Well, it’s been a whirlwind of a ride on the Roswell, New Mexico train, and I can honestly say I’m not super pumped about where they dropped me off.
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Gotham Review
Gotham’s penultimate episode “They Did What?” aired last night, and indeed – they did what?!?
Read moreGotham Review
It’s so hard to believe there are only two episodes left! And that they’re making us wait four weeks to watch them! Sigh. Oh well, here’s what happened on this week’s insane episode of Gotham.
We start with see Eduardo in the lab with Walker and the always ominous Dr. Hugo Strange. They are about to put him through his painful Bane transformation. Uh oh.
Read moreMiracle Workers – Television Review
In the penultimate episode before the finale of Miracle Workers, they really brought out the big guns in terms of special guest stars! There is one day remaining until the earth explodes, so the gang in the Prayer Answering department are still trying to get Sam & Laura to kiss. Worried that they won’t kiss at their pre-planned date watching a disgusting documentary, they finagle some seats to a basketball game so the Kiss Cam can get to them. They also need to get rid of all other couples, which leads to a very funny montage of ruining dates, my favorite including the man who had diarrhea…just watch it. Craig insists this is a bad idea to Eliza since Sam and Laura are basically just like him. Nervous and awkward (and we find out he also likes Eliza). As expected, the kiss cam was a disaster.
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Shadowhunters – I am seriously going to miss this show. Already three episodes into the last season, I am starting to get anxiety. Anyways…this episode was a nice build-up for what I assume will be a pretty sweet episode next Monday. A lot of work is being done to figure out how to get a rune off Clary’s neck, and the vampire that Simon turned is causing trouble in all vampire and wolf circles.
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This week in television, for me at least, saw two season finales, a season premiere, and some great episodes all around! See below for my brief takes on all!
Read moreWeekly Movie and TV Round-Up
Lucky for you all I had a pretty packed week of content, and I intend to share. It will be a brief sharing, because let’s be real, you’re more interested in what I have to say about the Oscars (hopefully).
First up in movies this weekend was At Eternity’s Gate starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh during the final few years of his life. Look, Willem Dafoe has such a distinct looking face that I never realized how perfect he was to play van Gogh! The movie itself had a pretty slow pace, but outstanding performances including Oscar Isaac as Gauguin and Rupert Friend as van Gogh’s brother, Theo. It was great glimpse into the mind of a man suffering and longing to dispel his loneliness with friendship. Dafoe’s performance almost had me convinced he was going to take the Oscar away from Rami Malek or Christian Bale.
Next I headed to the theater for a double feature. First up was Fighting with My Family about real-life WWE star Paige and her path to stardom. It was a really earnest film about the close and strange relationship Paige (played by my new favorite Florence Pugh) has with her family. It also touches on being lonely in a new place, judging a book by its cover, and perseverance! Just the right amount of laughs and cameos that it’s a must-see in my opinion.
Following on the heels of Fighting with My Family I switched gears to watch the kid-friendly, third installment of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Good God was this movie adorable! Since the first film came out in 2010 (yes, you read that right), I was transported back to my childhood days and fell in love with Toothless the Night Fury. So many precious cat mannerisms I could’t take it! This final film follows Toothless as he finds a lady friend and the “hidden world” where dragons can live without being hunted by humans. Cue departure tears. But you seriously better go see this film if you even remotely liked the other two.
Last up, literally two hours before the Oscars aired, two hours before Glenn Close did NOT win best actress, I watched The Wife. It was a very solid effort. I loved Christian Slater as the sketchy biographer, Max Irons as the snide son, and Johnathan Pryce as the diabolical husband to Glen Close’s tough as nails wife. This story gives ghostwriting a whole new look, and that look is bitter. I can definitely see why she was the front runner.
Standout episodes in television this week for me included Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where Amy tries to help organize the office while Captain Holt is looking for a new assistant. The latter scenes had me cracking up pretty hard. How to Get Away With Murder‘s penultimate season finale episode was slightly less interesting than last week, but there are still so many potential plot twists that I can’t wait until Thursday! Finally, Gotham finally brought back the best villian duo this series has to offer: Penguin and Riddler! It also touted the return of Jeremiah (cough, Joker) and his face-off with Bruce by cruelly teasing him with people who looked like his dead parents. Friendship.
This week I’m looking forward to the return of Shadowhunters and Roswell, New Mexico along with that season finale of HTGAWM, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews!
Television Review – Week 2/11-2/15
Here to recap all the television I watched this week! I’ll keep it brief, too!
I Am the Night – Three episodes into this limited series and I feel like I have more questions than answers. India Eisley’s Fauna is awkward and looks terrified all the time, and Chris Pine’s Jay is a hot mess. It’s all still just vague enough to keep me interested, and the fact that it’s based around the Black Dahlia murder makes it a must-see. Hopefully more exciting news in the weeks to come.
Drunk History – Switching it up this season means that sometimes host Derek Waters isn’t actually interviewing anyone, but some of his friends are. I’m okay with it and so should you because it’s still the same drunk mess that actually makes learning about history (sort of) tolerable. This week’s episode focused on love, since you know, Valentine’s Day, and notable guests included Josh Hartnett and Alison Brie.
Will & Grace – Grace and Jack try a crash diet for Jack’s upcoming nuptials and so they won’t split any more of their pants. Will is trying to be a more exciting professor after getting some negative reviews, so he ends up doing a mock case Judge Judy style between Karen and one of her former step children who actually liked her. Hilarity ensues!
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Rosa sports a plethora of hairdos (ridiculous) and Jake makes a promise to a victim’s mom that he’ll solve her son’s murder case. he can’t and goes crazy trying to solve it, talking to “olive Rosa” and walls. Eventually they do manage to find the culprit, after some hilarious dialogue and a fantastic turn by CSI agent Daryl (“very uncool name, Daryl!”).
How to Get Away With Murder – Five seasons in and this show is ridiculous but still so darn compelling! Only two episodes left and I’m still not sure what’s going to happen. This week saw a Christmas gathering with Annalise’s mother, played by Cicely Tyson, and some of her firm friends. her boss is awkward, but not as awkward as dinner with the Keating Five (now that Oliver is a part of it) and Conner’s mom. Bonnie thinks she might be pregnant, but she’s not. The feds are onto Annalise and all she’s been up to these past five years, but Tegan’s potential lady-crush on Annalise ends up saving her some time and gets her case reassigned. Side note: I am all on board for Frank and Bonnie to be a thing already!
And as if watching twelve shows simultaneously wasn’t enough I decided to add two more to the mix this week!
Miracle Workers – This limited series where Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan play angels answering prayers and Steve Buscemi is God has some serious potential. Daniel Radcliffe’s character has been answering prayers for centuries and is really good at finding keys and gloves, but anything other than that gets sent up to God. Meanwhile, God has the news on 24/7 and is sick and tired of seeing how awful it is that he plans to destroy earth. In walks the newest angel, played by Viswanathan, hellbent on saving earth by answering one of the “impossible” prayers: helping two people fall in love. Very interested to see where this half hour comedy goes!
Roswell, New Mexico – I discovered this show at five episodes in, so naturally I binged them all Monday in order to be caught up for Tuesday’s new episode! Yes, this was a series in the late 90s, but besides the name and book as source material, these are distinctly different imaginings. This series takes place ten years in the future with a more cultured cast. Primary focus is on Liz trying to figure out what actually happened to her sister Rosa’s mysterious death a decade ago. Pretty quickly she realizes three siblings are aliens, but being a scientist now, they mainly just fascinate her. The aliens, Max, Isobel, and Michael, couldn’t be any more different but they all love each other fiercely and would like to keep their identities a secret, especially from the government who just moved into town for some secret project. My favorite characters so far in the series are Liz & Rosa’s best friend, Maria, and Michael and his former lover Alex (favorite ship, as the kids would call it). I recommend!
TV Recap: Gotham
I believe I missed reviewing last week’s episode of Gotham, so I’m back! This week’s episode titled “Pena Dura” picked up right where last week left off. We learned that Ed remembered firing off the RPG that destroyed Haven and killed hundreds of Gothamites. Although, with the memory problems he’s been having recently, he decides he did not do it unprovoked, so he heads off to find out why.
While trying to figure out who destroyed Haven, Jim and Harvey run into some trouble but are saved by some military folk sent in by Walker (who Jim spoke with over radio last week), including Jim’s old army buddy, Eduardo. Ed is pursued by the two, but escapes only to be captured by some serious hillbillies hellbent on avenging their pooch who got fried in the bombing (not kidding). It was during this torture that Ed remembers Oswald/Penguin saying he was going to “fix” Ed.
After escaping the hillbillies, he makes his way over to city hall to have a stand-off with Penguin only to learn that Oswald was trying to SAVE Edward after being stabbed. Ed learns that he paid Dr. Strange (all hail BD Wong!) to fix him back up. Through a heated exchange we basically get their version of saying they love each other (Nygmobblepot for life), but then the cops show up as Ed escapes again.
Ed makes his way to Barbara’s club to get answers to where Strange is at, and end up forming a very loose alliance. After confronting Dr. Strange, Ed gets a paralytic sprayed in his face because Dr. Strange needs to fix the chip that was implanted in his brain. We learn that he’s being controlled, although not by Strange. At the end of the procedure, Jim and Eduardo bust in and we learn that EDUARDO is controlling Nygma! He tells Jim he needs to put a bullet in his head in order to prove his loyalty. Jim obviously can’t do that, escapes, so Eduardo orders Ed to go after Jim and kill him.
In the midst of all of that action, we see Bruce still struggling with the fact that Selina murdered Jeremiah and feels no remorse. In confronting her at the club, Selina hits Bruce with a harsh truth: she saw his parents get murdered and did nothing about it because she didn’t care. She’s not a hero like Bruce wants her to be. That’s got to be a tough pill to swallow.
All that celebrating is for not though, since at the end of the episode we see Ecco wake a SLEEPING Jeremiah. He is led out of his “tomb” to see the work of a surgeon who has apparently made Thomas and Martha Wayne replicas. Can’t wait to see Bruce freak out about that. Two weeks from now we should be getting some more answers, but in the meantime we must wait. Boo!
Awards Season Review: Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG-AFTRA)
Awards seasons continues with the last major ceremony before the Academy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, so naturally I was excited to watch the 25th iteration of it last night! With that being said, Megan Mullally, the host, was seriously awkward, and I don’t know that I even heard chuckles from the audience for most of her jokes. Although I did like when she brought out Smitty from Will & Grace. Her opening monologue was so poor that I think she took away from what would have been a pretty good joke from Ricky Martin, who was a presenter of the first award of the night.
I apparently didn’t look too closely at who was nominated for each category before tuning in, because some were quite odd and surprising. It seems some people who were considered for supporting roles were considered for main ones here, Sam Rockwell got shut out of the supporting actor, and so did Vice for the best ensemble category. Some surprise wins for me included Emily Blunt for her silent role in A Quiet Place, John Krasinski’s nomination for best actor in a drama series, and This Is Us taking home the trophy for best drama over the last season of The Americans.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel swept all the categories it was nominated for, and Rami Malek further cemented his chances for best actor after he nabbed it again last night (did anyone else see Christian Bale’s face at that win?!). I was surprised, but not, to see Black Panther win best ensemble, especially since it was up against other crowd favorites like Crazy Rich Asians. I did notice that Roma had no nominations and A Star is Born got completely shut out again (not looking good, Oscars), so some other actors got some real chances. And this awards show is different in that the awards are voted on by their SAG peers – it’s almost like a superlatives show, although good actors know good acting, so I can’t ignore that.
Notable speeches of the night included Rami Malek, Emily Blunt, and Life Achievement Award recipient Alan Alda. Go fishing through Youtube to find those – you’re welcome.