Rick and Morty 1.11

Ricksy Business

Beth and Jerry take off for a romantic getaway on an overnight Titanic themed cruise. Rick and Summer throw a party. High school kids mix with aliens and robots at the party. Morty transports the house to another dimension accidentally. One of Rick's creations, Abradolph Linkler shows up at the party. One of Summer's friends leaves the party with one of Rick's friends.

This one had some good laughs but it is not close to being my favorite. There were lots of gags but not enough in the way of story to satisfy me.

The Defenders 1.02

Mean Right Hook

Matt Murdock reluctantly returns to fighting crime, out of costume, after the earthquake. He doesn't seem to want to return to being Daredevil but he opens up the chest where he keeps it. He looks like he might be about to do something with the costume when Foggy calls him. They meet at Josie's Bar. It doesn't go well. Matt ends up walking out. One thing that becomes clear, which I had forgotten is that Foggy knows he is Daredevil.

Misty Knight visits a crime scene and finds Jessica Jones there. Jessica is the one who called in the police and then walks off with some evidence just after Misty arrives.

Trish Walker gets a caller into her radio program (Trish Talks) who claims to be an expert at earthquakes. The so called expert gets cut off just after she points to some startling evidence about the origin of the earthquake.

Alexandra Reid meets with Madame Gao who has more information for her. Her people have found a wall that they can't penetrate. It has markings that identify it as having some connection to K'un L'un. Alexandra thinks that it isn't a wall but a gate and that there must be a key. What's that key? My guess is that Danny is that key.

Luke helps some people in his neighborhood after the earthquake. He goes looking for Cole (the brother of Candace) and evidence that he's working for criminals. He finds Turk who points him in the direction of some guy who dresses real sharp and wears a white hat. He finds the guy in the white hat and sees Cole with him. He calls Misty and urges her to get a warrant but before he can give her the details Cole gets in a van with a bunch of other young men. Luke hangs up and follows the van.

Danny and Colleen wonder if they have any allies in their fight with the Hand. They track down an extremely rare sword and find several bodies that look as thought they are fresh. They hear some noise and hide. Several people in HazMat suits walk in and start spraying down the bodies. Colleen and Danny attack. One of the people spraying down the bodies turns out to be Cole. When Danny chases him into an alley he runs into Luke Cage.

Luke and Danny fight. Danny lands lots of blows but they don't have any effect until he uses the Iron Fist. The police show up. Danny and Colleen take off running in one direction. Luke takes off in another direction. Cole gets arrested.

Jessica runs into Jeri Hogarth while doing some research. Hogarth tells her to stop looking into the company she is investigating. She warns her that John Raymond is now being watched by the Feds. Jessica heads home after they part ways. Jeri meets with Foggy Nelson, who now works for her. She tells him to keep an eye on Jessica and make sure that nothing she does gets traced back to their law firm.

Jessica gets home and finds her neighbor Malcolm and John Raymond in her apartment. Raymond has a gun to Malcolm's head. He wants to know why Jesscia didn't heed his warning and stay away from the case. He insists that she is working for some unnamed organization. He must be referring to the Hand. Jessica is confused and doesn't understand. Elektra shows up, before the conversation can get very far, and Raymond kills himself.

Elektra takes off. Jessica tries chasing her but Elektra gets away. Misty shows up and arrests Jessica. She is taken in for questioning. Matt Murdock shows up and claims to be Jessica's lawyer.

This was a big improvement over the last episode. It still doesn't all make sense. There are going to be holes in the plot, big holes, but I am enjoying this show a little more now. It is good to see some of the major players starting to meet.

The Sopranos 1.10

A Hit Is a Hit

Tony tries getting to know his neighbors a little better. He and Carmella visit with their neighbors, the Cusamanos, who are having a barbecue. Everything seems to go well enough. Later, Tony plays golf with Cusamano and a couple of his friends. They ask Tony an inordinate number of questions about gangsters, real and imaginary. Tony gets more and more irate but he holds it in and answers their questions.

Christopher gets into the music business. He meets a big star in the R&B world, Massive Genius (Bokeem Woodbine), who approaches him after he learns that Chris is connected to Tony Soprano. Massive wants to talk to Hesh who owns the rights to a couple hit singles that his uncle wrote and sang decades ago. Hesh isn't receptive to Massive's requests for reparations. 

Adriana wants to get into the music business. She pushes the idea on Christopher and talks him into bankrolling some studio time for her ex-boyfriend's band. Massive will represent them. Massive seems more interested in Adriana than the music and Christopher can see that but Adriana can't. They get the band in the studio but when the recording session isn't going so hot Christopher loses his cool. He doesn't seem to have the right temperament for this line of work.

Tony gets back at Cusamano by giving him a package filled with sand and asking him to hold on to it for him. Cusamano doesn't know what's in the box. Cusamano's wife is played by Saundra Santiago who was a regular member of the cast of Miami Vice. I thought she looked familiar but it wasn't until I checked IMDB that I was able to figure out where I knew her from.

This episode is a big improvement over the last episode and feels like a return to form. It doesn't advance any of the season's arcs but helps to add some depth to a number of characters like Tony, Christopher, Hesh, and Adriana.

Teen Titans 2.11

Fractured

A weird little guy who looks a little like Robin jumps out of Robin's head. He tells the Titans his name but they have trouble pronouncing it. It flashes across the screen and looks like Dick Grayson spelled backwards. He quickly gets renamed Larry. He reminded me of Batmite. He uses his magical abilities to try and fix Robin's broken arm. Instead he ends up breaking reality. It is partly Robin's fault because he was wrestling with Larry and broke his magic finger.

The world changes appearance. Everything except for the people in it look like they were drawn with crayons. Beast Boy loses his mouth. He takes Raven's and starts talking with her voice. She takes Cyborg's mouth and starts talking with his voice. He takes Starfire's and starts talking with her voice. Raven gets a weird haircut. Starfire grows wings out of the sides of her head which then tries to fly away. The Titans head to the Tower.

They battle Johnny Rancid, who reminded me of Lobo from Superman: The Animated Series. All the other Titans get taken down by Rancid but Robin beats him. Then Larry fixes Robin's arm and tries to fix the world. There's a flash and then Robin is standing in a blank world. That's where the episode ends.

This was a weird episode. Very strange. I think it probably should have been the final episode of the season instead of the next to next to last. I didn't love it. Not the sort of episode that I would recommend to most people. It was just a little too wack-a-doodle crazy for me to make sense of it.

Larry also shows up in the opening credits and sang the theme song.

Haters Back Off 1.02

Preeching 2 the Chior

Miranda quits YouTube and joins the church choir. She has a crush on Owen, who plays guitar for the choir. Uncle Jim tries talking Miranda into sticking with Youtube by telling her about how he gave up on his dream when he was a teenager. In the flashback he is played by the same actor but everyone else looks age appropriate. Miranda's mother goes to singles night at church. Emily gets dragged along. Patrick continues to pine for Miranda.

Once again good quirky fun. Sometimes it is painful to watch but in a heartfelt way. Loved the ending.

Rick and Morty 1.10

Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind

Rick and Morty (of universe C-137) are arrested by the trans-dimensional Council of Ricks. They are put on trial for killing lots of other Ricks. They escape and go looking for the real killer who, of course another Rick. The Ricks for the most part look the same but some of them look slightly different.

This is for the most-part a Beth-less and Summer-less episode but Jerry gets a little spotlight. He becomes friends with doofus Rick who is picked on by all the other Ricks.

After Rick and Morty find killer Rick they get separated. It doesn't look good for Rick C-137 until his Morty leads an insurrection of Mortys. In the end killer Rick dies at the hands of a mob of Mortys but then it is revealed that the real mastermind behind killer Rick was his Morty.

A very fun episode that moves very fast. Loved the rick-diculous number of puns. Lots of good jokes and I love how it expands the multiverse in which this show exists.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Thor and Loki, with a little help from Dr. Strange, locate Odin just before he passes away. Why he passes wasn't clear to me but he seemed to be ready to go. Thor's older sister, Hela, shows up soon thereafter. Thor and Loki try to fight her but she is way too powerful for them. She destroys Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Loki tries recalling them to Asgard but something goes wrong. Hela makes it back to Asgard. Thor and Loki wind up halfway across the universe.

Thor is captured by a woman who (later turns out to be an Asgardian, Valkyrie) and sells him to the Grandmaster, the ruler of the planet. He is forced to fight the Grandmaster's champion who turns out to be the Hulk. Thor is happy to see the green behemoth but Hulk does not recognize him. Eventually Thor gets Hulk to change back to his human form, with a lot of help from a recording of Black Widow. Bruce Banner remembers who he is but can't remember the last two years since the end of Age of Ultron. I really need to see that movie. Even if it wasn't very good it will help to fill in some gaps.

Thor, Valkyrie (whom he has finally convinced to join him), and Banner steal the Grandmaster's personal spaceship. They fly back to Asgard to battle Hela and her zombie army. Loki comes back with some other inhabitants of the planet and joins the fight against Hela.

There's more to this story, like Heimdall and Executioner but their parts seem a little more tangential to the main story.

I thought there were a few too many jokes early on. There was a little too much of a lot of things. The movie probably should have been longer or broken into a couple films. It felt like I was supposed to care about Odin's passing but it all happened so fast that I didn't feel anything at all. Jeff Goldblum was great as the Grandmaster. I'm not sure how faithful his representation of the character was to the comic book version but I liked the movie version. He reminded be a little bit of Aku from Samurai Jack. Gladiatorial contest made me think of Samurai Jack 2.03 (Jack and the Smackback).

On the whole I liked this movie but I think that Captain America: Civil War is still the high water mark for me.