MacGyver SN1 E7 – Can Opener

I must admit that I’m having a hard time writing a review for this episode because I’m too f’n excited over next week’s episode.  Why?  Well.  What have I been begging for since the very beginning of this series?  No, no, besides an RDA appearance.

That’s right…. MURDOC!  He’s coming next week!!!!  But more about that later.

This week the opening gambit was almost better than the main part of the episode.  I really enjoyed Angus’ narration story about his dog Archimedes.  Just like with Mac 1.0 (RDA) the seemingly innocent story involves a lesson that will come up later in the episode.  Archimedes, a wolfhound, was Angus’ pet that was an escape artist.  In the main part of the episode, Angus must escape from a maximum security prison in Texas with a high profile Mexican drug lord in tow.  Now, I know you’re thinking “why would they help him escape?”.  Well, because they want to follow him back to his hideout back in Mexico so they can take out his whole organization.

We learn in flashback style clips that before going undercover in the prison, Angus got advice and tips from Riley.  This case was really hard on the tough streetwise hacker girl.  But, we see her loyalty to the man that got her out of her own prison with just a simple scene of Thornton walking in on her asleep in a chair.  Riley bolts awake and into a standing position so fast that if you blinked you missed it.  Then Riley tells Thornton that she’ll go home when Mac comes home.  One little sentence that says so much.  This little team is becoming a family.

There was another piece of paper clip art this week, too.  Big shocker… a key.  But, he didn’t just throw this one down for the camera to do a major zoom on.  This time Mac 2.0 actually used that piece of paper clip art.

This episode reminded me of one from Mac 1.0… Season 1 Episode 20 The Escape.  Mac (RDA) is asked by a beautiful woman to rescue her brother, a missionary, from a North African Jail.  He gets himself arrested and then proceeds to escape the jail with the missionary only to find out that he wasn’t her brother… oh and he wasn’t a missionary.  He was an arms dealer.  Then Mac (and the beautiful woman) have to try and keep from getting killed by not-her-brother and stop the delivery of the arms.

So big surprise that when Angus (that’d be Mac 2.0) helped the drug lord (or as Jack called him… El Nacho Cheese) escape… El Nacho Cheese didn’t hold up his end of the deal and turned on Angus who then had to be saved by Jack and the cavalry.  El Nacho Cheese ends up back in prison with a visit from Angus where we learn that the drug lord has put a $4 million bounty on our hero’s head.  That’s what sets us up for the beginning of an epic rivalry.

If you watched Mac 1.0, then you know who Murdoc is.  Murdoc was initially sent to assassinate Mac and Pete (Thornton 1.0) for a bounty that was placed on Pete’s head…. Mac was just the unlucky cab driver that picked Pete up that day (that was how the two friends met).  It was Jack Dalton 1.0’s cab, so eventually poor Jack got pulled into the fight with Murdoc too.

So… next week we get to meet Murdoc 2.0.  I’m soooo excited!

After watching this peek at next week, you will be too!

Johnny Depp to be in Fantastic Beasts Sequel

Johnny Depp, who is known for taking on rolls that are a bit extraordinary, has decided to try his hand in the wizarding world. Best known for his rolls like Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Captain Jack Sparrow and more, it’s obvious his acting abilities have no boundaries.

It was announced by Warner Bros that the Depp is going to be in the Fantastic Beasts sequel and playing a co-star role, yet no one is letting it out which character that may be. Apparently he is in the Fantastic Beasts movie for a tick, so be sure to keep your eyes open when watching the movie. Fantastic Beasts comes out November 18^th (just a few weeks!!!) But the sequel won’t be out until November 2018. (Ugh that is so long!) ^_^

Doctor Who Christmas Special Preview To Air On Children In Need

During BBC’s Children In Need charity appeal night on Friday 18th November, the broadcaster is set to air the first preview clip from the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’.

The sneak peek will see The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) team up with an investigative reporter (Charity Wakefield) and a masked vigilante (Justin Chatwin) in order to defend New York from Alien invasion.

The clip will carry on the tradition of sneak previews airing as part of Children In Need, as a way to attract more viewers to the appeal show. The show begins at 7pm on the 18th, however there’s never a given schedule for the different parts, so you’ll just have to stick around until the clip airs. It’s well worth it though, with the show playing host to a variety of exclusive comedy sketches featuring your favourite actors, as well as live music performances and more. It’s usually a fun watch then, and this sneak peek will just add to the excitement.

‘Doctor Who’ returns Christmas Day on BBC One.

The Vampire Diaries SN8 E3 – You Decided That I Was Worth Saving

I am so pissed!

No.  I’m not joking.

There was absolutely no reason for it to be Tyler.  Why couldn’t it have been Sheriff Dumb@$$?  It would’ve accomplished the same thing for the story line and wouldn’t have had to be our favorite werewolf.  I’m seriously ticked about this.  So angry in fact that writing this review is gonna be hard.

Very hard.

I did like the title though.  If you’ll recall, I told you before the season started that Julie Plec had announced that all the episode titles this season would come from popular lines from Season 1 of the show.  This one’s title comes from a line Damon said to Katherine who was pretending to be Elena at the time in the finale of Season 1.

I spent the whole hour just waiting for Bonnie Badass to make an appearance.  That’s right, I was waiting for Bonnie’s magic to come back.  I mean, think about it… it HAS to come back for the show to have a happily ever after type ending.  Here’s why…  If Sybil could be killed, The Armory would’ve done it 200 years ago.  That’s why she was just “sealed” up in the vault… they couldn’t kill her.  And, c’mon, put on those thinking caps… What is needed to seal Sybil up?

If you said a Bennett witch, then give yourself a cookie!

There’s been something seriously bugging me about this season so far, and tonight, I finally figured out what it was.  I don’t like Sybil.

No, no… hear me out.  Up to this point all the Big Bads of the show have had some sort of redeeming quality.  Some unique ability to make you like them even though you hated them.  First, the bad guy was Damon… and he had us from “Hello, Brother”.  Aside from the sheer beauty of him (Gawd, he’s pretty), his wise cracks made you laugh and you could see the chinks in his armor.  In fact, you may have said “He’s such an ass,” way too many times to count, but you did it with an endearing grin and a wicked little chuckle.  Then there was Katherine.  Mostly, you just felt sorry for Katherine, but even she said or did things that made ya laugh.  And, let’s not forget the molten hot Klaus… we loved to hate him so much they gave him a spin off series.  Oh… and Kai.  He was almost redeemable, if Bonnie had blown that one.  He was such a smart @ss, and such a scene stealer, that you couldn’t help but wait with bated breath until he appeared on screen again.  Oh yeah, and Damon’s “she puts the lotion in the basket” conversation with The Huntress?  Well, that’s just stuff of comedic legend right there.  Besides, she wasn’t technically evil, and she did save Penny and Sheriff Dumb@$$.

But Sybil?  Hold on a minute, I’m thinking…..

Nope, not one… not one single redeeming quality.  Not a single f’n one.  And her whiny “I just want everyone to love me” BS is really just starting to piss me off.

I thought they were going to do this last season to do the story justice.  Well, if this is justice, I want no part of it…..

Well until next week that is… cause God knows I’m riding this train all the way to the station.

Speaking of next week… here’s a peek…

The Walking Dead Season 7: 4th Episode Gets Extended Runtime

The Walking Dead’s 7th season got off to a particularly grim start, even by this show’s standards, and following two episodes focused on different members of the group, it looks like Episode 4 is set to check back in on Rick and the group in Alexandria as they process their recent losses.

It’s bound to get emotional then, and AMC has seen fit to grant the episode an extended runtime of 85 minutes. That’s a whole lot of mourning, but there’ll likely be some action taking place so things don’t get too depressing. Entitled ‘Service’, the synopsis for the episode states:

“The remaining members of the group try to keep it together in Alexandria; they receive a sobering visit.”

Seems Negan will be arriving to collect his payment then, an event that will no doubt cause trouble for the gang. Whilst those in Negan’s lineup got a good idea of what he’s capable of, those who remained in Alexandria might not be so willing to lay down arms. That being said, their dealings with other people are fairly limited, and if it scares Rick it’s gonna scare them too.

All in all it’s set to be an emotional episode that will carry on this season’s fractured structure. With the group split in so many ways, each episode looks to be checking in with a different faction. If this is the case, then it won’t be until at least episode seven that we see various stories at once. With Episode 3 checking in on Daryl, Episode 4 on Rick and Alexandria, we’ll no doubt have an episode with Maggie and Sasha at Hilltop, as well as Tara and Heath out on their supply run. That last one will be most interesting, given how isolated they’ve been from the group, and the fact that their story is the most unknown of them all.

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC in the US, then Mondays 9pm on Fox in the UK.

 

Supernatural SN 12 E4 – American Nightmare

This episode gave us some schmexy Winchester Boys in sweaters!  Look at those shoulders!  Somehow, they look so much better than in the usual plaid.

Sorry, I got sidetracked.

I’m really loving this new season with all the throwbacks to the first few seasons.  This was one of the creepiest, made me hold my breath episodes I’ve seen since … Chuck, I can’t remember.

Dean texting his mom.  Let’s see a show of hands… How many of you said… “Ouch”?  C’mon now, don’t lie.  You can’t bull$h!t a bull$h!tter.

All throughout this MotW episode (I’m loving that they’ve all been MotW episodes so far this season), we see how Dean is dealing with the pain of Mary leaving.  He’s being as Sammy called it “Grumpy”… I would call it more… um… dickish.  But, still totally all Dean.  Nobody can quite pull off pain, anger and a side helping of dick without making you hate him better than Dean.  Jensen’s facial expressions tell us everything we need to know about why Dean is being rude to a priest, and as Sammy put it “hard on Carl”.

Of course, Sammy knows why Dean’s acting like he is, too.  Suggesting that sometimes families need some space and time apart.  To which Dean implies that only the Mansons need time apart.

The Case of the Week involves people who are being killed by what appears to be Stigmata.  The “Then” scenes warned us that it was a psychic doing the deed.  I mean, really… that totally gave away that both The Boys were wrong… it wasn’t a ghost or the witch Beth (who Dean really wanted to blame because of his intense dislike of witches, I’m sure).

Sam discovers that the “Creepy Children of the Corn type people” didn’t really kill their daughter by not taking her to the doctor when she had the flu.  They’ve been trying to beat the Devil out of her and keeping her locked in the basement.

I watched this episode more than once… ya know, for science.  The first time was with Lucy.. the second was with a SPN virgin, Katie.  I found myself saying a lot of lines that I thought should’ve been included in the script.  For example, when Sam told Magda that she wasn’t the Devil…  I added, “Because he knows Lucifer himself and you look nothing like him.”  Katie just asked me if that’s what she was to me.  I explained that … yeah, until she’s hooked on The Show… until she’s really hooked…. she’s just bait.

The best line of the episode comes from the Creepy Children of the Corn type people… well Mama CCotC when she asks The Boys, “Do you know God, gentlemen?”  I knew that line was coming because it was in the promo… but when Dean says, “Yeah, we’re besties,” I laughed so hard I started choking.  Chuck would be soooo proud.

I just wanna know why Sam keeps getting caught this season.  He’s getting knocked on the head a LOT.  He should have brain damage by now.  Really.

Anyway, so Sam and (by default) Dean save Magda and decide to give her a second chance since she didn’t know she was killing people with her powers.  And, Dean manages to get the witch’s phone number too.  Of course he did.  I’d give him my phone number too, even if he had been planning on shooting me.

Then after they’ve given Magda to the proper authorities and Mama CCotC is in handcuffs, Dean finally gets an answer to his text to Mary, in which she tells him that she’ll always be MOM and to tell Sam “that I love you boys”.  Sam asks what the text was, and Dean responds “Nothing.”  Aw come ON!  Dean, you should tell Sammy.  Mama said so.  You are sooooo going in time out when she comes back to the bunker.

Then, when they showed us Magda getting off the bus to Santa Cruz, Lucy asked me, “Am I the only one who thinks she’s not getting back on that bus?”  I assured her that she was not alone…. but of course we thought it was because she would CHOOSE not to… not that crazy Mr. Catch that the British MoL sic’d on Sam and Dean would keep her from getting back on the bus.  What a dick!

Oh…next week, Adam Rose comes back as good ol’ bacon loving Aaron Bass to help The Boys fight Hitler.  Here… check it out….

Big Hero 6 Cast Return For Animated Series

Disney’s 2014 box office hit ‘Big Hero 6’ is returning with its very own animated series set to premiere on Disney (XD) in 2017, and it’s been announced that the series is set to include much of the original cast from the Oscar winning film.

Reprising their roles are: Ryan Potter as technological genius Hiro, Scott Adist as huggable robot Baymax, Genesis Rodriguez as sweet scientist Honey Lemon, Jamie Chung as the no nonsense GoGo, Maya Rudolph as Aunt Cass, Alan Tudyk as businessman Alistair Krei, David Shaughnessy as patient butler Heathcliff and the cameo master himself Stan Lee as Fred’s Dad.

Unfortunately not all the original film’s cast members are returning, with the two major absences being T.J Miller and Daymon Wayans Jr. as comic enthusiast Fred and voice of reason Wasabi respectively. Instead, former SNL cast member Brooks Wheelan will be taking over the role of Fred, whilst Khary Payton, currently ruling over The Walking Dead as King Ezekiel, will voice Wasabi.

All in all a pretty star studded cast wouldn’t you say? It doesn’t stop there though, as a great rake of guest stars have been announced as well. These include: Andrew Scott (Sherlock) as a villain named Obake, Andy Richter (Conan) as Globby, Jenifer Lewis (black-ish) as Professor Granville, Diedrich Bader (American Housewife) as Bluff Dunder, Sean Giambrone (The Goldbergs) as Richardson Mole, Susan Sullivan (Castle) as Fred’s Mother, Haley Tju (Bella and the Bulldogs) as classmate Karmi and John Ross Bowie (Speechless) as Mel.

Kim Possible creators Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and Nick Fillippi have adapted the series and will serve as executive producers. The series will follow on directly from the film, but there’s no word yet on whether this rules out a sequel.

‘Big Hero 6: Animated Series’ will premiere on Disney (XD) in 2017. In the meantime, remind yourself how awesome the film was by watching the trailer below.

You’re the Worst S3 E10 ‘Talking to Me, Talking to Me’

After ditching the world of writing Jimmy has finally found peace in the world. Trying to do things he never would have thought to do before. Jimmy is going to build a Treehouse to forever quell his father’s voice. Gretchen is really opening up to therapy and realizing what her mother did to her mentally. It is rather refreshing seeing these two characters change.

Edgar has given up his meds and is smoking weed all day which is actually working. His girlfriend wants him to be her house husband if he becomes to lazy and that of course distresses him. Who would really want to be a house husband, how emasculating.

Jimmy is working to build his tree house and is actually not doing such a terrible job, all things considered. Gretchen is enjoying her food a little to much, as she is trying to be mindful. She is realizing that her mother has always been judging her in her mind and that is an issue. Lindsay is going to have an abortion which is a good thing I suppose.

Working so hard on his tree house Jimmy has finally lost his father’s voice and is ecstatic. He knocks over the ladder and founds himself stuck on his tree house platform. At Dorothy’s audition Edgar meets a Pot comic who suggests he come to his office to work on a project.

Lindsay finishes her final meal for two and gets a text from Paul. Suddenly, its too hard to have the baby aborted, and she meets a woman who offers to talk things out. Gretchen is attempting to meditate and it is too hard for her so she stops.

Stuck up in the tree, Jimmy’s writers instincts are kicking in as his characters guide him to write.  Gretchen runs to stop Lindsay from not aborting her baby  and it works.

Edgar goes to his meeting and is surprised that it is far more business like then he expected. Though he does get hired to do a few pot spots at traffic lights.

After her abortion Lindsay seems to have lost it. Gretchen works to figure out what she is doing thinking she is so mindful. Edgar tells Dorothy about his news and she is happy that he has a job. But clearly she is upset because as an actress she can’t get work and he instantly lands a job. Definitely going to cause trouble for them and could possibly break them up too.

Having spent a day in a tree Jimmy now examines the weirdness of the world below. He tears up when he sees Gretchen, he does really care for her. Watching the Wheel of Fortune Gretchen loses herself for a moment as Jimmy walks into the house. Jimmy jumped from the tree and after soul searching thinks his whole life could be wrong, even Gretchen.

With only three episodes in the season, I wonder how this will all play out for our duo. Will they stay together, will Edgar run Dorothy off due to his success, and will the season end on a low note. With three weeks left we will know soon enough! Next week is The Inherent, Unsullied Qualitative Value of Anything.

 

Agents of SHIELD SN4 EP05-‘Lockup’

A prison break releases all the secrets in an action packed episode.

Five episodes into its 4^th season and Agents of Shield shows no sign of slowing down, as we were given yet another episode full of action whilst the ghost plot moved forward in a significant way. I say significant, but we really have no idea just where they’re going with this storyline at the moment, which makes the fact that it is so compelling all the more impressive. Unfortunately, whilst the introduction of these supernatural elements and the mystery behind them is interesting, the ghosts themselves just aren’t. Indeed, two were killed by the Ghost Rider as the episode wore on, but with such little time dedicated to the characters it hardly felt like the achievement for the team that it should have done. Their deaths left only one ghost standing, and whilst she’s certainly been fleshed out more than the others, interest in her character is still lacking. Agents of Shield has always done a good job of keeping their villains just as compelling as the heroes, and unless they follow suit with this ghost, the storyline runs the risk of falling flat.

The ghosts may have been the villains at the forefront of the drama this episode, but that didn’t stop the progression of other emerging foes. Senator Nadir made another blood boiling appearance advocating against the Inhumans. I’m enjoying the political aspect of the show as it was something that was glossed over when Shield was legitimate back in Season 1. It also helps, though it’s a scary thought, that the conversations happening on Shield about Inhumans versus Humans are so similar to conversations happening in the real world about different races and religions. Having a storyline that so closely relates to real world politics makes it resonate that much more and really increases the stakes. We want Director Smiles to beat Senator Nadir, because if he doesn’t, then it makes a similar outcome in the real world feel all that more likely. That being said, it seems there’s a lot more to Director Smiles than meets the eye. His Inhuman secret might be out, but it looks like Simmons is harbouring something just as big about him, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all unravels.

So the shadier characters inhabiting the show at the moment are certainly getting their due, but that doesn’t mean the drama stops with them. This episode saw what should’ve been a routine prisoner transfer escalate into an all-out prison riot. It was fun to watch all the different dynamics at play here. Pairing Robbie and Mack was always going to make for some laughs given the latter’s deep mistrust for anything out of the ordinary, and it was good to see a shred of trust develop between the two throughout the episode. Of course this was all torn down towards the end, but it gave an idea as to how Robbie could be integrated into the team.

Elsewhere it was also great seeing Coulson, May and Daisy team up, with some surprising revelations brought forth. Coulson kept pressing May for what she saw after she died, and the eventual answer was rather sweet and potentially hints at things to come. The conversation itself surfaced quite abruptly mid-scene, and the lack of context given made Coulson’s insistence on an answer feel like more of an annoyance than anything else. It definitely makes sense. Coulson’s experience of death was warped and stripped away by the Tahiti project, so bringing up the notion that he’d want to know about what he might have experienced when killed is a good story to run with. I feel however that such a potentially emotional story for him could have been given the time it deserved in a different episode, rather than feeling like it was shoehorned into this one. That aside, it was certainly sweet to learn that May saw Coulson when she died. It’s as yet unknown whether this is pointing to a romantic relationship between the two, or whether it was as a result of their strong friendship, but either way it only works to strengthen the already brilliant relationship between the two.

S.H.I.E.L.D Zephyr One Report Log_Events of Interest and Enquiry:

• Daisy’s suicidal tendencies this episode gave us an idea of just how dark a place she’s at right now, but enough hasn’t been done to really justify her current attitude. It’s understandable she’s messed up following Lincoln’s death, but as it stands, her actions seem that of a person wanting to get herself killed, than of a vigilante searching for justice for her people. In addition, her attitude toward the team is starting to wear thin as well. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen this behaviour from May before so it’s not feeling as fresh, but something needs to change.

• Looks like everyone’s had a little moment with Daisy right now. May’s was surprisingly heartfelt, speaking to how much she’s grown to love Daisy, but with everyone having spoken to her and no one getting through it remains to be seen just what will bring her back.

• Simmons sure got manipulative this episode didn’t she? Blackmailing the Inhuman Director of Shield may not be the best way to go about things, but at least she doesn’t have to take lie detector tests anymore. There’s just a chance that she’s in a whole other kind of danger now.

• It’s still unclear as to why Ghost Rider surfaces within Robbie. Mack was clearly worried it’s whenever he loses control, but given what he did to that prisoner there must be some sort of choice in the matter. If Ghost Rider surfaced whenever vengeance was necessary, that whole prison would’ve been burned to the ground. With the origin episode up next though I’m sure we’ll find out.

• Have to praise both the fight choreography and the special effects this week. Ghost Rider continues to look fantastic, and his execution of the ghosts was a visual treat, watching them disintegrate into a whole lot of different pieces. The fight scenes meanwhile were huge in scale with a lot of moving parts, so to have them succeed with such flair was an amazing feat.

As Agents of Shield Season 4 continues on the compelling stories just keep coming at us, even if it’s in no way clear just where they might end up. Whilst the antagonistic forces within the show could do with some extra screentime to make them interesting, the storylines they’re driving are full of intrigue and mystery. We learnt there was more to both Director Smiles and Robbie’s pasts this episode, with both looking set to be rather dark. With intrigue building, and revelations spilling out from all sides, Agents of Shield is in a very exciting place indeed.

Legends of Tomorrow – Season 2 Eps 1

If it’s wrong to adore Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), then I don’t want to be right.  That is all! When last we left our Legends, at the end of Season 1, they had been accosted by another Waverider crash landed by Rex Tyler aka Hourman, who told them that they would be in deadly straits if they get back on their Waverider.