The Negotiation
Matthew gets a meaningless promotion but he sees it differently. Bill has a lot of fun at Matthew's expense but Matthew is so into his new role that he doesn't notice the tricks that Bill is perpetrating.
Lisa is moved by Matthew's promotion to try out for a job in TV journalism. She takes a swing at being an MTV VJ and blows it big time when she's interviewing Anthrax.
Mr. James has decided that it is time to get married. He is attracted to the accountant he has hired to audit the books but gets all tongue-tied around her.
Best moment is the marriage negotiation scene. It isn't exactly the centerpiece of the episode so I'm not sure why that title was chosen for this episode. I wonder what if any alternate titles were rejected.
The pranks Bill plays on Matthew and the manner in which he does them were also great.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Flash 1.07
Power Outage
Barry loses his powers after he confronts a metahuman with electrical powers. Farouk, the metahuman, tracks down Barry and Dr. Wells at STAR Labs. He blames Dr, Wells for the death of his two friends who he accidentally killed on the fateful night when he gained his powers. Dr. Wells releases Tony, the bully from the previous episode, hoping that he can provide a distraction while the STAR Labs team tries to figure out how to restore Barry's powers.
The Clock King is being held at Central City Police Headquarters temporarily when he escapes from police custody. He takes some hostages including Joe and Iris West. Eddie isn't one of the hostages but he tries to take down the Clock King only to get badly wounded by the villain. In the end Iris saves the day although it isn't exactly clear how she took down the Clock King.
At STAR Labs, Tony is killed by Farouk. Barry regains his superpowers. Farouk is defeated by Barry when he tries again to drain Barry's powers. Farouk is killed in the process of doing so. It is the act of draining Barry's powers and not something that Barry does that defeats him. Afterwards it is explained that Barry's DNA has changed and that's what did Farouk in.
In the scene where Farouk confronts Dr. Wells, the doctor names a number of people who dies on the night that Barry and Farouk got their powers. A number of the names were familiar (from comic books) but the only ones that stuck with me are Ralph Dibney, Ronnie Raymond, and Al Rothstein.
In the final scene Dr. Wells is seen taking a blood sample from the body of Farouk. He says something about wanting to know what it is like to steal the powers of the Flash,
Over all a good but not great episode. I did like the twin stories. Neither of them was great but the way they unfolded kept me on the edge of my seat eager to see what happened in the end.
---
Two more thoughts:
Joe West didn't get to be much of a featured player in this episode. His one moment that I liked was the look on his face after Iris noticed that Barry's favorite mug was broken. Joe was the one who dropped it, on purpose, to test and see if Barry really had lost his speed.
Eddie has a second moment, the first being in the previous episode, when he sees Barry do something faster than should have been humanly possible. All of this has to be leading up to him discovering that Barry is the Flash and then getting super powers himself and becoming a super-villain.
Barry loses his powers after he confronts a metahuman with electrical powers. Farouk, the metahuman, tracks down Barry and Dr. Wells at STAR Labs. He blames Dr, Wells for the death of his two friends who he accidentally killed on the fateful night when he gained his powers. Dr. Wells releases Tony, the bully from the previous episode, hoping that he can provide a distraction while the STAR Labs team tries to figure out how to restore Barry's powers.
The Clock King is being held at Central City Police Headquarters temporarily when he escapes from police custody. He takes some hostages including Joe and Iris West. Eddie isn't one of the hostages but he tries to take down the Clock King only to get badly wounded by the villain. In the end Iris saves the day although it isn't exactly clear how she took down the Clock King.
At STAR Labs, Tony is killed by Farouk. Barry regains his superpowers. Farouk is defeated by Barry when he tries again to drain Barry's powers. Farouk is killed in the process of doing so. It is the act of draining Barry's powers and not something that Barry does that defeats him. Afterwards it is explained that Barry's DNA has changed and that's what did Farouk in.
In the scene where Farouk confronts Dr. Wells, the doctor names a number of people who dies on the night that Barry and Farouk got their powers. A number of the names were familiar (from comic books) but the only ones that stuck with me are Ralph Dibney, Ronnie Raymond, and Al Rothstein.
In the final scene Dr. Wells is seen taking a blood sample from the body of Farouk. He says something about wanting to know what it is like to steal the powers of the Flash,
Over all a good but not great episode. I did like the twin stories. Neither of them was great but the way they unfolded kept me on the edge of my seat eager to see what happened in the end.
---
Two more thoughts:
Joe West didn't get to be much of a featured player in this episode. His one moment that I liked was the look on his face after Iris noticed that Barry's favorite mug was broken. Joe was the one who dropped it, on purpose, to test and see if Barry really had lost his speed.
Eddie has a second moment, the first being in the previous episode, when he sees Barry do something faster than should have been humanly possible. All of this has to be leading up to him discovering that Barry is the Flash and then getting super powers himself and becoming a super-villain.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Frasier 1.10
Oops!
Frasier accidentally convinces Bulldog that he is about to get fired. Bulldog flips out and quits.
One of the lesser episodes to date. There were some chuckles but the humor didn't measure up to the high standard set by the previous episode.
Frasier accidentally convinces Bulldog that he is about to get fired. Bulldog flips out and quits.
One of the lesser episodes to date. There were some chuckles but the humor didn't measure up to the high standard set by the previous episode.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Halt and Catch Fire 2.07
Working for the Clampdown
Joe makes Mutiny an offer on behalf of his employer, his future father-in-law, who wants to buy Mutiny. Cameron isn't receptive to the offer even though Boz and Donna both want to hear Joe out. The past isn't just the past for Cameron, it shaped her and she still lives with it. She still bears a fair amount of acrimony towards Joe for the way things ended between them.
It is more complicated than that. Cameron built Mutiny from the ground up. It is her's. She isn't ready to and may never be ready to give it up. Joe tries to apply pressure by meeting with first Boz and then Tom separately. He gets to them. They are loyal to Cameron but when asked by her they can't repress their feelings completely. Even though they ultimately side with Cameron, it is clear from their words and facial expressions that they might have taken up Joe on his office if they were in charge.
Gordon starts a new project on a new product. He gets some former coworkers to pitch in and they build a machine much faster than they ever did before. This is after he finally levels with Donna and tells her about his health problem. She does not reciprocate, she does not tell him about her abortion. She begins to worry about Gordon and there is evidence that there is good reason to worry.
Joe's relationship with Sarah looks like it is ready to crash on the rocks. She wants him to leave her father's company and start his own. He is reluctant at first but after seeing how serious she is and how Mr. Wheeler plans to go back on some of the promises to Mutiny once they have signed he changes his mind. He levels with Cameron who at this point is wondering if she made the wrong call when she initially rejected the offer to buy Mutiny. It was a very emotional decision for her at that point. Joe gives her some very rational reasons why selling Mutiny to Wheeler is not a good idea.
Malcolm has a romantic interest in a guy who with whom he is chatting online. Malcolm believes the other guy is similarly interested in him. Things turn out badly when he goes to meet the guy. It was a trap. The guy on the other end was baiting him and when he shows up he gets beat up pretty badly by a bunch of guys and winds up in the hospital. The meetup and the beating happen off camera. This incident is part of what sways Cameron to consider selling Mutiny before Joe pushes her back to her original position.
Joe tries to patch up things with Sarah. He tells her that he wants them to get married. She insists that it be right away. She wants him to run away with her and start his own company. He agrees to it but I've got a feeling that this relationship isn't going to last, primarily based on the fact that the actress who plays Sarah isn't part of the regular cast anymore following this season.
The juxtaposition of Joe and Sarah's relationship with that of Donna and Gordon was an interesting one. Both relationships are going through some turmoil but for different reasons.
A very good episode which shows things bursting at the seams for most of the main characters. Somethings have gotta give and I'm pretty sure that they will in more than one case before the end of the season.
Joe makes Mutiny an offer on behalf of his employer, his future father-in-law, who wants to buy Mutiny. Cameron isn't receptive to the offer even though Boz and Donna both want to hear Joe out. The past isn't just the past for Cameron, it shaped her and she still lives with it. She still bears a fair amount of acrimony towards Joe for the way things ended between them.
It is more complicated than that. Cameron built Mutiny from the ground up. It is her's. She isn't ready to and may never be ready to give it up. Joe tries to apply pressure by meeting with first Boz and then Tom separately. He gets to them. They are loyal to Cameron but when asked by her they can't repress their feelings completely. Even though they ultimately side with Cameron, it is clear from their words and facial expressions that they might have taken up Joe on his office if they were in charge.
Gordon starts a new project on a new product. He gets some former coworkers to pitch in and they build a machine much faster than they ever did before. This is after he finally levels with Donna and tells her about his health problem. She does not reciprocate, she does not tell him about her abortion. She begins to worry about Gordon and there is evidence that there is good reason to worry.
Joe's relationship with Sarah looks like it is ready to crash on the rocks. She wants him to leave her father's company and start his own. He is reluctant at first but after seeing how serious she is and how Mr. Wheeler plans to go back on some of the promises to Mutiny once they have signed he changes his mind. He levels with Cameron who at this point is wondering if she made the wrong call when she initially rejected the offer to buy Mutiny. It was a very emotional decision for her at that point. Joe gives her some very rational reasons why selling Mutiny to Wheeler is not a good idea.
Malcolm has a romantic interest in a guy who with whom he is chatting online. Malcolm believes the other guy is similarly interested in him. Things turn out badly when he goes to meet the guy. It was a trap. The guy on the other end was baiting him and when he shows up he gets beat up pretty badly by a bunch of guys and winds up in the hospital. The meetup and the beating happen off camera. This incident is part of what sways Cameron to consider selling Mutiny before Joe pushes her back to her original position.
Joe tries to patch up things with Sarah. He tells her that he wants them to get married. She insists that it be right away. She wants him to run away with her and start his own company. He agrees to it but I've got a feeling that this relationship isn't going to last, primarily based on the fact that the actress who plays Sarah isn't part of the regular cast anymore following this season.
The juxtaposition of Joe and Sarah's relationship with that of Donna and Gordon was an interesting one. Both relationships are going through some turmoil but for different reasons.
A very good episode which shows things bursting at the seams for most of the main characters. Somethings have gotta give and I'm pretty sure that they will in more than one case before the end of the season.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Star Trek: The Next Generation 5.25
The Inner Light
The Enterprise encounters an alien probe which knocks Captain Picard unconscious with a beam. While he is unconscious Captain Picard dreams he is living on Kataan, the planet from which it is eventually determined the probe originated. He lives out the rest of his life, another 30+ years, on Kataan. He remembers his life before Kataan but slowly grows to accept that there is no going back. He is married, has children and grandchildren, and lives a happy life. This is of course all an illusion induced by the probe. The 30+ years transpire in just 25 minutes in the real world as Captain Picard learns once the probe releases him.
I wasn't terribly moved by this episode until the end. Up to that point I was getting a little bored with it. I didn't anticipate the reason why the probe did what it did or the heartfelt way in which it revealed it's reason to him.
The entire episode from the time Picard falls unconscious until the moment he wakes up is not just about him. There are also a number of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise as the crew try to break the probe's hold on the captain. Each time the focus returned to Picard another 5 to 10 years seemed to passed in his life.
There was a moment towards the end of the episode where Picard reveals that he knows that Kataan is doomed. For about 30 seconds I wondered if he was going to be the Jor-El of Kataan, the scientist who knows that the planet is doomed but no one believes, but then it was revealed that the others agreed with his conclusion that the planet was doomed.
I may have seen this episode before. I'm not sure. I've certainly heard about it and it lived up to the hype. I doubt that I would call this my favorite episode but it got to me and that's definitely worth something.
The Enterprise encounters an alien probe which knocks Captain Picard unconscious with a beam. While he is unconscious Captain Picard dreams he is living on Kataan, the planet from which it is eventually determined the probe originated. He lives out the rest of his life, another 30+ years, on Kataan. He remembers his life before Kataan but slowly grows to accept that there is no going back. He is married, has children and grandchildren, and lives a happy life. This is of course all an illusion induced by the probe. The 30+ years transpire in just 25 minutes in the real world as Captain Picard learns once the probe releases him.
I wasn't terribly moved by this episode until the end. Up to that point I was getting a little bored with it. I didn't anticipate the reason why the probe did what it did or the heartfelt way in which it revealed it's reason to him.
The entire episode from the time Picard falls unconscious until the moment he wakes up is not just about him. There are also a number of scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise as the crew try to break the probe's hold on the captain. Each time the focus returned to Picard another 5 to 10 years seemed to passed in his life.
There was a moment towards the end of the episode where Picard reveals that he knows that Kataan is doomed. For about 30 seconds I wondered if he was going to be the Jor-El of Kataan, the scientist who knows that the planet is doomed but no one believes, but then it was revealed that the others agreed with his conclusion that the planet was doomed.
I may have seen this episode before. I'm not sure. I've certainly heard about it and it lived up to the hype. I doubt that I would call this my favorite episode but it got to me and that's definitely worth something.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Luke Cage 1.10
Take It Personal
Luke and Claire spend most of the episode in Georgia. The episode begins with Dr. Burtein and Claire trying to dig the shrapnel out of Luke. They have a hell of time opening him up to get at the shrapnel and almost kill him before they can start operating on him. Even after he has recovered he is haunted by memories of Reva, in part because of things Dr. Burstein says which lead him to question his memories of her.
Mariah and Diamondback stir things up in Harlem. Stryker frames Luke by killing a cop using a super-powered glove in front of several witnesses. The police department does not take kindly to this. Among the suspects brought in during the search for Cage is young boy in his early teens. He gets in a violent argument with a cop which ends with the kid going to the hospital. Mariah uses this incident to stir things up some more.
Luke and Claire travel to Savannah, where Luke grew up. Standing in the now rundown church that his grandfather founded he has a couple flashbacks to his youth. He understands now that Diamondback is his brother, same father different mother. He also understands now why Stryker hates him so, because their father hated Stryker and has transferred that hatred to Luke.
Misty remains unconvinced that Luke is the one who killed Cottonmouth or the cop.She sits on the sidelines for most of the episode. Towards the end she shows up at Harlem's Paradise at a rally organized by Mariah. Stryker is also in attendance. Luke shows up after the rally is already in full swing. Misty tries to arrest Stryker but he shoots her. Luke rushes in a saves her for the moment. The episode ends with the two of them crouched behind the bar at Harlem's paradise under fire from some of Stryker or Mariah's thugs.
Much better than the last episode, although Misty did sit around for much of this episode.The operation to extract the shrapnel from Luke went fast. I'm undecided as to whether it should have been stretched out but it seemed to go a little more smoothly than I am sure a similar operation on a non-super-powered being would go.
In the scene where Stryker shoots Misty it looks like the bullets hit her in the shoulder. I'm wondering if this is going to be the injury that is going to result in her losing her arm and getting it replaced with a bionic one. Hard to tell at this point.
Luke and Claire spend most of the episode in Georgia. The episode begins with Dr. Burtein and Claire trying to dig the shrapnel out of Luke. They have a hell of time opening him up to get at the shrapnel and almost kill him before they can start operating on him. Even after he has recovered he is haunted by memories of Reva, in part because of things Dr. Burstein says which lead him to question his memories of her.
Mariah and Diamondback stir things up in Harlem. Stryker frames Luke by killing a cop using a super-powered glove in front of several witnesses. The police department does not take kindly to this. Among the suspects brought in during the search for Cage is young boy in his early teens. He gets in a violent argument with a cop which ends with the kid going to the hospital. Mariah uses this incident to stir things up some more.
Luke and Claire travel to Savannah, where Luke grew up. Standing in the now rundown church that his grandfather founded he has a couple flashbacks to his youth. He understands now that Diamondback is his brother, same father different mother. He also understands now why Stryker hates him so, because their father hated Stryker and has transferred that hatred to Luke.
Misty remains unconvinced that Luke is the one who killed Cottonmouth or the cop.She sits on the sidelines for most of the episode. Towards the end she shows up at Harlem's Paradise at a rally organized by Mariah. Stryker is also in attendance. Luke shows up after the rally is already in full swing. Misty tries to arrest Stryker but he shoots her. Luke rushes in a saves her for the moment. The episode ends with the two of them crouched behind the bar at Harlem's paradise under fire from some of Stryker or Mariah's thugs.
Much better than the last episode, although Misty did sit around for much of this episode.The operation to extract the shrapnel from Luke went fast. I'm undecided as to whether it should have been stretched out but it seemed to go a little more smoothly than I am sure a similar operation on a non-super-powered being would go.
In the scene where Stryker shoots Misty it looks like the bullets hit her in the shoulder. I'm wondering if this is going to be the injury that is going to result in her losing her arm and getting it replaced with a bionic one. Hard to tell at this point.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
NewsRadio 2.09
Friends
- Dave hires Sandi, a temp, to help Beth reorganize the station's files; Sandi (Bebe Neuwirth) turns out to be an old friend of Beth's (or maybe frenemy would be a better way to put it, although I don't believe that term was in popular usage at the time this show first aired); Dave and Lisa don't believe Beth when she tells them about her past with Sandi so to prove her point Beth pretends to be romantically interested in Matthew which leads to Sandi also showing a romantic interest in Matthew; Matthew enjoys the amorous attention while it lasts is very confused when it suddenly ends after Beth and Sandi apologize to one another
- Bill has some trouble with the building's security guards when he forgets his ID on his desk; the security guards are played by Tone Loc and Toby Huss (Boz on Halt and Catch Fire)
- overall a very fun episode
- great group of guest stars; Bebe Neuwirth was wonderful as Sandi; I remembered Tone Loc played one of the security guards but I didn't recall Toby Huss and it took me a moment to recognize him under the beard; the pair of them appear in one more episode together in this season and Huss appears in one other episode in the final season playing a different character
- Dave hires Sandi, a temp, to help Beth reorganize the station's files; Sandi (Bebe Neuwirth) turns out to be an old friend of Beth's (or maybe frenemy would be a better way to put it, although I don't believe that term was in popular usage at the time this show first aired); Dave and Lisa don't believe Beth when she tells them about her past with Sandi so to prove her point Beth pretends to be romantically interested in Matthew which leads to Sandi also showing a romantic interest in Matthew; Matthew enjoys the amorous attention while it lasts is very confused when it suddenly ends after Beth and Sandi apologize to one another
- Bill has some trouble with the building's security guards when he forgets his ID on his desk; the security guards are played by Tone Loc and Toby Huss (Boz on Halt and Catch Fire)
- overall a very fun episode
- great group of guest stars; Bebe Neuwirth was wonderful as Sandi; I remembered Tone Loc played one of the security guards but I didn't recall Toby Huss and it took me a moment to recognize him under the beard; the pair of them appear in one more episode together in this season and Huss appears in one other episode in the final season playing a different character
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