UnREAL 1.04

Wife

- Adam cons his way into getting Everlasting to pretty up an old rundown villa in the hills of Napa; they are supposed to be shooting a date there with 5 of the remaining 10 women; turns out what he is hoping is to attract investors in the villa; a couple of investors show up on the set but their interest fades when they learn that Adam's father's company won't be involved in running the property
- Adam gets into hot water with the 10 remaing contestants when they find out about a tabloid article that reveals that he has been texting his ex; he manages to get out of the hot water but then turns up the heat himself by passionately kissing Mary within sight of some of the other contestants, at Rachel's request
- Rachel is falling for Adam; at first I didn't think it could be, even after he kissed her on the cheek, but considering how they ended the episode, with her watching and then deleting the tape of the two of them sharing that intimate moment, it is the only logical conclusion
- Quinn has the most interesting arc in this episode; she is still mad at Chet and goes to see Bill; he and Quinn were an item before Everlasting, which wasn't just Chet's idea, but he managed to claim all the credit; in this episode she is using Bill to get at Chet; she's sick of playing second fiddle, being the side wife; she wants more; she tells Bill, early in the episode, that a law suit is a non-starter but towards the end of the episode she suggests to Chet that she is thinking about it or about going public with her original copy of the proposal for the show which has her name on it as co-creator
- there's more, like Jay's attempt to get in Chet's good graces which blows up in his face and Athena's attempt to get on Adam's good side which similarly goes nowhere

- great episode; love the introduction of more back story; love seeing the various layers of the onion slowly get un peeled
- it was interesting to see Adam play a bigger role in this one
- even though Rachel was ever present her personality seemed somewhat subdued; maybe because she is pining for Adam

Battlestar Galactica (1978) 1.01

Saga of a Star World - Part 1

- Part 1 of a three part story that introduces the series; it aired as a movie in some theaters, as well as on TV

- Everything seems to be going fine, humanity is about to finalize a peace treaty with the Cylons after decades of war when out of nowhere the Cylons attack
- Commander Adama is the only leader prepared for the sudden attack, during which he loses one of his sons, Zack (Rick Springfield)
- The rest of the fleet and most of the planets inhabited by humanity are destroyed, only the Galactica and a rag-tag fleet of 200+ ships survive; things don't look good, food and fuel supplies are low; people are starving
- Commander Adama declares that while the 12 colonies have been destroyed, each of which seems to be named for a sign of the zodiac, there is a 13th colony and that they must seek it out; although he doesn't seem to know exactly where it is, other than it is far, far away and is called Earth

- Overall this episode was ok, not great; I'm not crazy about most of the acting
- Starbuck hitting on Athena, Zack's sister, right after Zack was killed, classy; or maybe I'm just misreading what he was up to
- I am watching this in large part because Mike and Chris of the Geek Brunch Retro Cast have started watching it and talked about the first three episodes on the latest episode

- I have no recollection of seeing this episode before but I did watch reruns of Battlestar Galactica back in the early 80s; I have no idea how many episodes of the original series 24 episodes I watched back then but this is probably the first time I have tried watching the show in over 30 years

- I recall watching a few episodes of the next series Galactica 1980; that series takes place in the present after the Galactica has found Earth; according to IMDB Galactica 1980 ran for 10 episodes from January to May 1980; the only episode that I recall any details from is a Halloween-themed episode which included a guest appearance by DJ Wolfman Jack

- I have done a little bit of research into the Starlog Archive to see what coverage of the show there was when it first aired and here's what I have found so far:
- Issue 17: 2-page spread with publicity shots from the show and a bit of text describing the show
- Issue 18: separate interviews with Richard Hatch (Apollo) and Dirk Benedict (Starbuck) which together span 6 pages
- Issue 19: 4-page interview with Maren Jensen (Athena, Adama's daughter)

Community 1.19

Beginner Pottery

- the groups splits with Abed and Annie following Jeff's lead and opting to take a pottery class; at first Jeff thinks it will be a breeze but then he meets another student in the class who is cooler than him and seems unnaturally gifted at pottery; Jeff becomes obsessed with finding out what the other student's deal is; the pottery teacher is played by Tony Hale (Buster on Arrested Development)
- the rest of the group (Pierce, Shirley, Troy, Britta) sign up for a yachting class which takes place on an actual yacht which is in the school's parking lot; the yaching teacher is played by Lee Majors (aka Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man)

- this one had some good laughs

Mad Men 7.09

New Business

- a very Don and Megan focused episode with a bit of Peggy, Stan, and Roger
- Don tries to start a relationship with Diana, the waitress he met in the last episode; at first things seem good but eventually she can't handle it; Diana has secrets of her own, a child that she left behind (in Wisconsin) and another child who is died young; plus there is the class divide which seems to be an unspoken, unmentioned barrier that keeps them (Don and Diana) from staying together
- Megan comes to town with her sister and mother in tow; she is there to (a) pick up her stuff from the apartment, (b) meet with Harry about her career, and (c) finalize her divorce with Don; she has to leave her mother and sister to take care of collecting her stuff; her mother takes not just Megan's stuff but everything, but then because she is short on cash she calls Roger Sterling for help; Roger not only gives her the cash she needs but also has sex with her
- the meeting with Harry doesn't go so well as he tries to talk her into having sex with him in exchange for his help; Megan turns him down
- the meeting with Don over the divorce ends with him giving her a check for 1 million dollars; he just wants it over; she is confused but takes the check; her head is spinning from dealing with her mother, sister, and Harry
- there is a side plot involving Peggy, Stan, and a freelancer named Pima Ryan (Mimi Rogers); Pima is a photographer and older than Peggy and Stan; she seduces Stan in his dark room; she tries the same trick on Peggy in her office but doesn't get anywhere

- on the whole a bit of an inbetweener type episode; there is some progress made in moving the overall story forward but very little in the way of office politics, which I love so much; not as much fun or as meaningful to me as the previous episode

Casual 2.06

100 Cows

- Alex tries to get Sarah's attention by buying her an extravagant wedding gift; first he buys 100 cows but that doesn't seem to have the impact he wants so he buys 8 chairs from her store; Fallon, one of the receptionist at Snooger (or whatever it is called now) takes care of the buying for him; she hits on Alex; they have sex in his office; he later learns the chairs cost a total of $10K; Fallon asks him to sign a non-disclosure agreement; he finally gets Sarah's attention
- Val goes on a date with Harry (one of Jennifer's friends) after being hit on by one of Jennifer's other friends; she seems to hit it off with Harry and they wind up having sex back at his place
- Laura is nervous about the status of her relationship with Aubrey since they kissed; she seems afraid that Aubrey is going to want more of the same; she gets some reassurance that she doesn't when Aubrey invites her to a party at USC but the episode ends with them making out
- Drew, suspects that Laura is the one who stole his bicycles but Laura denies it was her and changes the subject when he confronts her

- Alex has problems; this whole thing with Sarah is not going to end well; I'm really not sure what he hopes to get out of it; she did seem genuinely touched by his gifts as well as a little weirded out
- Alex is using Fallon; maybe she is returning the favor
- poor Leon; Alex just won't leave him alone, even when he is sick and repeatedly tells Alex that he is sick
- funniest part is when Alex brings Leon over to read the NDA; Leon tells him that he's not a lawyer; Alex is so clueless and focused on his own problems that he's the sort of guy who would buy a hammer to saw a piece of wood in half

Casual 2.05

Bicycle Thieves

- once again three separate tracks
- Alex continues to go a bit bonkers over the fact that Sarah (his ex) is now engaged to Jordan (Vincent Karthesiser) one of the VC partners that has invested in Snooger; Alex really seems to be losing it; taking a clue from something Jordan says he goes to visit his father and learns that the reason why Sarah imploded their relationship is that his father told her Alex was cheating on her
- Valerie looks into getting her eggs frozen and the prospect of having another baby; Jennifer seems to talk her down from this idea by the end of the episode
- Laura and Aubrey get high, which is Laura's idea after Drew (her father) tells her that he and his girlfriend are thinking about having a baby; Laura and Aubrey break into Drew's house, take bicycles, and ride around the neighborhood before throwing them off a cliff; after their destructive act Laura and Aubrey share a kiss

- after looking at imdb I noticed that Vincent Kartheiser is not listed amoung the cast for this episode and on wikipedia he is not mentioned at all; maybe it's just an oversight but it makes me wonder

- not loving this season; maybe it is just a little too casual for me; not enough comedy or drama to suit me; it seems to be coasting in neutral; I'm hoping that this will lead somewhere instersting
- I will probably watch the rest of the season

UnREAL 1.03

Mother

- Rachel goes to visit her parents after Quinn kicks her off the set because she looks like she needs some rest; the visit with her parents isn't exactly relaxing; her mother is a psychiatrist; when Rachel asks her for money she agrees under the conditions that Rachel gets back on the medication she has prescribed and resumes sessions with her; from everything that Rachel says and the way her mother responds it is clear that isn't a good idea but Rachel agrees and gets a check from her mother only to rip it to pieces once she has left the house
- Quinn takes a stab at getting Chet to impregnate her but then he starts experiencing chest pain and has to go the hospital; what seemed like it was a heart attack turns out to be something not quite so severe; when Cynthia, Chet's wife, shows up at the hospital she pulls Quinn aside and lays her cards on the table: she knows Quinn is sleeping with her husband and she is fine with it, it makes her life easier; Quinn is left feeling powerless
- on the set of the show Adam's friend Roger visits to help Roger pick one of the 10 remaining contestants for a date; he forces himself on one of the contestants when the cameras are elsewhere; Roger and Adam get into a fight, also off camera, before the night is over; Adam's anger at his friend isn't entirely noble, his number one concern is improving his reputation, he sees the show as his ticket to achieving that goal and Roger's antics aren't helping his cause
- Rachel and Quinn return to the set separately and discover the chaos that has ensued; it isn't something they can use; Quinn pushes Rachel to do something about it so Rachel pushes Anna just enough that she goes and picks a fight with Grace, on camera; the episode ends with Quinn and Rachel sharing a cigarette as they watch the fight from a distance

- much better than the previous episode, possibly my favorite episode so far
- the scene with Rachel and her mother was very revealing, as was the one with Quinn and Cynthia; both were deliciously dark and disturbing
- also loved the two scenes with Rachel and Quinn, before and after Anna picks a fight with Grace

-:-:-:-

a few more thoughts...

- when the first episode began Rachel was wearing a t-shirt that had written on it: this is what a feminist look like; in the second episode she turns it inside out; there has to be some subtle message there
- there was more to what Cynthia said to Quinn; she told Quinn "you're all he's got, I've got the rest, the house, the car, etc"; that may not be an exact quote but the point is that Chet stands to suffer quite a bit if Quinn deserts him; Quinn cares for him on a level that Cynthia does not, or at least that's my read of the situation, although she doesn't like being backed into a corner the way she is by Cynthia; who would? but she needs more from Chet than to be his "side wife"
- the show (UnREAL, not Everlasting) is about the people that work on the set, mostly Quinn and Rachel, but the Everlasting is already down from 50 to 5 contestants and they aren't even halfway through the 10 episode run of season 1 of UnREAL; will this season of Everlasting end at the same point as the season of UnREAL?

Teen Titans 1.13

Car Trouble

- Cyborg builds a car for the team and it gets stolen, first by a couple of punks and then it is stolen from them by Gizmo; with a big assist from Raven, Cyborg catches up to Gizmo
- Overload, a villain whom the Titans battle in the beginning of the episode, shows up again at the end and takes over the car; feeling as though he has no choice, Cyborg destroy the car and recaptures Overload
- Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy more or less drop out of this episode after the car is stolen

- I wasn't too crazy about this one until Raven showed up to help Cyborg; early in the episode she had been very nonplussed by Cyborg's car; at first it seems that she is just their for emotional support but she plays a crucial role in the capture of Gizmo

- not a great episode to end the season
- not a great season but it had its moments; still it falls short of the high bar set by JLU and Young Justice

Arrow 2.09

Three Ghosts

- Barry saves Ollie's life by injecting him with Rat Poison (aka Warfarin) which has the side effect of causing him to hallucinate
- his first hallucination is of Shado, who is revealed to have been killed on the island, later in the episode; he experiences this one when he is at home after helping Roy who he shot with an arrow in the previous episode
- the death of Shado was a bit sudden, I thought she would be in the show for a bit longer, possibly until the end of the season; her death does serve the purpose of creating a rift between Ollie and Slade
- the second hallucination is of Slade, who was seemingly dead at the end of the previous episode (on the island) but is very much alive both in flashbacks in the island and in the present; Ollie has a fight with his hallucination of Slade in his secret lair
- in a flashback it is clearly shown that Slade now has super strength as he breaks a gun in half and rips a man's heart out (one of Ivo's henchmen) with his bare hands
- the third hallucination is of Tommy
- although they teased it, Barry does not become Flash in this episode but it does end with the accident that gave him his superpowers; I thought he already had the superpowers based on a story he told in the previous episode
- still not crazy about Sebastian Blood or the mask he wears
- happy to see Slade Wilson in the present
- it looks like Roy is going to develop superpowers

- on the whole a very good episode which kept me on the edge of my seat as I was eager to see how it would unfold; possibly it deserves a better rating than very good, compared to most other episodes of Arrow I would say it is well above average

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 2.01

Kimmy Goes Roller Skating

- first a few thoughts about season 1
- loved it for the most part, mostly for the culture shock aspect of the show
- as much as I loved many things about the last couple episodes and the trial in Kimmy's hometown I thought it was weird that they seemed to abandon (temporarily?) the cornerstone of the show (NYC) in the season finale
- Jon Hamm = great; didn't realize he could be so funny

- not wowed by the season 2 opener, it didn't grab me like the season 1 opener did; no big laughs for me; undecided as to whether to continue watching or not
- at least the show is back in NYC, for the most part
- Jackie is still with her parents, I can't remember exactly where they live
- Kimmy goes roller skating with Lillian and Lillian's date and Dong, who is now married; Kimmy and Dong are still attracted to one another; there's a little bit of smooching and guilt afterwards
- this episode is probably, hopefully setting things up but it is hard for me to see where it is going from here; maybe she and Dong will be back together again by the end of the season or at least closer to being back together
- I wonder if this show is morphing from comedy to dramedy

Samurai Jack 2.01

XIV: Jack Learns to Jump Good

- Jack teaches a wild man and a tribe of white monkeys to defend themselves against a tribe of pink apes that have been bullying them and stealing their food; in exchange for his help they teach him to jump good
- additionally there are a pair of scenes which bookend Jack's forest adventure; in both of them he battles Aku; in the first one Jack loses to Aku who swoops in and steals a magic mirror/doorway to the past; in the second one Jack demonstrates his ability to jump good but the episode ends before the battle does

- there are a few wordless sequences all of which are very nicely animated: Jack fighting back against the apes; Jack training the monkeys and helping them prepare for their next battle with the apes; the monkeys training Jack to jump good; the monkeys using their training to repel the apes
- when the wild man is tells the story of how he came to live with the monkeys a more muted color palette is used quite effectively to visually inform and reinforce the fact that this is a flashback

- one interpretation of the bulk of this episode or at least the final scene is that it is a dream; why? because this is the only episode where Jack demonstrates this ability to jump good, so good that it looks like he is flying; also the fact that the second encounter with Aku looks just like the first one with the exception that Jack knows how to jump good in the second one leads me to wonder how to explain the similarity between the opening and closing and arrive at this possible conclusion; of course I might just be overthinking this episode

Mad Men 7.08

Severance

- as usual the focus or spotlight seems to split between Don and Peggy but they don't have much in the way of interactions; to a lesser degree Ken and Joan also get brief spotlights
- Don is lost in the past once again; first he encounters a waitress at a diner who seems to familiar to him but he doesn't know why; he goes back to see her a couple times but she doesn't shed any light on his quandary
- Don has a dream about Rachel Katz, his girlfriend who owned the department store from Season 1; after making some inquiries he discovers she just passed away less than a week ago; he goes to a service for her but he gets a frosty reception from her sister
- Peggy turns down a blind date only to change her mind after she gets into an argument with Joan; she goes out with the guy and almost goes to Paris (her idea) with him, on a whim, but she can't find her passport; by the time she does find it (the next day) she questions her own judgment
- Ken gets fired; at first it pisses him off but then he sees the silver lining and gives up on putting up a fight; by the end of the episode Ken's future is looking much brighter
- Joan (and Peggy) have a meeting with some representatives from McCann Erickson who don't take them seriously; in particular they single Joan out for some very sexist comments; Peggy just brushes off their juvenile behavior but it isn't as easy for Joan to do the same; Peggy has trouble understanding Joan's indignation which leads to some pointed comments from Peggy about the way Joan dresses and presents herself which leads to a riff between the two; while Peggy goes on a date, Joan goes shopping for clothes

- it feels a little weird jumping back into the final half season of this series, even though I loved this episode; not many touching moments but I'm still loving this show and am sad that I have just 6 episodes left
- I noticed in the credits that Peggy's date was played by Devon Gummersall who played Brian Krakow on My So Called Life; I did not recognize him or think he looked or sounded familiar

Casual 2.04

Big Green Egg

- Laura hangs out with Aubrey
- Valerie goes to a game night hosted by Jennifer, has fun and is a big hit
- Alex hosts a barbecue for his business partner and the three partners at the VC firm; things go south quickly when one of the VC partners shows up with a date, who is one of Alex's ex-girlfriends; it didn't end well between Alex and this ex which makes Alex uneasy for the rest of the night

- I didn't care for the way Alex responded to the security guard; the guard was just doing his job but Alex wasn't in the mood to play by the rules even though in the end he did; I think Alex has issues that haven't been revealed yet or maybe that have but are currently lurking below the surface; it is just a matter of time (hopefully) before things come to a head for him
- I guess the title refers to the grill that Alex purchases; its a silly kind of title since the grill doesn't play a significant role, which makes me wonder if it was paid-for product placement
- lots of character work without a lot of plot development; I approve
- not a great episode but it is a solidly good one in my book and it is the sort that makes me curious to see how things unfold from here

UnREAL 1.02

Relapse

- Rachel has to convince Anna (one of the contestants) to return to Everlasting (the show) after her father has died; this didn't seem to carry as much emotional weight as I thought it would or should; maybe that's because Rachel's mind was elsewhere, specifically on her laptop that her ex-roommate was threatening to sell on Craig's List
- Quinn has to put up with learning that Chet's wife is pregnant; it looks like I was right about their relationship being more complicated than it initially seemed to be to my eyes
- for the most part the episode revolves around turning one of the remaining contestants into the show's villain; Quinn had a villain picked out in episode 1 but Rachel talked Adam into not asking her to stay on the show; there's lots of manipulation by the show's crew to egg contestants into doing something over the top with varying degrees of success

- I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this episode; I kept hoping it would grab me like the first one did but for the most part it didn't; I wasn't overwhelmingly disappointed, I just wasn't wowed
- there were some laughs in this episode but nothing that caught me by surprise; I think I was ready and hoping for more than I got

****

- I have to wonder about Rachel's actions towards the end of the episode; she had the time to prevent the sex tape of her and her ex from getting sent to the rest of the crew but she didn't work very hard to prevent it from happening; did she let it happen, on purpose? I think she might have; there will probably be consequences; Is she trying to ruin her ex's current relationship? possibly; does she want him back? not so sure about that, I think Rachel enjoys having power over him and this is one way for her to influence his current relationship with his fiancee

Teen Titans 1.12

Apprentice: Part 2

- much more fun than the first one
- considerably more humor in the second half of this two-part story
- there seemed to be a lot more focus on the others than there was in part one
- I hate it when Robin gets all moody and judgmental but there was very little of that here
- not everything made sense, for instance Robin getting infected with whatever Slade infected the other Titans with just because he tore apart one of Slade's machines
- on the whole a much more heartfelt episode
- loved the moment when Beast Boy explained his theories of what was wrong with Robin; the visualizations of his theories looked like something from EC Comics
- there were references to Batman (bats, Wayne Enterprises) even though he did not appear in the episode

Arrow 2.08

The Scientist

- first appearance of Barry Allen on Arrow
- also seems to be the introduction of superpowers on Arrow; up to this point all the people on the show with super abilities seem to have tech providing those abilities (I'm thinking of Deadshot)
- Barry flirts with Felicity or maybe it would be more accurate to say that she flirts with him
- Barry has come from Central City to help out with an investigation; he is a crime scene investigator; but it turns out that his boss doesn't even know that he is there
- there are some flashbacks to the island where Ollie and friends (Sarah, Shado, Slade) try to find a cure for Slade, which they eventually do but when they administer it to him it seems to kill him
- meanwhile in the present Ollie is dealing with at least one super-powered bad guy who reminds him of something he saw during his time on the island; Sebastian Blood seems to have a hand in whatever it is that the bad guys are up to
- Barry talks about his mother's death and how his father is in prison for her murder
- Moira deals with Malcolm Merlyn again; he wants Moira to tell Thea that he is her real father; Moira doesn't; she gets him to back off by mentioning Ra's Al Ghul
- the episode ends with Ollie badly injured and Felicity and Diggle revealing to Barry that Ollie is the vigilante because they need his help to make Ollie better

- I'm pretty sure Slade will be back in the next episode filled with awesome powers
- so far no Flash but I think that will change in the next episode
- lots of interesting developments; I am eager to see how things evolve from here; still not a great show but this episode was a lot of fun

Community 1.18

Basic Genealogy

- it is family day at Greendale Community College
- Jeff's girlfriend (Professor Slater) dumps him; Amber (Pierce's adult step-daughter) is on campus for family day and the the two men get a bit competitive about getting her attention, all be it for different reasons
- Britta goes to some rather extreme lengths to accept and understand Troy's grandmother, despite Troy's numerous warnings to stay away from her
- Abed's father and sister (who arrives wearing a burka) and Shirley's young sons also visit the campus
- the A plot is the Jeff-Pierce-Amber story
- Annie is also in this episode but to a much lesser degree than possibly any of the other regular cast members
- Senor Chang's brother (who is a rabbi) also shows up for family day

- the pictionary scene probably got the biggest laugh from me
- on the whole a good but not great or awful episode

Adventure Time 4.02

Five Graybles

- Five short tales with a common theme
- 1. Beemo talks to himself in the mirror
- 2. Finn and Jake high-five several times
- 3. Princess Bubblegum makes the perfect sandwich in her laboratory
- 4. Ice King cleans up beacuse he smells bad
- 5. Lumpy Space Princess enters a talent show

- not great but fun
- the Finn and Jake story is looped throughout the other stories but the first high-five doesn't occur until after the Beemo story
- there is a bookend feature with a character whose name I did not catch who introduces the episode and at the end explains what the 5 tales (or graybles) had in common

11.22.63 1.02

The Kill Floor

- Jake takes a side trip which began in the previous episode; his plan is to prevent the murder of Harry's mother and siblings by Harry's father
- Jake goes about it in a hamfisted way; he doesn't seem to have a plan; he meets Frank, Harry's father, who is a very violent man; he tries talking to Frank but doesn't get very far; it is pretty obvious that he is completely unprepared for this task; if anything he just seems to get Frank riled up
- In the end he murders Frank to prevent Frank from murdering most of his family
- then there's a twist at the end where the bartender at a local watering hole finds one of Harry's newspaper clippings about JFK's assassination and confronts him about it

- this episode felt a bit like a Twilight Zone episode but not that much; my biggest problem with it is the way James Franco seems determined to prevent the murders of Jake's mother and siblings but doesn't seem very emotionally invested in his task
- it felt as if the plot was supposed to satisfy because there really weren't any good character moments even though there was definitely potential there; there was build up but then the plot just moved on without any real change in Jake's personality or insights into what he is feeling

- I wish I liked this show more; it feels a bit forced and artificial; it doesn't move me
- I was drawn in by the alternate history and time travel aspects of the story but there isn't enough of that or anything else to satisfy me
- even though there are just 6 more episodes I think I've seen enough; I don't want to watch any more
- I wonder if the book (by Stephen King) is any better

Casual 2.03

Such Good Friends

- Val wants to make friends with Jennifer, the therapist occupying the office across from her; Jennifer takes her to lunch but then has to leave while they are waiting for their food; with some help from Alex, Val eventually hooks up with Jennifer and her friends at a wine bar
- is it for real? Val and Jennifer? Val is desperate for friends, especially after discovering (2.2) that her ex still hangs out with the friends they had when they were married
- Val and Laura go to visit a home schooling collective; later Val, Laura, and Alex go for dinner with the collective (kids plus parents)
- the collective seems strange to them, lots of awkward moments, but ultimately Laura decides she wants to give it a try
- one of the female students at the collective is played by the actress who played Xanthippe on season 1 of Kimmy Schmidt
- Alex meets with his business partner and a VC firm about Snooger and how things need to change; one of the VC people is played by Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell on Mad Men); the VC firm encourages them to start mismatching their clients because it will be better for repeat business
- Alex winds up in bed with one of the single moms from the collective

Teen Titans 1.11

Apprentice: Part 1

- opens with Robin having a dream about fighting Slade
- Soon thereafter the Titans are contacted by Slade who reveals that he has a Chronoton Detonator (a device that stops time) and that he plans to use it
- the Titans track him to Pier 41 where they do not find him or the detonator but are attacked by a bunch of his robot assistants; Robin is moving in overdrive and despite the fact that his teammates seem perfectly capable he takes out everyone of the robots himself
- Robin is way too keyed up and a bit out of control
- unsure of what to do next the Titans eventually turn to Starfire's allergy to Chromium, which is one of the components of the detonator, to track it down
- as they race through the sewers after a boat with the detonator and some of Slade's robots, Robin is separated from the others and gets into a fight with Cinder Block which eventually leads to an encounter with Slade
- while Robin and Slade fight the other Titans catch up to the boat and get their hands on the detonator; Cyborg attempts to defuse it but in the end it turns out to be a fake; it was all a trap and the purpose of it was to get the other Titans infected with nanobots
- Robin is then given an ultimatum; Slade wants Robin to be his apprentice; if he says no then Slade will kill his friends using the nanobots in their bloodstreams; Robin agrees to become Slade's apprentice and in the last scene is shown donning a new uniform similar to the one that Slade wears

- definitely another Robin-centric episode, or more accurately a Robin-Slade-centric episode
- Starfire's sneezes were explosive; there was this cute moment where Starfire sneezed when Cyborg was trying to defuse the detonator; Raven enclosed Starfire's head in a bubble so that her sneeze wouldn't impact the detonator; Starfire's hair looked all messed up immediately afterward but a couple seconds later it was back to normal
- pretty good on the whole but not as good on the character moments, really hoping that Robin seems a little more human after part 2; if any of the Titans could stand to seem more human it is definitely Robin; he seems a little too guarded and lacking in emotional moments

UnREAL 1.01

Return

- heard about this show on Pop Culture Happy Hour and possibly on WTF when Constance Zimmer was on
- wasn't too taken by the show at first but about 15-20 minutes in to the show it started to get interesting
- the central part of the show and what I see as the most interesting part of the show is the relationship between Rachel and Quinn
- Rachel continues to work on the show as a producer where she flamed out or melted down in the previous season because she has to; they have power over her; at the same time she knows she has a talent for manipulating people and getting the most out the people on the show while simultaneously being disgusted by what she is able to accomplish
- Quinn is the executive producer of the show so in theory she holds all the cards but she doesn't because she is beholden to Chet, the show's creator; she does what she has to stay in his good graces which on this episode looks like she allows him to use her sexually and presumably it isn't the first time; she knows that Rachel is good for the show but that doesn't keep her from pushing her around; ultimately I think she sees something in Rachel that reminds her of herself
- I didn't laugh very much but the what-what-what scene totally got me
- 10 minutes in I wasn't sure if I would be watching any more of this show but by 20 minutes in it was really starting to get its hooks into me; I think I'm in for the long haul which at this point means the rest if season 1 (10 episodes) which is all that's available on Hulu for now

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- on second thought I've been thinking about it and I'm starting to wonder if my first reading of Quinn and Chet's relationship is mistaken; I believe this is supposed to be the 4th season of the show (Everlasting); maybe they have a romantic or sexual relationship; even though he seems to be calling the shots when they are doing it in her office maybe that's just the way it looks
- towards the end of the episode there is a scene of them, she is sitting on his lap, that moment makes me think that their relationship is a little more complicated than I initially thought; hopefully this will be something that was explored in future episodes of season 1

Daredevil 2.13

A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen

- Season Finale
- disappointing; it felt like they crammed too much into this single episode
- there were some "happy" coincidences at or towards the end (1 - Frank/Punisher showing up to help out, 2 - Stick showing up to take down Nobu) that just seemed a little too convenient for me
- Matt's insistence that Black Sky is a myth grated on my nerves (as it has in previous episodes) and his profession of love for Elektra just before they go out on the roof top to fight the Hand made me groan and roll my eyes (it seemed forced)
- it felt like they were fast forwarding through a number of things
- still pissed about the fact that they killed off Ben Urich in Season 1, he was a pivotal character and a great actor was playing the part
- I don't have a problem with the dircetion they have Karen headed in but it really isn't impressing me either
- the editor at the Bulletin is a poor substitute for Ben Urich
- I like how they had twin story lines througout this season (1) Punisher (2) Elektra but there was much stumbling along the way
- on the whole this season had its moments but it started slowly and ended badly, and it isn't so much the content as how it was told in a very rushed way; overall C+ but the ending is more like a D+