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: April 3, 2022

 

Killing Eve: They really waited way too long to give an origin story of The Twelve to get me to care. And I really do not know why the cvzy French assassin was luring fireman to kill them.

 

The Walking Dead:  So we can now conclude why Stormtrooper Daryl comes to confront Maggie, and and her crew killed a bunch of other Stormtroopers because they killed some of Negan’s people for thinking they stole their weapons, but it turned out Daryl’s ex-girlfriend stole the weapons.  Well, that is complicated.  I still think Daryl is going to side with Maggie.  As for the other Daryl storyline, if the son got caught off and needs the money in the safe to keep his control, how were the Stormtroopers doing  his bidding if he had no money?

 

Billions:   So this very swanky resort has some zen chamber that flashes lights at you, but that chamber has a window letting natural light in and an open waiting room where the next guy can be heard talking on his phone.  How does this chamber not have its own sound proof room? This was a pretty cheap plot devise to inspire Chuck to rededicate his like to taking down douchebags.  And was Taylor really asking out the bland underling?  I took it as Taylor thinking about leaving the whole company, not just the party.  Then the bland chick is showering at Prince’s. Huh?  Being this is the tenth episode, I just this week remembered that Billions still does 12 episodes a season, and with this being such a filler of an episode, maybe it would be best if the show downgraded to 10 like most other shows from this era.  Or, like other shows from this era, not run on forever.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  I was beginning to worry with no Pearl Jam last episode, but we finally got another song for the end credits.   Speaking of music, as weird as it to have Pearl Jam and other 90’s alt rock song primarily soundtrack a show that took place last decade, it almost make ]s sense given Travis’ age, but much weirder to have an Olivia Rodrigo song that is half a decade from being released when that scene takes place.  But of all the actors they could have gotten from Billions to be on this show, she may have been the worst choice.  She is just so monotone it is hard to root for her.  Plus, as I said before, it is hard to take the commentary on the boys club at Uber seriously coming from a writing team that has their own boys club accusations hanging over them.

 

Snowpiercer:  I still do not understand Melanie’s motivation.  What would it hurt to look and see if the Horn of Africa was habitable?  If not, just keep going.  But I was wrong the writers just did this to make her the new antagonist for Layton, instead she turned on Wilford and agreed to split the train and let everyone decide which track they wanted to go.  Huh?  I thought Snowpiercer needed Big Alice because it no longer could produce enough heat like at the beginning of the season.  Then what was that thing at the end?  At first I thought it was a flare, maybe set off by Layton to let Melanie know that it was safe, but then it froze and kind of looked like a missile.  Could that be where Wilford went off to?

 

The Girl from Plainville:  This show is paced weirdly.  I really do not like that they started with Conrad’s death and then set up a duel timeline in the second episode.  With the two timeline, it makes it hard to tell when they are because there are no physical cues to Michelle, you just have to wait to see if Conrad is referenced in the current or past tense.  It really wished this show would have been more linear.

 

Moon Knight:  I came into this show with low expectations so I actually kind of enjoyed the episode.  Plus Ethan Hawke was giving me big Vigo the Carpathian vibes.

 

Survivor:  Why did they show us that Tori eventually finds the dumb phase advantage if they are going to send her to two Tribal Councils with an edit making it like it was her or someone else going home?  Well, of course Swati was going to be the one who goes home.  But that is three Tribal and three people using their Shot in the Dark.  And the third person to not get saved.

 

The Dropout:  Okay, that scene with lawyers at the newspaper was great.  Always nice when you can toy with lawyers.  I have been trying to avoid spoilers, but I will be really interested if the other lawyer scene with the Shultz family actually happened.

 

Halo:  The first episode was a bit of a bore.  They really should have introduced Bokeem Woodbine last week, because he may be the only interesting character on the show.

 

Big Sky: So there is someone selling tainted drugs onder the Indian’s noses?  Who could it be?  It kind of has to be the local drug dealer guy.  Unless they tie it into the storyline with Wolf and Ronald and the sex traffickers are also trafficking drugs.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 26, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  So Kurt got off on a technicality; I guess Dexter will have to kill him.  Though I wonder if the big twist this season is that Dexter continues to keep up his non-killing ways (well, aside for Kurt’s kid and the drug dealer) and finds a way to catch Kurt red-handed.  Or maybe Harrison will do the killing for Dexter.  Dexter really needs to have a sit down with that kid sooner than later.

 

But just how does Kurt know Dexter killed his kid?   I questioned just how drunk Kurt was that night when Dexter took him home shortly after Dexter cremated the kid and Kurt claimed his son called him.  Did Kurt see him do it?  If so, why not turn Dexter in?  If he lied about the call to keep the police from searching the caves where he hid his victim, turning Dexter in would have stopped the search too.

 

Claws:  The last episode aired in August of 2019 and that “Previously On” did nothing to help remember what happened.  Roller is gone?  Okay, do not remember why.  Desna had a casino?  I guess I vaguely remember getting an inheritance from the dude who died on their wedding night but do not really remember a casino.  And was Quiet Ann always this chatty?  This is going to be a rough season to get through.But I guess it will be quick if they continue to do two episodes a week.

 

Yellowjackets:  So, Lottie can see into the future.  Cool.  Was all that talking about blood in French last week tied to the lady issues everyone was having or something else?  And that hallway and stairs, is that somewhere she is going to go at some point or just a manifestation of being baptized?  It seems like she can see way into the future because she seemingly saw Tai in the tree eating dirt twenty-five years later.  So, Tai is the person in the tree her kid is seeing?

 

But finally, young Tai is the first to think, hey, we are in the Canadian wilderness, all we have to do is walk south until we hit civilization.  Seriously, they are athletic teens, should not that be too hard.  We will have to wait and see if anyone joins her, or if someone stops her (which will likely happen because they do not get rescued for nineteen months).   But when she talked about winter coming soon, it got me wondering; shouldn’t it be pretty cold by now?  The plane had to crash around late November maybe early December.  It gets pretty cold here in Ohio around Thanksgiving and that is with the global warming.  Higher north it gets colder and the days are shorter.  More poetic license I guess.

 

Misty psycho watch this week:  She steals drugs from works, uses them to drug Tai’s fixer who was posing as a reporter to see if anyone else talked, and is now keeping her chained up in her basement (oh, and younger Misty thinks the coach is her secret boyfriend).  Awesome.  Does the fixer spill the beans on Taissa?  And then does Misty set her free after that?  But we did get confirmation that there are other survivor than the main four (and Travis) but they still keep it extremely vague who survived. 

 

Then Shauna has a disturbing dinner with Jackie’s parents.  I am not sure what was more awkward, Shauna admitting she hates her kid (who we got confirmation is 16, which means she was born in 2005; the girls should have been rescued by July 1998; so she is not Shauna’s wilderness baby; unless they are in some weird dimension where time moves differently… hey Lottie can see into the future) or Jeff admitted he was forking Shauna while dating Jackie.  Then Shauna sees Jackie again and Jackie tells Shauna it was not her fault.  What is not her fault?  My first thought was hooking up with Jeff while they were dating.  But then I thought what if she was talking about something that happened in Canada, possibly how she died.  Though I am still clinging to my theory Jackie and Shauna’s kid are sending the postcards.

 

Hawkeye:  The finale was enjoyable mostly because Hailee Stienfeld and Florence Pugh are just a delight (give them a spin-off) but goodness, you really need to turn off your brain to get through it.  I still do not get why Maya was so quick to trust Clint’s word and just what happen to her father.  I am kind of unclear of who killed him.  It seems like he did, but I do not understand Kingpin and Kazi’s involvement.  Is all that going to be resolved in the Echo spin-off?  Though Kazi is dead and Echo shot Kingpin (though he did take an arrow to the chest earlier so maybe he survived by some silly comic book logic).

 

Okay, Clint’s wife was an agent of SHIELD, but why was the watch so important and why did Kingpin want it?  I never got why Yelena was so mad at Clint.  She knew of Clint and Nat’s relationship, but Valentina just telling het Clint killed her sister was enough for her.  Huh?  No how or why, she is ready to kill someone that she knew was her sister’s friend just like that made no sense.  With that said, give me a Kate / Yelena show next Christmas.

 

The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles: Oh hey, an Eric Neis sighting.  Nice to give him some time since he could not be at his reunion. But Tami missed out, that trip to Joshua Tree seemed much nicer than the first one especially those castle suites.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: I am no medical doctor, but declaring a pregnant woman not medically cleared to compete seems kind of sexist.  Serena Williams won the Australian Open at 20 week, seems like someone in the first trimester would be find.  How about letting the expecting mother decide?  Melissa competed while pregnant for a final a few seasons back and the Senior Tour final did not seem that bad last season.  A little run up a mountain seems like it would be good for an expecting mother.  Ugg, I finally got Casey back on my television screen and now she might not be bac for a while (though there have been a few mothers with very young children on this first two seasons so maybe she could be back as soon as season four… hey, they only film for two weeks).  But poor Cohutta. Laterian loses his partner last week and was able to fight to stay in and steal Tyler’s partner but was not awarded the same chance this week.  At least we was able to go out on a great line, without missing a beat, saying, “It’s not mine.”

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 19, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  There was a moment this episode where I thought to myself, is Dexter going to kill the podcaster or is Kurt going to be the one.  Kurt seemingly was going to try and it was surprisingly Dexter who was the one who saved her.  Dexter did get some vital information on the ride home as he figured out it was not her that tipped Angela off to his real name.  But will Dexter ever find out it was her daughter via his son as to how that information got out. 

 

But it looks like Angela will not stay mad very as she now needs Dexter.  My first thought it was for revenge after finding her friend, but obviously she will want him to use his forensic expertise despite telling her he killed Dexter to get away from that life. It seems obvious to assume Kurt killed her and put her body there, but we only saw Angela find the one body and clearly Kurt killed more.  Plus that passageway seemed fairly tight for the two relatively skinny lawmen and Kurt is a bit bigger.  Though fifteen years ago, I guess Kurt could have been a bit thinner and the reason why there was only the one body is Kurt stopped skipping meals.  But where are the other bodies?  It looked like he was trying to preserve the one he shot through the eye.

 

Yellowjackets:  The episode critics received were named after nineties pop culture moments (do not ask me why Showtime changed them to more generic titles for the official release).  This episode was entitled “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” after the Red Hot Chili Peppers album.  We got a lot of the first and second, not much of the third.  The fourth… well, that is still debatable I guess.  Obviously it was Halloween, but just how real was the “magic” in the earlier timeline?  Why would Shauna spin the knife in an infinity sign on purpose when asked if they would survive?  And Lottie could have been possessed or is just straight up losing it (or possibly both)?  Misty poisoning the coach because she likes him is up there with destroying the black box on the psycho level.  Not to mention, turning off a sick person’s machine just to scare kids.

 

So was giving Nat the owl so she could spy on her?  It certainly seems like she could be behind the postcards, but how would she have killed Travis and draw the signals if she was with Nat the whole time, so I think she really is just doing her best Veronica Mars impersonation.  It also seems like they confirmed Jackie’s death if her parents were giving Shauna her jersey.  We also got confirmation that Shauna is pregnant, but there is no way that could be Callie… could it?  The baby would be born in 1997 which would make the kid twenty-four, but Callie is clearly a teenager, she does have a college fund and a curfew.  So what happens to the kid?  I have stated before that I think there is still a chance Jackie is alive, what if she stole the kid and have been living in the Canadian wilderness this whole time and are working as a team to torment the survivors?  Could one of them be the woman in the window the kid sees?

  

Hawkeye:  I enjoyed Florence Pugh in the Black Widow movie but that kitchen scene was way too far over the top.  I was surprised that it turned out that Clint was the one that killed Echo’s dad.  Sure we know Clint went on a murderous rampage as Ronin during The Blip, but I thought there was going to be a twist where the real big bad of the show pretended to be Ronin to kill off her dad.  The story of what happened that night still seems a little fuzzy maybe there will be a twist in the finale.  But we did learn who the real big bad of this season was and it is a really big dude, Kate’s mom hired Yelena to kill Clint and is working with Kingpin.  Okay, not the biggest reveal, everyone guessed that is who Uncle was (it was either Kingpin or Mephisto) back when we first learned of him.

 

Survivor:  I have long joked that Erika would win this season ever since she broke the Turn Back Time Hourglass because I figured even if she lost; she would break the hourglass again until she won.  This was a joke because she seemed fairly insignificant coming out of the merge.  They spent so much time of the Black People alliance, and yet under-edited when an actual minority won, and the first female of an all newbie season since Michele.

 

But my favorite part of the finale was just how delusional Xander was.  The befuddled look on the jury’s face when Xander was explaining how they did not respect Erika was hilarious.  Then he actually saves Erika so he did not want Erika to have some hero moment by wining fire making and she still almost swept the votes save a pity vote from Danny to his close ally DeShawn.  I do not remember a time someone went into Final Tribal that confident and ended up not getting one vote.  Russell maybe.

 

The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies: Way to reward the cell that lost by letting them pick anyone to be teammates with in the final leg of the final.  Of course Kacee and Kyle were going to pick CT and Tori respectively.  Poor Devin and Emy were then stuck with each other.  Granted, they probably deserve each other.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Ooof, poor Tyler, gets passed over by Casey, who is not the strongest competitor this season, being stuck with one of the few weaker females Jasmine, loses because of her, but because of Kendal not being medically cleared, only him, not Jasmine has to compete.  You could actually see his arm wrapped during his confessional, so you could tell things would not go well for him during elimination.  It may be time to retire Pole Wrestling before Laterrian breaks someone’s hip.

 

Now our teams are set for the rest of the season and the Jodi/Brad duo seems like the team to beat.  The only team that could have matched them was Laterrian and Kendal but replace Kendal with Jasmine and that team looks much weaker.  Joanna was the highest placing female last season so maybe she and MJ could be a dark horse.  Or maybe there will be more Brittany Spears trivia so Casey and Cohutta can dominate.

 

It was weird hearing people talk about how close they were to the finals since there had only been four weeks of eliminations up to this point but twelve contestants made the finals last season.  After this week’s elimination, there are fourteen people left so if they do the same, there would only be one more elimination before the finale.

 

Big Sky:  I am supposed to case Ronald killed Cassie’s dad?  We have barely seen him.  But it is long time past Ronald’s expiration date.  The drug cartel storyline is much more interesting.

 

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.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 5, 2021

Dexter: New Blood:  Well I was wrong in guessing the dude was maybe drunk when claiming his son was still alive.  He was definitely lying.  So does he not want the cops to figure out he is dead so they do not come snooping around his murder house?  Does he want to be a vigilante like someone suggested?  Then it looks like Harrison is becoming like dad.  But is he an altruistic killer like his father?  Instead of waiting until they have done something horrible to take matters into their own hand, did Harrison injure the dude to keep him from going on a shooting rampage?  Is Dexter going to teach him how to do righteous killing?  I am now beginning to think Harrison may kill the evil oil guy to impress the sheriff’s daughter.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  They kept on talking about Padre especially when regarding Alicia, I assumed it had nothing to do with fathers, but South Padre Island.  But she was milling around this whole time with antagonists of the season?  But claims she had no affiliation with the people who attacked Stand’s building?  And where did Dwight and Sherri come from? The last I remember of them, they were doing piledrivers on zombies at a wresting gym.  It looks like next week is going to fill in the gaps of what Alicia has been up to since being locked in the bomb shelter and they have quite a few answers they need to give because that reveal was just confusing. 

 

Oh, and speaking of people who just showed up randomly after being absent on screen for a while: where did Wendell come from?  Stand said he was in the building and safe last week, but that was Stand, so not the most reliable source.  Instead he just popped up this week as if we have not seen him for a season or two.  I do wonder if he will be part of Alicia’s flashback next week.  It would be weird he had this big moment losing his wheelchair and we only hear about secondhand and they do not actually show it.

 

Yellowjackets:  So no one decided to check the attic while it was still light out, just going to wait until it is dark and creepy to check it out?  But that body looks pretty old.  So the question is, did that person go up there to die or did someone kill them?  And what really killed that bear?  A pack of wolves is a reasonable answer, but too many years of watching television has taught me the most logistical answer is not always the most likely.  Could whatever killed the bear kill the person in the attic?  I am not the best at determining how long a body has been decomposing.  Somebody did carve that symbol into the trees.  Was it the dead person?  The person that killed the dead dude?

 

Then in present day, we learn that Travis survived the Canadian wilderness only to maybe be murdered twenty-five years later.  Is it by the person sending the postcards?  And what exactly was Nat right about?  Could the person Taissa hired be the one is sending out the postcards?  I just do not see how she would know that symbol and she would definitely not being killing Travis… I think. 

 

The Walking Dead: World Beyond:  I was not expecting that globe to be such a big part of the show after we saw its creation recently.  But couldn’t running over the zombie at the right moment let one into the globe since there were some big holes in it? 

 

La Brea:  So dude is just going to watch from Seattle to Los Angeles with his one legged daughter?  I have been wondering why none of the girls on Yellowjackets have just tried walking to civilization.  Ontario north to south is only about 500 miles.  Seattle to Los Angeles more than doubles that, 1135 miles according to Google maps. Maybe more because it is probably best to stick to the coastline.  But even then, how do you know when you have reached L.A. without any visual cues?  But I figured out it would take about 16 days to walk going about twenty minutes mile pace for ten hours a day.  The Seattle to L.A. would probably to take five to six weeks minimum.  But hey, maybe they will find a prehistoric Seattle tribe that has a boat they can borrow.

 

So did Josh and Riley go to 1988 with Lily?  Did they go somewhere else?  If Lily went to a different time, how does the Lily that was in Seattle still exist?  What exactly did the scientist lady do to create these portals?  How did they build a massive building in 10,000 B.C.?  Who is Silas and is Isaiah really his grandkid?  Where are his parents?  So many questions going into season two.

 

Hawkeye:  So the Uncle has to be Mephisto, right?  Well, either that or Kingpin.  But after Ralph Boner, and the Power Broker turning out not to be the comic book accurate Power Broker, I am weary that Uncle will turn out to be who everyone assumes it to be.  But Clink came face to face with his old Ronan sword this week.  Should be interesting to see how he reacts to the knowledge of Kate’s future step-father having that.

 

The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles: Well, that was depressing.  What David did was wrong, but he had a hard time of it too.  But I really wish they did not spend an entire episode on it.  Every time you think they finally got some closure, they would show another clip of someone stoking the fires and everything went off the deep end again.  Enough already.  Schedule some fun for them to do.  It is time to move on.  If they keep needling people like this, and the whole Becky thing last season, future casts will start deciding not to do a reunion on mass.  Rumor has it they are going to skip over six seasons and do New Orleans next.  Though, I would mind them putting Julie in a room with Veronica and have them relive that time Julie almost released Veronica’s safety harness while going between two building.  Same neither have gone on the Senior Tour (though, again, rumor has it one will show up on season three).

 

Survivor:  When I saw how much time was left when they went to the final ad break, I thought that was going to be a spoiler because there seemed to be so little time left.   Except the new dumb twist (the fifth of this season?) was just a Let’s Make a Deal game that took less than a minute where Deshawn just had a one in three chance of staying in the game.  I was surprised more people did not sit out.  Especially someone like Xander who still had an Extra Vote and Idol to play with just in case.

 

Speaking of another dumb twist, surprisingly Lianna did not use her Shot in the Dark so that had no effect on the game as just one person used it.  Another surprise was Xander used his Extra Vote after holding onto it so long.  Was that going to expire too?  Why hold on to it this long only to save Ricard in case Erika flipped her vote? 

 

The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies: What a dumb move by Logan.  I would have definitely picked Devon just looking at it and it would have been the right pick because Devon has no endurance.  Then Emanuel wins but does not get to pick his team.  Instead YJ explains there are going to be two more elimination that night.  Are people going to be able to change?  All the women and Kyle are not dressed for elimination.  And then just how are they going to determine who gets sent into the Arena.  Or are all five people of each gender going to participate at the same time?

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Do you believe in highly unlikely’s?!?!?  Prior to Nany coming on the scene, Casey was my all-time favorite contestant.  After some boring seasons in a row from Nany, Casey may have made it back to the top of that list after this week’s dominant performance.  How far she has come from arguably the weakest player in the history of the show, to come back after a decade and win her first ever daily challenge win, not part of a team. 

 

She then showed just how mature she has become in her time away from the show by winning graciously.  Just kidding.  She was drunk with power and I loved it.  But kudos to Nehemiah for coming up with the plan to throw in both people with Life Shields to keep them from saving Derrick.  You pretty much have to throw in the Life Shield winners every week now because of this. 

 

We also got a breakdown of the house with Derrick, Brad, Cohutta, Darrell, and MJ on one side with Nehemiah, Steve, Laterrian, Teck, and Melina on the other.  Except that leaves out all the other women and Tyler.  Obviously Jodi is Team Derrick and Casey threw Kendal in because she is close with Derrick.  Casey threw her lot in with Team Nehemiah this week as the winner, and Tina and Jodi have beef so you can add her to that team too.  But that still leaves Ayanna, Janelle, Jasmine, Jonna, and Tyler as question marks.

 

Guilty Party:  What exactly was in the new article that would have helped Toni?  She never found an alibi or any hole in the case about her.  Really, the best way to get Toni exonerated would be finding the real killer.  Oh, lucky for Beth, she knows the killer now because the moron just told her.  But the question going into the finale, can she find evidence that could hold up in court?

 

The Five Most (and Least) Anticipated Question of the 2021-22 Television Season

Usually I do my fall television preview in early September to coincide with some cable show that gets a jump before the networks premiere their fall state in the finale week of the month. Except this year, I already have seven shows that already started this month that will extend into the fall with one more starting today. August used to be the quietest month on the television calendar so I am not sure if this was COVID related or maybe the new normal in the streaming era where you cannot take the month off if you want to keep people subscribed. 

 After COVID slowed Hollywood to a halt, it seems like we have finally returned to Peak TV with a steady stream of shows coming this way this fall. Here are some of my burning questions for the next television season. 

 1. Is Disney Really Going to Make Nerds Have a Sophie’s Choice? Last December, Disney+ announced nine Marvel shows (four have already premiered and four have been announced since then) and nine Star Wars shows in addition to The Mandalorian and the previously announced Book of Boba Fett (one has already premiered). Thanks to COVID, it has taken some time for many of them to hit the small screen, but it seems as early as this fall, when both Hawkeye and The Book of Boba Fett are set to air, there will be Marvel and Star Wars airing concurrently setting up a Sophie Choice for us nerds as to what to watch first. Disney+ seemed like there were going to solve this problem when they moved Loki from their usual Friday premiere day to Wednesday but shortly announced all their television shows would premiere on Wednesday too and thus back to the Sophie’s choice. 

 So are they going to stick to this and have the conversations on Wednesday split or will they end up moving to more of a traditional network of model of premiering shows throughout the week? Most streamers have a stick release day they stick to though Hulu, which has traditions put out weekly releases on Wednesdays and binge releases on Fridays, will be releasing Only Murders in the Building on a Tuesday (FX on Hulu shows are also releasing on different days of the week). Hopefully Disney+ learns from their sister streamer and start experimenting with different release days so we do not have to decide between Marvel and Star Wars Tuesdays Nights / Wednesday mornings. 

 2. Who Will Win the Uncivil War Between Catherine and Peter? Okay, anyone who paid attention in history class knows who win, so maybe the better question is how it was won. While history class seemingly can also answer that, The Great took some pretty huge poetic licenses in the first season, so the second could take just as many. Though I think it is safe to say, there will be plenty of “Huzzah’s” in the process. 

 3. Can Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Be Saved Beyond a Movie? While there has been no official announcement that Roku will be airing a movie around Christmas, Pitch Mr. Perfect, Skylar Austin recently said in an interview that the movie is being written right now and filming will start in September so it sure seems like a done deal. Initial reports said that if the movie is successful, it can lead to another full season. Up until now, Roku has only acquired programs but have not made anything new. Zoey would be the first the original made specifically for the Roku Channel along with some recently renewed Quibi castoffs. Speaking of Quibi, those shows matched the viewership in days what those shows did over the life of Quibi, so can Zoey have that sort of success? Hopefully so because I would really like a third season even though the Roku ads can be a bit much. 

 4. Is Y: The Last Man Really Going to Happen? I have been joking for a while that Y: The Last Man is the Chinese Democracy of television. In development at FX since 2015 (there were attempts at a movie going back to 2007), it seems like we will finally get to see it after the titular last man, female lead and showrunners have all been replaced at some point. There is a trailer and everything, though I am not exactly convinced it was a real trailer and not one of those fan made trailers. Guess we will have to wait until September 13 when we open up Hulu to know for sure. 

 5. How Will These COVID Delay Shows Pick Back Up? Did the last season of Doom Patrol seem like it ended abruptly? It felt that way because they were starting to film the season finale when COVID shut everything down and they just decided to end the season there instead of coming back months later just for one episode. This will be one of the last shows to finally get around finishing telling the story that was shut down by COVID. The final episode ended with the Candlemaker encasing our heroes to wax. However this cliffhanger is resolved, hopefully it is resolved in a way that the chief’s daughter is no longer on the show. But the third season will see the addition of The Flight Attendant’s Michelle Gomez as Madame Rouge who sounds like an evil version of Elasta-Girl. The other cut off while filming was Billion which finished filming seven of twelve episodes. After fifteen months they will finally get to finish their fifth season. What happened in those first seven episodes? Who know? I vaguely remember Frank Grillo playing a painter. But on the bright side, there will not be a long wait until season six which they started filming after concluding season five and is expected to premiere in early 2022. 

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

 1. Who Thought Ordinary Joe Would Do Better Than Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and/or Good Girls? Neither Zoey nor Good Girls were a ratings goldmine, but do the people at NBC actually think Ordinary Joe is going to do any better? 

 2. Why Did Netflix Revive Manifest? NBC made some questionable decision for the 2021-22 season, but the smartest thing they did was finally put Manifest out of its mystery after a particularly bad season where everyone became extremely unlikable. It was easily one of the worst shows I have watched in my life. But then Netflix inexplicably saved it forcing me with my inability to stop anything I started to watch 20 more episodes of that crap. 

 3. Just How Bad Was the Powerpuff Girls Pilot? There is nothing The CW loves more than IP, I believe they are just down to two non IP shows on their channel, one if they opt not to renew the currently airing Republic of Sarah which is currently getting ratings in the just friends and family are watching range. So it came as a shock when they chose not to pick up their biggest IP Pilot of last Pilot season The Powerpuff Girls. Makes me wonder just how bad it could possibly be that The CW will not air it. The show is being retooled and may make it to air later this season but without Chloe Bennett who seemingly was wise not to get her contract renewed. 

 4. Just How Much Dick Wolf Is Too Much Dick Wolf? When the networks schedules were announced, Dick Wolf controlled the entire night for a network on three different nights: FBI Tuesdays on CBS, Chicago Wednesdays on NBC, and Law and Order Thursdays also on NBC. Now NBC did pull the plug on the latest Law and Order and replaced it with The Blacklist, but still remains a lot of Dick Wolf. Who exactly watches all those crime shows? 

 5. Is Anyone Really Going to Watch Tik-Tokers on a Television? Hulu has a very impressive fall line-up, the have seven of maybe the fifteen shows I am most looking to this fall. Then there is The D’Amato Show. Sigh. It seems like they are trying to recreate their version of the Kardasians, except they already poached the Kardasians from E! so why do they need The D’Amato’s too? Plus has anyone actually successfully transitioned their social media fame to the small screen? This seems to have disaster written all over it. 

 Here is everything I plan on watching this fall and when they premiere:

Mondays

Reservation Dogs (already started, FX on Hulu)

Y: The Last Man (September 13, FX on Hulu)

8:00 – The Neighborhood (September 20, CBS)

 

 Tuesdays

Only Murders in the Building (Today, Hulu)

8:00 – DC’s Stargirl (already started, The CW)

9:00 – Supergirl (already started, The CW)

9:00 – La Brea (September 28, NBC)

 

 Wednesdays

Nine Perfect Strangers (already started, Hulu)

Wu-Tang: An American Saga (September 8, Hulu)

Dopesick (October 13, Hulu)

Hawkeye (November 24, Disney+)

8:00 – The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies (already started, MTV)

8:00 – Survivor (September 22, CBS)

8:00 – The Goldbergs (September 22, ABC)

8:30 – The Wonder Years (September 22, ABC)

 

 Thursdays

Titans (already started, HBO Max)

Doom Patrol (September 23, HBO Max)

8:00 – Brooklyn Nine-Nine (already started, NBC)

8:00 – The Blacklist (October 21, NBC)

8:00 – Annie Live! (December 2, NBC)

9:00 – Ghosts (October 7, CBS)

9:30 – B Positive (October 7, CBS)

10:00 – What We Do in the Shadows (September 2, FX)

10:00 – Big Sky (September 30, ABC)

 

Fridays

The Great (November 19, Hulu)

 

 Sundays

9:00 – The Walking Dead (already started, AMC)

9:00 – Billions (September 5, Showtime)

9:00 - Fear the Walking Dead (October 17, AMC)

9:00 – Dexter: New Blood (November 7, Showtime)

10:00 – American Rust (September 12, Showtime)

10:00 – The Walking Dead: World’s Beyond (October 3, AMC)

10:00 – Yellowjackets (November 14, Showtime)

The Seventeenth Annual Scooter Television Awards

 

Welcome to the 17th Annual Scooter Television Awards honoring show that aired a majority of their season between August 2020 and July 2021. Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2021 STA's:

Best Scripted Show: Loki

 

Best Comedy: The Flight Attendant

 

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show: The Mandalorian

 

Best Comic Book Adaptation: Loki

 

Best Period Show: Cruel Summer

 

Best Animated Show: Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.

 

Best Reality Show: The Challenge: All Stars

 

Best Remake, Reboot, or (non-comic book) Adaptation: The Good Lord Bird

 

Best Miniseries: Mare of Easttown

 

Best Talk Show: Pardon the Interruption

 

Best New Show: The Flight Attendant

 

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: Cruel Summer

 

Worst Show I Made Though an Entire Season Of: A Teacher

 

Best Hour of TV: Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)

 

Best Half Hour of TV: Essential (Superstore)

 

Biggest Shocker: Lady Loki ushered in the multiverse in the MCU

 

Best Line: “Jeanette Turner, I hope you rot in hell.”  - Kate (Cruel Summer)

 

Worst Idea: Manifest possibly being saved but not Zoey’s Wallis Extraordinary Playlist

 

Worst Moment: Kate Mara acting like a teenage girl while telling a co-worker she hooked up with a student

 

Biggest Disappointment: Every other episode of Lovecraft Country

 

Best Musical Moment: Zombie (Cruel Summer)

 

Best Karaoke: Don’t Stop Me Now (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)

 

Best New Title Sequence: WandaVision

 

Best GIF:

 

via GIPHY

Best Character: Zoey Clarke (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)

 

Best Recurring Character: Mrs. Keys (The Handmaid’s Tale)

 

Best Guest Appearance: Raylan Givens (The Mandalorian)

 

Best Cast Addition: Sean Bean (Snowpiercer)

 

Best Duo: Anna Kendrick and a sex doll (Dummy)

 

Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Selena Gomez (Selena + Chef)

 

Most Annoying Reality:  Josh Martinez (The Challenge)

 

Most Anticipated New Show of the Next Season: Only Murders in the Building

 

Most Anticipated Reboot:  Beavis and Butt-Head

 

Show That Should Be Brought Back: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

 

Biggest Question for 2021-2022: How will Mando hook back up with Baby Yoda, or will he?