to get another female fronted with Wonder Woman and it, wait, this one was actually good! Marvel, finally gave a woman her first solo film in the MCU with its twenty-first film. After those two movie made decent amount of bank, things are exploded with three female fronted films this year. You can say four with The Eternals staring Angelina Jolie who is the biggest name in that cast, but really no superhero movies will be headlined white dudes who have dominated the medium up to this point.
First up is the movie I am most excited about: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (February 7), then Black Widow (May 1) in her first solo movie after appear in the MCU eight times already (and after apparently dying… I have not watched Endgame yet, so spoiler alert to me) and the lady who started the woman can headline a superhero film trend with Wonder Woman 1984 (June 4).
But again, I am extremely excited for Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn was the best (only good) thing about Suicide Squad. And where DC has had some head scratching casting for some of their male superheroes (like, say their last two Batmen), but have had some inspiring choices for the feminine ones. Joining Margo Robbie’s Quinn is Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary which is like my fantasy casting come to life. Now if only they will cast Jane Levy as Batgirl.
Then here is everything I will watch on television to start off the year:
Mondays
8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS, January 6)
9:00 - Brain Games (National Geographic, January 20)
10:00 – Manifest (NBC, January 6)
TBD – Cosmos: Possible Worlds (National Geographic Channel, March 9)
Tuesdays
9:00 – Mix’ish (ABC, January 7)
9:30 – Black’ish (ABC, January 7)
10:00 – Project Blue Book (History, January 21)
10:30 – Miracle Workers: Dark Ages (TBS, January 28)
Wednesdays
8:00 – The Goldbergs (ABC January 15)
8:00 – Survivor (CBS, February 12)
8:30 – Schooled (ABC, January 16)
9:00 – Almost Family (FOX, already back)
9:00 - Modern Family (ABC, January 8)
10:00 – Stumptown (ABC, January 8)
Thursdays
8:00 – Superstore (NBC, January 9)
8:00 – Grown’ish (Freeform, January 16)
8:30 – Perfect Harmony (NBC, January 9)
9:00 - The Good Place (NBC, January 9)
9:00 – The Bold Type (Freeform, January 23)
Briarpatch (USA, February 6)
Fridays
High Fidelity (February 14)
Sundays
9:00 – The Outsider (HBO, January 12)
9:00 – Supergirl (The CW, January 19)
9:00 – Homeland (Showtime, February 9)
9:00 – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC, February 16, sneak peak January 7 at 10:00)
9:00 – The Walking Dead (AMC, February 23)
10:00 – Dare Me (USA, already started)
10:00 – Kidding (Showtime, February 9)
10:00 – Good Girls (NBC, February 16)
