30 Rock 2.12

Subway Hero

- Liz almost reunites with her ex-boyfriend, Dennis, after he saves someone on the subway and then Jack insists that she get him for TGS
- Jack tries to get Tracy to be the new face of the Republican party
- Tim Conway makes a guest appearance as an aging comedian with all sorts of inappropriate stories

- very funny; pleasantly surprised to see Dennis return; the Republican party shenanigans were also chuckle-worthy, especially the commercial Tracy ended up making

Frasier 1.09

Selling Out

- Frasier gets approached by Bebe Glazer, an agent, after making a commercial for a local restaurant; thanks to Bebe he makes a number of commercials but gets uncomfortable after agreeing to do a commercial for nuts
- I had not thought about her in years but I remembered Bebe as soon as she started talking; I checked on imdb and she only appeared on 11 episodes total, roughly speaking once per season; she definitely added to this episode; every scene she was in was great
- possibly my favorite episode so far

Rick and Morty 2.06

The Ricks Must Be Crazy

- Rick and Morty travel into a microverse in Rick's car battery to figure out why it isn't working; turns out the people of the world Rick created are following the lead of Zeep, their smartest scientist, who has developed an alternate method of generating power by creating his own microverse which is very similar to the one that he comes from
- Rick and Morty left Summer behind in the car, which Rick has programmed to defend Summer; after the car kills one man and paralyzes another Summer does what she can to get the car to not do anything violent

- possibly my favorite episode; loved the worlds within worlds within worlds concept; loved how Rick and Zeep are so similar and yet can't get along
- lots of little gags in addition to the framework of the story also worked real well for me

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

- I kind of wish that I hadn't waited quite so long to see this movie; I read the book a few years after the movie was originally released but it has probably been about 15 years since I read it at this point and don't recall many of the details; in other words I'm not sure how faithful the movie was to the book
- On the whole my impression is that the movie had about the same tone as the book; Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a dark character and he gets away with things; the movie provided a taste of what Ripley goes through as he murders and impersonates other people, notably Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law); for a moment towards the end it felt like the focus shifted towards Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her suspicions about Tom; in the end it felt like Ripley was almost superhuman and unstoppable, I have no recollection of that from the book
- It felt a bit like two movies in one; the first hour leads up to the murder of Dickie and built the relationship between the two men; the last hour and twenty minutes felt a bit ocer stuffed, considering how much was packed into them; the story might work better as a one season 6 to 10 hour tv series
- I wasn't completely sold on Ripley's ability to impersonate Dickie; the story is set in the 1950s, I think, and security wasn't then what it is today but still for the most part I didn't really notice a difference in the mannerisms of Ripley when he was pretending to be Dickie as opposed to playing himself
- the cinematography was gorgeous; most of the movie took place in Italy; my recollection is that a heavier portion of the story took place in Venice in the book than in the movie but as I said before it has been about 15 years since I read the book
- the music was wonderful; I especially liked the scenes in the jazz clubs but all around the music was very evocative and helped to set the mood
- I felt that the performances were all good or better than just good; I liked how the first hour slowly unfolded and am not a big fan of how the storytelling shifts in the second half; on the whole not bad but not great either, except for the music and cinematography, of course

NewsRadio 2.08

The Shrink

- Everyone in the office is on edge and Dave can't seem to get them to calm down; Dave takes Mr. James advice and brings in a therapist, Dr. Frank (John Ritter); Dave quickly gets annoyed by Dr. Frank because he seems to soothe everyone by offering the same advice as Dave, and then he discovers something about Dr. Frank that no one else seems to know
- the b-plot is about Bill and the cubicle he has built around his desk
- lots of smiles and a few laughs; they went a little overboard with the canned laughter; John Ritter was great as Dr. Frank

Luke Cage 1.09

DWYCK

- Luke escapes from the trash truck; eventually he makes his way to Claire but along the way he has a run in with a couple cops who try to take him in; even though he is still suffering from being shot twice with special explosive rounds he is more than a match for the two police officers; the incident is caught on video and the recoding soon goes viral; Claire and Luke head to Georgia to find Dr. Burstein, who experimented on him at Seagate prison
- Misty spends the entire episode being interrogated, mostly by a police psychiatrist; she opens up a little bit, tells a story from her past about a friend of hers who was raped and murdered; she also reflects on the moment when Diamondback almost killed her with her own gun; later Inspector Ridley talks to Misty in the interrogation room
- Mariah takes Shades advice and organizes a sit down with Domingo and four other gang leaders about transitioning operations to them; Stryker interrupts the meeting; before it is over most of the gang leaders are dead and Diamondback has a new found respect for Mariah

- DWYCK = Do What You Can Kid
- I miss Cottonmouth; he was a much more psychologically complex character than Diamondback
- Overall not bad but this felt like another inbetweener, like the show is building to something big and taking its time getting there; it all feels important and relevant but it is just moving a little more slowly than I would like it to; maybe if there were some good milestone moments or the episode felt like it had its own arc instead of being just a piece of the arc of the season then I would have felt more satisfied after watching this one

30 Rock 2.11

MILF Island

- On the same night as the finale of NBC's hit reality TV show, MILF Island, Jack isolates the staff in a room together after the New York Post printed negative comments about him attributed to an anonymous staff writer
- Very funny; lots of laughs but it felt a bit cheap using scantily clad women in the way they did on this episode

Frasier 1.08

Beloved Infidel

- Frasier and Niles see Marty having dinner with a woman who used to be a friend of the family and suspect that the two had an affair 30 years ago; their father reluctantly confirms their suspicions but it is later revealed that it was their mother who was having an affair with the woman's husband
- a decent episode with plenty of humor but that ends on a serious note

Galaxy Quest (1999)

- fun but not great
- former cast of a classic science fiction tv series travel into space thanks to some technology provided by friendly aliens who believe them to actually be the characters they played on televsion; the crew travels through a black hole where they encounter some not-so-friendly aliens and are forced to become the characters they played on TV in order to save the day and make it home alive
- the name of the movie and the look of the old TV show are obvious references to Star Trek

- Sam Rockwell steals every scene he is in playing the guy who played Crew Man #6 on one episode of the classic TV show; his fear, that reality is going to mirror the TV show and that he will die, manifests itself on more than one occasion
- Tony Shaloub is great as the chief engineer who falls in love with one of the aliens and seems totally nonplussed by all the things they encounter in space
- It was great that they got Sigourney Weaver to be in this movie but they really didn't give her enough to do
- Enrico Colantoni was also great in his role as the leader of the friendly aliens who were completely guileless and helpless against the not-so-friendly aliens
- Tim Allen and Alan Rickman were good in their roles but nothing special

- definitely not required viewing for Star Trek fans; I think the movie tried to hit a few too many marks and suffered because of that; I thought about Space Balls (a Star Wars spoof) while I was watching this and think that at the end of the day or movie I prefer the way that one was set up and played; Galaxy Quest has its moments but it doesn't compare favorably to Space Balls
- what this movie could have used more of is characters like the ones that I mentioned above and less of Tim Allen who really didn't measure up to the better performances in this movie

Mary Tyler Moore 1.07

Assistant Wanted, Female

- I can't remember if I have ever watched an entire episode of Mary Tyler Moore before; I chose to watch this one after listening to the episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast in which he interviewed John Amos, who appeared on a number of episodes of the show; that got me curious so I wanted to see one of those episodes; this may have not been the best one to pick; even though it was the first episode on which he appeared because he had a very small role and only a couple lines
- the episode centers around Mary's decision to hire her neighbor Phyllis to be her assistant; it turns out to be a very bad decision, partly because Phyllis isn't good at following orders and partly because Mary isn't very good at giving them; on the whole this was a fun episode and I might try another one although at present they only have the first 3 of 7 seasons available on Hulu

Point Break (1991)

Point Break (1991)

I first saw Point Break in the theater 25 years ago when it was first released during the summer of 1991 in Jacksonville, NC. I was stationed at Camp LeJeune. I was there for infantry school. I graduated from boot camp on June 21. On July 2, after 10 days of leave, I reported to Camp LeJeune for the first of two phases of infantry training. I recall that T2 was released on July 4 but I didn't get to see it until I was done with MCT, Marine Combat Training. It took me a little longer than the usual 4 weeks to complete that course because I got bit by a tick and came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It wasn't until after MCT that I got liberty and was able to leave base.

I saw Point Break twice that summer. The first time in town, the second time in a theater on base with a buddy of mine named Case. I don't recall if I saw it with him the first time. We were both training to be mortarmen. We graduated in early October and were both sent to the Marine Barracks in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We were split up and I didn't see him much over the next year we were stationed there. I was on one side of the base and he was on the other. I lost track of him after that. I was sent to an infantry unit stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA. I'm not sure where he was sent but it was probably to an infantry unit at Camp LeJeune. I haven't seen or heard from him since.

This was a fun movie to rewatch. I've seen it a number of times over the years but it has probably been at least 10 years since I last watched it in its entirety. Keanu Reeves acting is laughable at best. Patrick Swayze is pretty good in the role of Bodhi and most of the other performances (Gary Busey, John C. McGinley, Lori Petty) are solidly good. It was fun to spot some actors in bit parts who's names I didn't know at the time I first saw it.

The real draw here was the stunts and how they were filmed and strung together through the plot of the movie. I think the other thing I liked about this movie at the time and still do is the relationship between Johnny and Bodhi. It is handled a bit ham-fisted but I like how even though they are on opposite sides of the law they share this bond over something. It isn't so much what they both love (thrill-seeking) but that they are able to overcome their differences and bond over it. I love the ending how Johnny lets Bodhi go and then throws away his badge, especially in 91 I think it meant a lot to me as someone who was getting a bit fedup with having to take orders all the time. Their relationship also makes me think of other movies that have at their core a similar sort of relationship, namely One-Eyed Jacks and Tequila Sunrise.

Point Break isn't a masterpiece and although I would watch it again in a heartbeat, I probably won't anytime soon.

Finally, a little bit of serendipity. I started to watch this the other night on a whim. I didn't finish watching it then but the next day I learned that it was going to be covered on the Bald Movies podcast.

Luke Cage 1.08

Blowin' Up the Spot

- Misty Knight and other police officers come to investigate the death of Cottonmouth; Shades does what he can to help Mariah overcome her shock and cover up her part in her cousin's murder; the evidence clearly doesn't match up with Mariah's story or the story provided by Candace, an employee of the club, but Misty is forced to investigate Candace' allegation that Luke Cage murdered Cottonmouth
- Claire tries to get Luke to safety after he took an explosive, high powered round to the gut at the end of the last episode; she gets an ambulance to tranport them to a clinic but before they can get to the clinic the sniper, Diamonback aka Willis Stryker, strikes again and the pair are forced to flee on foot
- Misty and Diamondback, separately, trace Claire and Luke to the clinic; Luke finally gets to face his assailant face to face; he is still injured but even injured he is much stronger that Stryker; Stryker gets the jump on Misty and for a moment it looks like he is going to kill her; Luke trails Diamondback to an old abandoned theater; they duke it out; Diamondback escapes; Luke passes out
- Misty has taken Claire into custody and she is questioned at a police station; Misty goes a little too far, Claire isn't being cooperative, and doesn't seem to get any useful information out of Claire; Misty still doesn't know about Luke's past; the way things are going I get the impression that Misty is going to be off the police force before the end of the season
- Luke awakens the next morning and goes looking for Diamondback again but Styrker finds him and shoots him with the high-powered rifle, knocking him into a trash truck

- once again the music is quite impressive; love how it is used; I especially like the music and the way the scenes are shot in the old movie theater
- this was a bit of an in betweener but I like how it is setting things up for things to come
- one reveal is that Luke and Diamondback have a past; they grew up together; possibly in the same household; Luke's father was a minister; Luke took the fall for something that Diamondback did; that's how he wound up in Seagate, that's my read of the back and forth conversation between Luke and Willis; Luke admits to not being the friend he should have been but it is still unclear why Diamondback wants to kill him, especially if Luke took the blame for something that Stryker should have gone to prison for; I get the impression that it is a personal score, and that Stryker's feelings toward Luke go beyond the bounds of rational thinking; it maybe that he is and has for quite some time been jealous of Luke

- in one of the scenes where Stryker is stalking Luke and Claire there is a very obvious reference made to The Warriors (1979)
- in one scene where Luke and Claire are alone talking he mentions how his father used to call him Power Man; I'm not sure if the anecdote cones from the comics or is something that was made up for the series

Frasier 1.07

Call Me Irresponsible

- Frasier counsels Marco, a caller into his radio show, that dumping Catherine, his girlfriend, might be the best thing for both of them; soon thereafter Frasier meets and starts dating Katherine; soon thereafter Frasier's conscience starts bothering him and he breaks it off with Katherine
- good but not great; more Niles than any other member of the cast of the show

Sing Street (2016)

- Conor, a 15-year-old boy living in Dublin, forms a band after trying to impress Raphina, a girl he meets, by telling her he has one; the band goes through a number of looks and musical styles; they make videos with Raphina; Conor gets bullied at school by the headmaster and the school bully; Conor's parents marriage is on the rocks; he has a lot going on in his life
- at times this movie was a bit too "feel good" for me but for the most part I really liked it; there was a good mix of humor and drama; the music was integral to the movie, it was the glue that kept the film together; if not for the music I doubt I would have liked it as much as I did
- I like how they didn't try to explain everything in the movie especially because some of the leaps happened way too fast

Samurai Jack 2.13

Jack's Sandals

- Jack is enjoying a nice relaxing day, soaking his feet in a stream, reminiscing about his youth, making himself a new hat when some bikers come along and destroy his sandals; Jack chases them to the city where he catches them busting up a shoe store; he tries fighting the bikers barefoot but quickly discovers the perils of doing so; the bikers are so amused that they just drive away laughing
- the store owner repays Jack's act of kindness by offering to outfit him with a few pair of shoes; Jack tries several pairs but none seem to work although there's plenty of humor in his attempts to make them work; finally he spots a kid wearing sandals very similar to the pair that were broken early in the episode; he follows the kid back to his home where he meets the family and shares a meal with them; after dinner the father makes Jack a new pair of sandals

- there was a nice stretch of about 4 minutes at the beginning of the episodes that is completely wordless and much of the second half of the episode when Jack is trying out different pairs of footwear is also without dialogue
- the shoe salesman was very energetic and earnest, he even stands up to the bikers when they first show up
- Aku showed up in little ways: the traffic lights were shaped like his head; one of the signs at the shoe store advertised Aku Air shoes
- this one was a lot of fun

Star Trek: The Next Generation 5.24

The Next Phase

- The Enterprise comes to the rescue of a Romulan ship; in the process of transporting Lt Commander La Forge and Ensign Ro seem to disappear; everyone believes them to be dead but they are just out of phase with the Enterprise
- The Romulans thank the Enterprise for the assistance they receive by planting a device on board which will blow up the Enterprise once it attempts to warp away from the area; only La Forge and Ro know about it but they can't communicate with anyone other than each other even though they can see and hear everyone else
- While they attempt to find a way to communicate with the crew of the Enterprise they are attacked by a Romulan who is also out of phase with everyone else
- Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes) is a recurring character who appeared mostly in the 5th season of the show; this is her final appearance in the 5th season; she also appeared in one episode of the 6th season and one of the 7th season; this might be the first episode with her that I have ever seen

- Pretty good, not great but fun; it was interesting to see how Geordie and Ro each responded differently to their dilemma
- As with many episodes of the series the plot was pushed a little too quickly in places; I have to question how fast the Captain Picard and the others gave up on La Forge and Ro still being alive; I thought that Geordie would find someway to intelligently communicate with Data and was a little disappointed that never happened
- I wonder how this one was shot; some of the scenes must have been shot using green screen technology but I wonder if Ro and La Forge were there in most of the scenes where they were hanging around other who were oblivious to their presence

Luke Cage 1.07

Manifest

- lots of focus on Mariah and Cottonmouth in this one including some flashbacks to when they were younger and growing up in Mama Mabel's house; Cottonmouth seems to finally get under Luke's skin by threatening to reveal his secret, that he is an escaped convict; it might have worked if not for Claire showing him that what he perceives as a weakness is actually a strength in Harlem
- Luke takes Claire's advice and tries the vigilante role, like Daredevil whom she refers to in passing when she is giving him a pep talk; Luke goes after and recovers the guns which are currently in in the possession of Domingo. another boss man who was seen earlier in the season; he turns the guns over to Misty but refuses to tell her everything; Misty does not know about his former life or name, she only knows him as Luke Cage
- Shades isn't happy with Cottonmouth's method of dealing with Cage and turns to Mariah; he helps to remind her of how things used to be and who she was which leads to her confronting Cottonmouth and in a fit of anger killing him; I wasn't expecting that; I loved the argument they were having before she went a little nuts; it showed them as both being very real and three-dimensional, as people who aren't just driven by one thing or one emotion
- Diamondback, a new villain is also introduced and plays a crucial role in the final scene; what information there was given about him through dialogue went past a little too quickly for me to catch; he has been mentioned before and has a past history with Mariah and Cottonmouth which was probably best described at competitive
- a definite transition episode as Cottonmouth and Captain Audrey both exit the story in this episode Diamondback and Inspector Ridley are introduced
- not a perfect episode or a great one but it had some moments that I really liked (the flashbacks, the scene I mentioned above); I loved the music in this one especially how the tone of it changed in the flashbacks

Frasier 1.06

The Crucible

- Frasier learns the hard way, after throwing a cocktail party for an eccentric artist, that she didn't paint the piece of art on his wall; he unsuccessfully tries to get the art gallery from which he bought it to take it back and refund his money
- Marty and Roz meet for the first time see Frasier's apartment for the first time
- more silliness involving Niles mooning over Daphne; she still seems oblivious to his feelings

Rick and Morty 2.05

Get Schwifty

- Earth gets pulled into an intergalactic reality show (like Eurovision or American Idol) run by a race of big giant heads; Rick and Morty end up being the representatives of Earth after all the other musical artists with the exception of Ice-T get killed; the first song they come up with is Get Schwifty; Morty loses his nerve after he learns that Earth will be destroyed if they lose; he grabs Ricks inter-dimensional portal device and runs off
- by far the funniest part of the episode is what happens to Summer and her parents (Jerry and Beth); fearing that world might be destroyed by big giant heads they wind up in church; one leads to another and they all end up part of a new religion that worships the big giant heads, exiles people by tying them to helium balloons and letting them float up to the big giant heads, and has them wearing weird hats
- I thought this one was funny as hell

Flash 1.06

The Flash Is Born

- another metahuman appears on the scene in Central City; this one is a bully from Barry and Iris' past; he can turn his body into steel; he tracks Iris down through her blog about the "streak" which she won't give up despite the Flash's continued requests that she do so
- Flash gets beaten up pretty good the first time he tries taking on the Tony (aka bully); Cisco figures out that what Barry needs to do is hit Tony while he is running at mach 1.1 which should temporarily neutralize Tony's powers
- Barry gets teamed up with Eddie while they are looking for information on Tony; Barry uses his super speed to get ahead of a suspect who is trying to flee; I've gotta a feeling that is going to come back to haunt Barry because I think that may later be a clue for Eddie as to who Barry really is
- Joe continues to investigate the murder of Barry's mother; he interrogates Dr. Wells who has something to hide and probably knows something about the death of Barry's mother but doesn't crack and resents Joe's questions and his approach; after a bit of tiff, Joe apologizes and tries to make it up to Dr. Wells bu buying him a bottle of scotch; at the very end of the episode Joe gets a visit from someone moving at super speed who presumably is not Barry and threatens Iris life if Joe doesn't stop his investigation; my first guess about the identity of the yellow speedster is Reverse Flash but maybe there's some misdirection going on here and it will turn out to be someone else

- fun episode, better than the last one; love how they continue to expand the season long story line

Frasier 1.05

Here's Looking at You

- Martin starts a long-distance relationship with a woman in another building, with some help from Daphne and a telescope that Frasier bought him; the woman's name is Irene and she also has a telescope; Martin is very reluctant to meet Irene but after a disastrous encounter with Maris' Aunt Patrice and a pep talk from Daphne he nervously decides to go out with Irene

- the episode ends with Martin opening the door to meet Irene face to face for the first time except that you can't see or hear Irene; the final camera shot is from Irene's point of view

- not great but good; David Hyde Pierce can be very funny as Niles but I don't find his scenes with Frasier in the coffee shop (in this episode and prior ones) to be as funny as the canned laughter leads me to believe that they are intended to be

30 Rock 2.10

- Jack is supposed to be buying a German television network but runs off to spend some time with his girlfriend and leaves Liz in charge of the deal; Liz relies on her woeful command of the German language and ends up selling NBC to the Germans

- Ken gets addicted to coffee after he tries it for the first time

- Liz decides to buy an apartment; the apartment is great but getting approval from the co-op board proves to be an obstacle

- great episode; loved the musical number at the end

Halt and Catch Fire 2.06

10Broad36

- Mr. Wheeler, Joe's father-in-law to be, backs him into a corner and forces him to increase the rate that Mutiny is getting; although he seems opposed to it at first he applies the thumbscrews and gets Donna to agree to a reduced rate only if Mutiny can meet certain benchmarks; Donna, Cameron, and the mutiny crew balk at one of the benchmarks and attempt to fake it; Joe proves to be smarter than they gave him credit for and finds their deception; instead of being disappointed he is impressed but he doesn't tell them that
- Gordon takes his kids and goes to California to visit his brother's family; things are not good for his brother; Gordon is still agonizing over his diagnosis which he had yet to tell Donna about; it is eating away at him so much that he cheats on Donna with his brother's high school girlfriend
- Donna has yet to tell Gordon about being pregnant but she does tell her mother about it although she lies and tells her that she had a miscarriage; Donna also shares her news with Cameron just before going to a Planned Parenthood office, presumably for an abortion
- loved the tension in this one, especially in the negotiations between Joe and Donna; the production team did a good job of bait and switch, making it look like it was going to go one way and then having it go another way
- I am still very eager to see where this season winds up and how they get there

Samurai Jack 2.12

XXV: Jack and the Spartans

- a little different in that it is a story of Jack coming to help others and the story is told as though it happened long ago
- Jack helps the Spartans defeat a robo-minotaur army but the leader of the Spartans knows that the robots will return soon; Jack tells them of a passageway he recently discovered; the king of the Spartans takes 50 of his men plus Jack through the passageway; they attack and defeat the evil robot (is there any other kind on this show?) behind the robo-minotaur army
- at the end the Spartans don't know what happened to Jack; all that they have left of him is his shield

- this story must have been inspired by 300 by Frank Miller or at lthe very least by the same story that inspired the comic book; the comic book came out in 1998, five years before this episode which predated the 300 movie by three years

- the scene where Jack and the king fight the giant robot is great; I love how the fight progresses especially after the king starts using Jack's sword
- there are a lot of nits one could pick with this episode, especially with the climbing scenes, but they work and the show works in large part because it has an emotional heart

Secret Diary of a Call Girl 1.05

- Something old, something new; that should have been the title of this episode if they gave the episodes of this show titles
- Hanna's relationship with Ben, her ex and her best friend, is on the rocks since she told him what she does for a living
- Hanna's agent convinces her to do a threesome (which she has never done before) with another girl (Naomi) and her oldest client (Ashok); Hanna is a bit reluctant but mostly because she doesn't really get along very well with other women; the threesome goes well; Hanna and Naomi start hanging out; everything is great until she learns that her regular appointment with Ashok for the following week has been canceled because Naomi will be taking her place
- Hanna turns to Ben for support, they hang, it goes well, things are starting to look up again between the two of them

- it was interesting watching how things rolled; for a brief moment everything was going great with Naomi, and then it turned out that Naomi was just playing her, or at least that's the way it seems in retrospect; Hanna seemed to think she was turning a corner but it looks as though she wasn't
- similarly, but in reverse, it looks at though everything was broken between Hanna and Ben but then it wasn't
- not a particularly titillating episode; the threesome seemed very perfunctory; the focus here was on Hanna and Ben; Naomi and the threesome were an agent of change that pushed Hanna back toward Ben

Luke Cage 1.06

Suckas Need Bodyguards

- Detective Scarfe's meeting with Cottonmouth goes south when he asks for more money for the guns he is about to turn over to him; Scarfe gets shot by Cottonmouth with his own gun; Cottonmouth leaves him for dead but he makes it to Pop's Barber Shop
- Luke runs into Claire Temple in a diner; he doesn't recognize or remember her and she has to refresh his memory; they wind up going back to Pop's where they find Scarfe, badly injured; Scarfe insists that he cannot go to a hospital so Claire does her best to fix him up; she pulls one bullet out of his leg but is unable to extract the one in his gut; Scarfe agrees to help them take down Cottonmouth and even reveals that he's the one who killed Chico which leads to Luke almost crushing his throat
- Mariah, Cottonmouth's sister or cousin, I'm a little unclear as to what her familial relationship is to him, counsels Cottonmouth about how to make deal with Cage; she shows that she is thinking much more clearly than he is as she suggests a number of ways to kill a man (drowning, poison, etc.) who is bulletproof
- Misty work with Lieutenant Perez to find Scarfe; although she doesn't know it, Perez is working for Cottonmouth, just like Scarfe; before the episode is over she fools him into revealing his hand; they get into a fight in the car which she comes out the victor
- Luke and Claire attempt to get Scarfe to police headquarters after doing what they can for him and retrieving his notebook from his apartment; they get chased by some of Cottonmouth's crew; they meet up with Misty just before Scarfe dies from his wounds
- Shades did not appear in this episode but he was mentioned; Trish Walker aka Patsy Walker (last seen in Season 1 of Jessica Jones) appeared in this episode in that her radio program (Trish Talks) was heard in the opening scene as Luke is jogging through the city

- I'm not completely okay with the way that Scarfe is redeemed in this episode; he killed Chico in cold blood in episode 3; what's revealed in this episode is that Scafe had a son who accidentally killed himself using Scarfe's gun; the suggestion is that this is what led to Scarfe losing his way and working for Cottonmouth; fine, I don't have a problem with that but I do have a problem with the thrust of the episode being Scarfe's redemption which I don't see as being complete; he didn't really do anything until he was on death's door; he did something and that's better than sticking to his guns but it could also be argued that he did what he did and revealed what he revealed in this episode to get back at Cottonmouth for shooting him
- Misty seems as thought she has some sort of superpower that allows her to get impressions of things that happened; maybe it is just the way the show is being shot but that's the impression I got from the scene where Knight and Perez search Scarfe's apartment before staking out the building; to my knowledge, and I'm not an expert, she never had any superpowers in the comic books unless you count her bionic arm; there has been no evidence to date on the Netflix show that she has a bionic arm
- the death of Scarfe and the budding relationship between Claire and Luke made this episode feel like the end of an act or arc, similar to the capture of Frank Castle and the introduction of Elektra in season 2 of Daredevil
- overall not my favorite episode but I will continue to watch and hope that future episodes appeal to me more than this one did

Frasier 1.04

I Hate Frasier Crane

- Frasier gets called out by a newspaper columnist who writes about how he hates Frasier's radio show; Frasier goes on a rant about the columnist who then writes a much more detailed column about Frasier's program; Frasier rants some more about the program which leads to the columnist calling into the show and challenging Frasier to a fist fight
- Frasier reluctantly goes ahead with the fist fight which never really happens

- the critic, who is never seen on camera and only heard when he calls in, is played by Joe Mantegna
- the fist fight doesn't happen because Frasier's dad secretly pulls some strings and get some police officers to break up the would be fight before any fists are thrown
- Niles continues to make eyes at Daphne who still has yet to show any awareness of his crush

Rick and Morty 2.04

Total Rickall

- Rick, Morty, Summer, Jerry and Beth find themselves trapped in the house (after Rick locks them in) with alien parasites that implant false memories in their brains; it gets a bit convoluted as the parasites start multiplying and taking over the house

- lots of fun and a bit of a head trip
- funniest moment might have been Jerry's homoerotic dream, I didn't see that coming or them going that far with that kind of joke

Flash 1.05

Plastique

- Barry tries to convince Iris, both in his civilian and superhero identities, to stop writing about him; but not until after she sees the Streak; he does this partly because Joe pushes him to do it; he isn't very successful at convincing her; Iris doesn't understand why Barry doesn't want her to write about the Streak; she still thinks that he is hiding something, which he is; he has a crush on her and he is the man that she has been writing about
- the villain this time around isn't a superhero but a general, General Eiling; I didn't notice how many stars he had on his collar so I'm not sure what his rank is exactly; he is played by Clancy Brown who also does the voice of Lex Luthor on Justice League and JLU and played Colonel Schoonover on season 2 of Daredevil
- the other metahuman in this episode is Plastique (aka Bette Sans Souci); she is yet another person who gained their powers from the same event that Barry his powers; if I understood correctly she was an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) expert in the army prior to gaining her powers; she had been wounded in Afghanistan and was brought back to the Central City to recover; her power is that she can cause anything she touches to explode; the team at STAR Labs tries to help her but in the end Dr Wells convinces her (when no one else is around) that she should kill General Eiling; she tries but gets distracted by Flash and in that moment Eiling kills her
- in terms of the expansion of his power set or his bag of tricks Flash runs up a building and across water for the first time in this episode; Barry also discovers that conventional alcohol has no effect on him
- the teaser at the end provides the first glimpse at Grodd, in a flashback to five years before when Dr Wells was working with General Eiling

- not a great episode; the best moments are the ones between Barry and Iris; she's gonna find out his secret identity; it's just a matter of time; I wasn't crazy about the Plastique story; there was nothing inherently wrong with the way it was conceived but I didn't think the actress who played Plastique was good in the role

Frasier 1.03

Dinner at Eight

- Frasier and Niles takes their father out for dinner; when their plans to go to a fancy restaurant falls through they wind up eating at the sort of restaurant that he prefers
- Niles meets Daphne for the first time

30 Rock 2.09

Ludachristmas

- the company party, Ludacristmas, gets hijacked by Ken who has brought in a man of the cloth to remind them of what Christmas is really all about
- Liz and Jack get visits from their families (Jack's mother, Liz' parents and her brother who thinks it is still 1985
- good one; I love how irreverent this show can get