Dune (1984)

Note: Funny thing.. I've never seen Dune. With the new one coming out, I thought I should kind of watch it to kinda reacquaint myself with what will be in it. And I swear it, I had no idea David Lynch made this first one. I'm a... sorta... fan of David Lynch. Me and my buddies would put on Blue Velvet just to laugh our asses off at it. And I liked Twin Peaks. But still. This was no Twin Peaks. There's no secret that Roger Ebert hated it so without further ado - Roger Ebert's review of David Lynch's 'Dune'.

from Roger Ebert.com

DUNE

"*"

"It's like a dream," my friend from Hollywood was explaining. "It doesn't make any sense, and the special effects are straight from the dime store but if you give up trying to understand it, and just sit back and let it wash around in your mind, it's not bad." That was not exactly a rave review for a movie that someone paid $40 million to make, but it put me into a receptive frame of mind for "Dune," the epic based on the novels by Frank Herbert. I was even willing to forgive the special effects for not being great; after all, in an era when George Lucas' "Star Wars" has turned movies into high tech, why not a film that looks like a throwback to Flash Gordon. It might be kind of fun.

It took "Dune" about nine minutes to completely strip me of my anticipation. This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time. Even the color is no good; everything is seen through a sort of dusty yellow filter, as if the film was left out in the sun too long. Yes, you might say, but the action is, after all, on a desert planet where there isn't a drop of water, and there's sand everywhere. David Lean solved that problem in "Lawrence of Arabia," where he made the desert look beautiful and mysterious, not shabby and drab.

The movie's plot will no doubt mean more to people who've read Herbert than to those who are walking in cold. It has to do with a young hero's personal quest. He leads his people against an evil baron and tries to destroy a galaxy-wide trade in spice, a drug produced on the desert planet. Spice allows you to live indefinitely while you discover you have less and less to think about. There are various theological overtones, which are best left unexplored. 

The movie has so many characters, so many unexplained or incomplete relationships, and so many parallel courses of action that it's sometimes a toss-up whether we're watching a story, or just an assembly of meditations on themes introduced by the novels (the movie is like a dream). 

Occasionally a striking image will swim into view: The alien brain floating in brine, for example, or our first glimpse of the giant sand worms plowing through the desert. If the first look is striking, however, the movie's special effects don't stand up to scrutiny. The heads of the sand worms begin to look more and more as if they came out of the same factory that produced Kermit the Frog (they have the same mouths). An evil baron floats through the air on trajectories all too obviously controlled by wires. The spaceships in the movie are so shabby, so lacking in detail or dimension, that they look almost like those student films where plastic models are shot against a tablecloth.

Nobody looks very happy in this movie. Actors stand around in ridiculous costumes, mouthing dialogue that has little or no context. They're not even given scenes that work on a self-contained basis; portentious lines of pop profundity are allowed to hang in the air unanswered, while additional characters arrive or leave on unexplained errands. "Dune" looks like a project that was seriously out of control from the start. Sets were constructed, actors were hired; no usable screenplay was ever written; everybody faked it as long as they could. Some shabby special effects were thrown into the pot, and the producers crossed their fingers and hoped that everybody who has read the books will want to see the movie. Not if the word gets out, they won't.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/fargo-season-4-episode-3-review-raddopiarlo/

Fargo Season 4 Episode 3:
Raddopiarlo

By Nick Harley|October 4, 2020|

Photo: FX


If Fargo’s two-episode premiere felt something like a change of pace for the series — a new setting, traditional gang conflict backdrop, and a somewhat more serious tone — “Raddopiarlo” feels like a classic Fargo installment. Between the introduction of smooth-talking U.S. Marshall Dick “Deafy” Wickware, the abundance of showy monologues, and a hilariously botched heist, this jam-packed episode managed to turn up the heat in the budding war between the Faddas and the Cannons while throwing in some interesting wrinkles. Not everything is working quite as it should, but the show is still plenty entertaining.

I’m never going to say no to Timothy Olyphant as a cocky, brash lawman, and he certainly doesn’t disappoint in his first appearance this season as Deafy. Deafy is quick to establish his Mormon faith and his get-shit-done attitude. As a Mormon, Deafy is another “Other” in this American tale, as it was technically illegal to be a Mormon in the state of Missouri after the 1838 Mormon War. A state executive order said you could kill Mormons in the state of Missouri until 1976, but chomping on carrots with a cool confidence, Deafy doesn’t seem too afraid. Like others in the story, he then goes on to make disparaging remarks about the Italians and others, not realizing that they’re all in the same boat.





Deafy is in town to look for Zelmare and Swanee after their escape from prison, as inmates reported Zelmare talking about her sister and the trouble she was in prior to her escape. He’s assigned to work with Odis, who is annoyed he can’t stay on the socialite murder case and protect the Faddas, but when the pair make a surprise visit to the Smutny home, they aren’t able to locate the hiding fugitives. Deafy’s presence is sure to shake things up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds himself in the middle of the Fadda-Cannon conflict at some point.

Speaking of that conflict, the family consiglieres Doctor Senator and Ebal Violante meet up at a diner to discuss the disagreement over the slaughterhouses. Despite some more clunky, repetitive dialogue about what it means to be American, this is great scene due to Glynn Turman’s measured yet powerful performance. Ebal knows that Donatello didn’t grant permission for the Cannon’s to take the slaughterhouse, and Doctor Senator knows that he knows, yet both men understand the realities of the situation and realize that they’re helpless to fight over the same opportunities they can afford to grab.

Meanwhile, Gaetano creates unnecessary chaos in the Fadda family home. After quickly placing a scare on Rabbi and Satchel as Rabbi explains his history to the Cannon boy, Gaetano runs into his brother and criticizes his strength and ability to lead the family. Gaetano is close to being over the top with his menacing, borderline psychotic behavior, but it’s so much fun to watch. Not content to allow the Cannons to get a leg up on his family, Gaetano makes a plan to take out Loy’s son Lemuel, against Josto’s wishes for no killing. After witnessing Rabbi earlier in the episode, he insists Constant take Rabbi with him on the job to prove his loyalty to the family.

In the episode’s tensest section, Rabbi realizes while in route to the hit what he’s being asked to do and immediately questions whether it was Josto’s orders. Urged by his morals and his understanding that he should not be acting against the actual boss’ wishes, he purposely botches the hit and tells Constant that he plans on letting Josto know that he’s taking orders from Gaetano. It’s gripping television and Ben Wishaw continues to make Rabbi the season’s most compelling POV character.

Speaking of hits gone poorly, Zelmare and Swanee decide to try to rob the Cannon safehouse, thinking that it will aid Dibrell with her debt. Unfortunately for the outlaws, Swanee digs into the pie left by Oraetta right before they leave on their mission. Like clockwork, the two women bust into the Cannon safehouse and Swanee immediately starts getting sick. Swanee’s vomiting and Zelmare’s lack of focus causes some of the Cannon men to try to fight back, which causes bullets to fly and Zelmare and Swanee to escape with less than anticipated. This season felt the most like Fargo’s past, as it’s clear this unrelated heist will be blamed on the Faddas and have massive implications in their escalating feud. My only critique is that this section could have had more chaos and carnage.

Finally, in what feels like a completely unrelated show, Oraetta lands a job at Dr. Harvard’s hospital, schmoozing and sweet talking the vain man with ease. Outside the hospital, Josto is doing his regular stakeout, just waiting to take his chance to off Dr. Harvard, and Oraetta spots him again assuming that he’s interested in her. The two share some more drugs and a very odd moment of intimacy. It’s clear Oraetta has eyes for Josto, and Josto seems pretty drawn in by Oraetta’s unique energy. I like Oraetta’s brand of evil, I’m just not quite sure how it fits with the series moving forward, especially when it seems that more relevant characters like Ethelrida, Satchel, Zero, and others are getting short shrift.

While not flawless, this episode was absolutely stuffed with compelling action, even if we can do with a little less speechifying. While I enjoyed Chris Rock in the premiere, I feel like he’s pulling his natural charisma back a little too far in this episode. Jason Schwartzman appears to have the opposite problem, being just a tad too anachronistic to the point of seeming miscast. However, I’m still onboard with the latest season of Fargo and I’m curious to see how the Cannon’s respond to the threats, real or perceived, as well as how Josto will deal with the power grab that’s being attempted by his brother.

Immortal Hulk #36-40: The Keeper of the Door

IMMORTAL HULK #36-40

Follow the Leader! The Hulk's archenemy has set his sights on infiltrating the green behemoth's friend group in preparation to enact his nefarious, long-fomenting plans. But can the Leader push the immortal Hulk beyond his breaking point? Meanwhile, when Bruce Banner first came to Shadow Base, he was cut up into pieces and stored in jars — but he was only the second test subject. The first subject has just been freed! Plus: Some time ago, an outside force entered Bruce Banner's system. The Devil Hulk says it's the Green Scar. The Green Scar says it's the Devil Hulk. They might both be wrong! But now, deep in Banner's mind, something is reaching through the Green Door — and it wants to hurt Banner badly. And the Devil Hulk takes that personally. Al Ewing's best-selling, Eisner Award–nominated story continues!

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

Black Monday S3 Ep 9: Two

Original Air Date: Jul 25, 2021

Mo tries to make his own bachelor party happenin’. A killer is still on the loose and they’ve chosen to celebrate in a cabin…in the woods. Keith enjoys his social status upgrade until someone unexpected returns. Yassir learns all about what he should have seen in Home Alone and finally, Lenny Leighman comes back from the dead.

The Expanse S2 Ep 13: Caliban's War

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

from syfy.com: https://www.syfy.com/the-expanse/episodes/season/2/episode/13/calibans-war

The Expanse S2 Ep 13: Caliban's War





On Jules-Pierre Mao's ship, his guards have been ordered to get rid of Avasarala, and they end up in a shootout with Cotyar and Bobbie. Cotyar gets shot in the midst of the gunfire.

Naomi and Amos return to the Rocinante and reunite with Holden, who apologizes for his maniacal fervor in trying to kill the Protomolecule hybrid. As Prax tends to Amos' wounds, he is haunted by the fact that the hybrid they have been hunting was once an innocent child.

As the Roci crew discuss plans to repair their damaged ship, they spot the hybrid in the cargo bay on the monitors. Naomi says, "We don't have any choice this time. We have to kill it." Ignoring Prax's pleas to let him communicate with the creature, Holden, Amos, and Alex go after the hybrid, after it removes an implant from its chest and throws it out of the ship. It throws a magnetic crate at the men, and it pins Holden to the wall. Alex and Amos are forced to retreat, as the bullets in the hybrid heal themselves. Strangely, the hybrid ignores the trapped Holden and starts digging into the ship's bulkhead. They realize it's going after the ship's radiation source, for food. If it reaches the ship's reactor, they're all dead.

Back at the shootout on Mao's ship, Avasarala, Cotyar, and Bobbie are in trouble, though they've reached a stalemate. They spot an air vent, and Cotyar tells Bobbie to escape through the elevator shaft, retrieve her battle armor, and come back to save them.

As the hybrid continues to dig, the Roci crew needs to figure out a plan before Holden's injuries become life-threatening. Amos speaks up with a plan to depressurize the cargo bay and shoot the hybrid out into space. But won't that plan tear Holden apart? "Maybe not," says Amos.

On the Arboghast, hovering over Venus, Dr. Iturbi says there is no doubt that the Eros crater is active, and he convinces Janus to descend to get a better reading.

On the Roci, Naomi gets Amos alone and apologizes for getting rough with him on the Somnabulist. He's angry at himself for making her. He says he's been making all the wrong choices. Naomi intuits that Amos was lying when he said Holden could survive the de-pressurization plan. She tells him he's not to blow the doors on that hatch until she finds another way. With the hybrid still digging, Alex turns off the ship's reactor. But once the hybrid can't sense the radiation anymore, it turns its attentions to Holden and begins advancing on him. Bad news. So Alex powers up again, and the creature resumes digging.

While Cotyar tries to negotiate with Mao's men, Bobbie moves through the elevator shaft. Despite a close call, she makes it out.

Holden's vital signs are fading, and Naomi hasn't been able to figure out an alternative to Amos' plan. So Holden wants to have a talk. Naomi refuses to let him say goodbye, but he presses on. He tells her that if he dies, let him go and find a place to hide out.

Cotyar is passed out from his wound, until Avasarala PRESSES ON IT to wake him up. They're still trapped, but Mao's men offer Cotyar a deal: give up Avasarala and he can walk. To Avasarala's shock, he's considering it. Why should they die for their boss' conflicts, Mao's guy asks. Avasarala tells Cotyar that if he is going to turn on her, he must take up her cause. Someone has to stop Errinwright.

Prax gets an idea: the hybrid is moving towards the energy source like a plant to sunlight. If they could offer it a new energy source, they could lure it outside the ship with a nuke and then blow it up.

Meanwhile, the only thing standing between Bobbie and her supplies is a dweeby electrician. He threatens to push a button and initiate a lockdown, but she calls his bluff. They strike up the same bargain being offered to Cotyar: why should they sacrifice themselves for Mao and Errinwright? Or Earth and Mars, for that matter? The electrician lets Bobbie pass, though he asks that she rough him up to make a good show of it.

As Prax and Naomi walk the outside of the Roci, preparing to toss the nuke, Holden makes Amos promise to blow the hatch in case the plan doesn't work. "You were always trying to be a good man," Amos tells Holden. "Not everybody does. Thank you." Alex shuts off the power source again, but this time as the hybrid moves towards Holden, Prax and Naomi expose the core of the warhead. The hybrid senses it and follows it outside the ship. It looks for a second like Prax will lose his nerve, but he doesn't. He tosses the warhead, he and Naomi run, and Alex is able to roast the hybrid and the nuke with the Roci's afterburners.

Just as Mao's men are about to shoot Avasarala, Bobbie, armed with her battle suit, arrives to take them out.

The Arboghast descends to the surface of Venus and the Eros crater when suddenly, the sensors go crazy. The crater is moving! The Martian ship completely disappears, and we soon see why, as the Arboghast is surrounded by Protomolecules and then suddenly pulled apart.

Safe on the Roci, Naomi tends to Holden. She tells him they can't have any more secrets between them, so she tells him the truth about the piece of Protomolecule she said she shot into the sun. Only she didn't. She tells Holden that there's no going back: the Protomolecule is a weapon they'll all have to deal with. Earth has it; Mars has it; she needed to make sure the Belt had it. So she gave the Protomolecule to Fred Johnson.

Meanwhile, we see Dr. Strickland sealing up Mei — very much alive and not a hybrid — in a pod and telling her, "Sweet dreams."

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

from ew.com:https://ew.com/tv/recaps/billions-season-5-episode-8-copenhagen/

Billions S5 Ep 8: Copenhagen

Billions recap: Chuck and Axe are at each other's throats again as season 5 returns

With Axe trying to find a way to get his charter bank approved, Chuck attempts to make strides toward being a better person.
By Kyle Fowle
September 05, 2021 at 10:00 PM EDT

Billions is finally back! Season 5 was interrupted by COVID-related work stoppages last year, depriving all of us of the back half of what has so far been a really solid season. A quick recap, since it's been so long: Axe is trying to get in the business of running a charter bank so he can, you know, have even more money than usual. Chuck, as attorney general, is doing everything he can to stop that from happening, while also trying to finally find something to take down Axe and Axe Capital for good. Meanwhile, Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) has arrived as another rival for Axe, the seemingly do-good entrepreneur representing everything Axe despises — namely good intentions, real philanthropy, and making money without exploitation.

Axe has been desperate to undermine Prince's assertion that he's one of the good billionaires, and Wags thinks he may have finally found a way to get some dirt on him. He's found out that Prince's right-hand man, Scooter (the Wags to Prince's Axe, if you will), has been placing all sorts of gigantic sports bets, and that there's no way a man of his means is managing to keep his head above water. So Wags corners Scooter in a coffee shop and gives him an ultimatum: show up at Axe Cap and give them some dirt on Prince, or Axe and Wags ruin his life with this gambling information.

Meanwhile, Chuck is dealing with a scandal of his own. He's been anonymously emailed a picture of him in his college days, setting fire to a bathtub full of student election ballots. Chuck explains the context to Ira, that this was part of a movement to get the university to divest from companies upholding apartheid in South Africa, and that Chuck needed to beat his opponent for moral reasons. But Chuck also knows this looks bad and could tarnish his whole career.

The email comes with a call for him to resign his teaching position, and Chuck is pretty sure he knows who the message is from. He calls a meeting with one of the students who walked out on him when Chuck asked them to unethically look into Todd Krakow earlier this season, and what follows is a fun, prickly conversation in which Chuck tries to warn the young man about starting out his career with blackmail. The student responds by sticking to his convictions and telling Chuck to resign.

Luckily for Chuck, the student eventually has a change of mind and tells the dean of Yale that he attempted to blackmail Chuck, and that the matter should be dropped. Of course, the dean isn't too eager to keep Chuck on as a teacher with this in his past threatening to surface at any point, so she forces him to resign his post, though he gets to keep the photo away from the public for now.

Getting back to Axe, Wags lets him know that Scooter has agreed to come in, and that means it's only a matter of time before they get something good on Prince. But then Prince shows up alongside Scooter and explains that the bets were all Prince's, and that they're all accounted for and all taxes are paid on any wins. In other words, Axe still has nothing.

Eventually, because of a supposed "tell" in the language Prince used during their meeting, Axe directs his team to dive into Prince's past — something has to be there. Indeed, Dollar Bill eventually stumbles across something. Prince's deceased partner, David Fells, owned shares in their first company together, and because he was a founder, these shares come with 10-1 voting power. David's mother should still have the shares, so Dollar Bill sets up a meeting between her and Axe.

Axe makes his intentions clear. He's ready to pay her anything she wants for those shares. The thing is, she doesn't have them, Prince does. But she has something else: She tells Axe the story of what really happened with the sale of their first company. Essentially, when David started drinking and getting dependent on drugs, Prince offered him $200,000 for control of the company, telling him to go off and get healthy, and that when he was sober and strong enough they'd start another company together and keep growing. The shady part? Prince knew an offer for the company was coming from Microsoft, so that $200,000 was nothing compared to what David should have made. The betrayal led to more drinking, more drugs, and a car accident that killed him a month later.

All this gets aired on national television, during the feature that Prince has been waiting to see and is expecting to paint him as a saint, as David's mother sits down for an exclusive interview to tell the whole story. It's a big win for Axe, but not the only one of the episode. He also manages to swindle Chuck into investigating a payday loan company called Plaintiff-ful, essentially ruining the company and making them worthless. Once the investigation is underway, Axe buys up the company for cheap. Why? Because it has an asset he wants: a charter bank. That's two huge moves for Axe in this episode, putting both Prince and Chuck behind the eight ball. Still, a lot can happen in these last few episodes. This isn't over yet. 

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/the-sinner-recap-season-2-episode-7-part-vii.html

The Sinner S2 Ep 7

The Sinner Recap: No Reservations
By Kenny Herzog


Photo: USA Network/Peter Kramer/USA Network

Up until now, The Sinner’s second season had been operating in good faith. That ended with the rather nonchalant reveal that it was random suicide victim Britt Jacob’s decomposing body at the bottom of Purple Lake — not Marin’s. Not that anyone was rooting for Marin’s demise (though if so, they’d get their wish soon enough), but the bait and switch was a bit half-assed, a fairly unsophisticated way of keeping viewers guessing without giving back to series lore. But, now we know that it was indeed Marin waiting for Julian in that storage container north of the border. Ditto for who’s been stalking the poor kid in his bedroom, eventually stealing him away from his foster home for some belated mother-son bonding.

Alas, Marin — who’d recovered from addiction, spent some time in a Canadian convent, and returned to Mosswood, where her appeals to Vera for a reunion with Julian led to further exile — doesn’t make it farther than the Five Nations Motel. And unless the corpse of Britt Jacob reanimated and took her out, it appears Julian has claimed his third fatality in self-defense. Though, it’s highly suspect that this anxious 13-year-old could fire a steady shot to his biological mom’s gut, even if he was rightly alarmed by her fidgety, extreme behavior. No, odds are Vera’s a reliable gunslinger, and thanks to ponytail man’s reconnaissance work at Grey Daughters, she knew exactly where Marin was hiding out.

If there’s one truly important piece of information gathered during “Part VII,” it’s that Vera will do anything to keep Julian close. Rearing him has not only given her purpose, but it’s helped her rationalize all those terrible things she let happen when Lionel was lording over the commune. Take Julian away and it’s all meaningless guilt. She’d rather have brainwashed Julian into absolute obedience, sabotaged Bess and Adam, and sent Marin to the hereafter (it’s all for you, Julian!) to fulfill what had become an obsessive, almost divine maternal duty, than head back to East Texas having been suckered into subservient faith by an egomaniacal psycho (that’d be the Beacon). Julian’s whole life had been a kind of kidnapping, really.

It follows, then, that Vera was projecting a tad when lecturing Harry about how saving Julian wouldn’t amount to saving himself. She’s not off the mark either (we still don’t know exactly what he confessed to her in his delirium at the cabin). What separates them is that Harry’s been out in the world since he left Keller, immersed almost wholly in what makes others tick, to the detriment of his personal life and sense of self. All the while, Vera’s been cocooned within Mosswood, persuading followers to conform to her fantasy of a singular path to peace, quieting any dissent in her own head or from outside their sanctuary about the damage done. Harry and Vera are very much two sides of the same coin, but “Part VII” reminds us who the show’s protagonist really is.

Marin herself is arguably this season’s biggest mystery, and just as arguably its biggest missed opportunity. Hannah Gross, so good here and in Mindhunter, becomes a tragic and clichéd figure as she gets lost amid Mosswood, nearly finds religion, and collects herself to come for Julian. She’s an inherently sympathetic figure who spends all of her screen time from pregnancy on floundering and erratic, a bridge Harry and Vera have to cross to reach whatever intersection they’re approaching that determines Julian’s fate. It’s very possible that she was placing Julian in harm’s way, maybe even calculatedly (after all, if that body was Britt’s, then we still haven’t confirmed Lionel’s in la-la land), but whatever her intentions or state of mind, she was also the only character who fundamentally got that you can’t fix a broken past. Perhaps we’ll least still find out what she had planned for the future.

What the show has in mind for Julian in his coming years is The Sinner’s most pressing TBD. Yes, we’d all like to wrap up how Vera, Jack, Glenn, the police department, Heather, Heather’s mom, Marin’s mom, etc. were or weren’t culpable in Bess and Adam and now Marin’s deaths. It’ll be duly satisfying to discover whether Lionel lost his life to a cup of jimson tea or is still waiting somewhere by Niagara Falls to sacrifice Julian to the alpha gods. And one supposes it can’t hurt for Harry to get some closure on his whole “I almost killed my mom and then watched her rot in a mental institution” malaise. But let’s hear it for Julian (and a great Elisha Henig), our head-scratching, shadow-selfing, manslaughtering young teen. He’s been ripped from the arms of one mother, and then another, and then seen the other die; and in between, poisoned two innocent (we think) people (RIP Bess and Adam) and did some hard time in juvie. This kid doesn’t stand a chance, but like Harry, hopefully he’ll at least get the hell out of Keller.

Apart From All That

• One more time for Burl Ives.

• Who knew Harry was learned in augury?

• You might recognize Sister Joanna a.k.a. Marceline Hugot as a particularly intense cult member (how apropos) Gladys in The Leftovers.

• Looks like Vera’s about to make the ultimate sacrifice, whether it’s how she scripted it or not, and swap her freedom for Julian’s.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Ready Steady Cut: https://readysteadycut.com/2021/08/25/recap-clickbait-episode-2-netflix-series/

Clickbait S1 Ep 2: The Detective 

Clickbait episode 2 recap – what happened in “The Detective”? There's a shocking discovery as Nick's family can't help but feel the pressure.

Jordan Russell Lyon

August 25, 2021


The van doors open. It’s empty. Despite this, the case gets moved to homicide, and Sophie’s home gets searched. All members of the family hand over their phones to aid with the case; except Pia. Her phone is at her flat as it dries out from the water damage from getting dropped in the toilet.

Pia asks Det Amir if it’s true that if you don’t find a missing person within the first 48 hours, the chances of finding them alive drop by 50%. He says it is. With the case moved to homicide, Det Amir is no longer in charge of the case but tells her that if the family request a change, that could soon change. It soon becomes apparent that Pia and Det Amir has been in contact before, with Pia saying, “I really did lose my phone, that’s why I never called”. As it turns out, they matched on a dating app but never got round to meeting up.

With every viral video comes negative comments. Nick’s sons Ethan and Kai (played by Camaron Engels and Jaylin Fletcher) can’t help but read them. Journalists, meanwhile, swamp outside the family house.

After an app gets launched to help find Nick’s body, Det Amir stumbles upon two guys looking for the body for fun. One man’s misfortune is another man’s joy indeed. As Det Amir learns that Nick’s disappearance is all the latest gossip, Sophie wonders why a ransom hasn’t been sent yet before appealing to the public and asking for whoever is holding Nick hostage to let him come home.

After Pia finally plays Nick’s voicemail to Det Amir, he has an argument with his superior Det De Luca (played by Steve Mouzakis). Det Amir is told, “You’re not a team player and you keep evidence to yourself. This case is all about climbing the ladder to you”. It’s 48 hours since Nick went missing. There’s a breakthrough, however, as a crime scene is found. At the scene are Nick’s bike and a needle. The find leads to the assumption that Nick got drugged by someone who knew his work routine.

Det Amir starts to believe that Nick and Sophie were having marital problems and wonders if Nick had an affair. There’s panic, especially for Pia, when a body gets washed up. But luckily, it’s just a hoax, and the “body” is actually a dummy as part of some sick joke. Det Amir uncovers footage of Nick fighting with an unknown individual. Whoever it is, they’re now a person of interest. Det De Luca and Det Amir agree to search a remote area, with Det Amir placing an ambulance on standby. Edging closer to water, where the body-finding app has led a group of journalists, Det Amir finds Nick’s body.

The ending

In one of Clickbait‘s most heartbreaking scenes, Det Amir tells Pia that Nick is dead. (P.S. the acting from both Zoe Kazan and Phoenix Raei is great in this scene. Possibly my favourite scene in Clickbait.) At work, Det Amir walks into a crowd of applause as he’s promoted to homicide. Episode 2 of Clickbait ends with Det Amir finding photos of Sophie with the same individual that Nick was fighting with, aka the person of interest.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Showsnob: https://showsnob.com/2019/04/20/black-summer-season-1-finale-recap/

Black Summer S1 Ep 8: The Stadium

by Bethany Lewis

The supergroup makes their last push toward the stadium, but first, they must make it through the chaos of the overrun downtown area on Black Summer.

Survivors: The Black Summer supergroup finds that they aren’t the only ones heading toward the stadium. A number of small groups and individuals form an advancing line toward the stadium, everyone contributing to the defense of the others. As zombies are sighted, the front line breaks into fire to take it down. At first, it’s fairly organized and you think that they’re doing pretty well for untrained civilians.

But as more zombies come through from other directions, inevitably someone gets shot or bit and causes a panic. In this case, Carmen gets hit with a wild bullet and doesn’t even have time to collapse before turning into a zombie. The once organized line dissolves into chaos as people run screaming and fire blindly.

Downtown: The supergroup sticks together as much as possible, but find themselves separated. Sun, Spears, and Lance advance and cover each other, but Lance finds himself pursued (like usual), while Spears and Sun are knocked senseless by the shock of an explosion. Rattled, they get up to move forward.

Fall: Rose and William move forward together. Rose clears the way for William, who is struggling to keep up with his aggravated injury. William gets hit with the shock of the same explosion, but Rose comes to help him and they go together into the cloud of settling dust and smoke.

Lance: Poor guy just can’t catch a break. He is so close to making it to the stadium, but is dazed by the shock of the explosion and stumbles too slowly toward the building. His way is blocked by an oncoming horde of zombies and he finds himself sprinting in the opposite direction, pursued by the horde. That’s the last we see of Lance.

The Killing: Sun and Spears have made it to the skywalk leading into the stadium and hold off the zombies waiting for Rose and William to catch up. They advance together as quickly as possible, fighting off zombies and weaving through the blockades. They literally have to drag William now, whose injured leg can no longer support his weight. He argues with Sun, telling her to kill him and leave him behind. With no options left and the zombies coming toward them fast, Rose shoots William in the head. He really was one of the good guys. Sun is devastated, but there’s no time to mourn with the zombies chasing them.

No longer slowed down by William, the three of them run to the gate and get through to the stadium, blocking off the zombies behind them. The stadium, which should be filled with people if the evacuation transports had made it through, is suspiciously and frighteningly empty. When they reach the field, an armed man appears from the opposite entry point. They both point their guns at each other in a wary standoff. He lowers his gun first and a young girl appears by his side, holding a pistol. It’s Rose’s daughter. She comes down through the stands and onto the field, breaking out into a run toward Rose.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/black-sails-season-2-episode-4-review/

Black Sails S2 Ep 4

Black Sails shows off everyone's strengths and the conflict builds nicely. Here's our review...
By TS Rhodes|February 15, 2015|



This Black Sails review contains spoilers.

This episode of Black Sails is another good one, showing off everyone’s strengths, and including all our favorite characters without being predictable or feeling like we’re ticking items off a list. Vane gets some deep moments, Miranda gets included in a growing plotline, and the love (okay, not love – sex) between Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham and Max heats up. Eleanor isn’t even annoying.

The pirate’s tactics are, as usual, just a little weak, but not glaringly so. That’s just a problem that this series has. But the conflict – the conflict is great.

You remember where we left them last time. Flint’s got a Spanish warship, Vane’s got the fort, and the previous power player Ned Lowe has his head on a spike after losing in a previous conflict with Vane.

Of course, if they all just started shooting, it would be a pretty boring episode, so there have to be reasons why they don’t. At least not right away. This is the place where we find out that one-quarter of the fort is unarmed, and that Flint, who’s got his ship in really close, is in the only position where he can’t be shelled out of the water. We aren’t filled in on why Vane doesn’t just move some cannons around, but that’s life on TV. It’s a plausible standoff.

And it’s plausible that Flint doesn’t want to batter the fort to rubble, he’s got plans for it in the future. He’s in the position of power, but doesn’t want to use it.

Eleanor is stuck – she’s been plotting with Flint, but after last week we know she’s still got it bad for bad-boy Vane. She sets out to mediate, a tough job between two ambitious men with shaky power-bases and their reputations on the line.

Meantime, Jack is dealing with the aftermath of his night with Max and Anne. He doesn’t seem as pleased as a guy should be after such an adventure, but that’s Jack. I’m watching his wardrobe for the sign that he finally lives up to his potential as a pirate captain. When Vane started wearing a coat like a real captain, he started acting like one as well. Jack Rackham’s still in his wilted linen, though.

Max is scheming for him, though, moving through her employees in the whorehouse to persuade more men to join Jack’s budding crew. Lowe’s crew, already disgruntled and now leaderless, are looking for a new captain.

My favorite thing about the whole episode is Max explaining to her employee how to wrap a client around her little finger. The details of the sex, the secret whispers, the “confession” of entirely fictitious secrets, the confession that, after all the others, THIS man has stolen the professional’s heart.


Jack’s face is a joy. The face of a man who’s never had any idea that women plot like this, and who’s fallen for the same trick a time or two himself. Jack’s smart, but suddenly he’s taking lessons from Max – the mistress of strategy. Bravo!

So we have a new pirate captain coming up, and he’s got the power of Max behind him. But what does Max want? Apparently Anne. She goes so far as to confess to Jack that a week in her bed can change a person’s life.

This is where we get a few more details about Anne and Jack – that they’ve been together since Anne was 13, and a few more details about how she’s taken care of him. It’s been clear al along who’s taking care of who in this relationship. Jack simply keeps Anne from getting the kind of bullying that a single woman would be liable to. And… Something else? Anne seems to “have” Max now, but she doesn’t want Max to “have” her. She wants Jack’s continued protection. I’m watching this relationship unfold with pleasure and anticipation.

So now we have another side – potentially – in the conflict.

And there’s Hornigold. The previous holder of the fort, and collaborator with Eleanor, Hornigold has thrown in with Flint in order to get his holding – and his power – back. Hornigold offers substantial support, and he won’t back down. The fort is the best thing he’s ever had. Hornigold holds Flint to his goal of attack. So that’s another side, potentially, in the conflict.

So we’re up to four sides.

In the meantime, the backstory continues to unfold. We’re back with Flint’s previous incarnation, the navy lieutenant, conspiring with Hamilton, (Miranda’s compliant husband) to bring law and order to the Caribbean.

I’m going to drop a huge spoiler here, so skip on if you don’t want to know. Pardoning the pirates – forgiving them their sins and robberies – was exactly what happened historically. It may seem insane to believe that the British government simply gave up and let the pirates go, but that’s what happened. For those of you who love historic pirates, feel safe in the knowledge that they lived out their lives after their pirating days were done.

This is the final piece of the plot – the “prize” that formed the excuse for Vane to move against Lowe was the kidnapped daughter of lord Ash, who in turn was the main governmental support of pardoning the pirates.

So that’s it… How many sides now?

And then the sun comes up, and Flint looks at his cannons, looks at the fort, and says, “Fire!”

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From Vulture.com: https://www.vulture.com/article/the-white-lotus-recap-season-1-episode-4-recentering.html

The White Lotus S1 Ep 4:
Recentering

The White Lotus Recap: What Do You Stand For?
By Amanda Whiting


Photo: HBO

The White Lotus has been circling the possibility that it’s a show with something to say, but this week, Mike White finally lands the plane (sort of). The rich, white hotel guests — smiling, damaged — are each presented a chance to show what they’re about. One by one, they arrive at the same answer: themselves.

Still, as a series, The White Lotus is more curious about the deficiencies of its privileged characters than in getting to know the characters who wait on them. For every morsel of intel about Belinda, for example, we watch five minutes of Rachel and Shane’s interminable quarreling — does anyone think she has the backbone to leave him? However frivolous the show believes its upstairs cohort to be, they’re what the show is made up of. It’s an open question, for now, if that’s a commentary on reality or merely a tell. At least in the case of Armond, whose steep relapse gets the same irreverent gloss as the Mossbachers’ dysfunctional dinners, it feels like the latter.


In the small hours of the morning, though, Paula’s upstairs/downstairs locationship is played for something more than heavy petting. Kai, the series’s first native Hawaiian character, has a complicated history with the White Lotus. It’s built on the lo’i his family used to farm, and his brothers are contesting their eviction. Kai is caught between two visions for modern Hawai’i: one where the tourist is king and one based on sustainable agriculture, more closely resembling Hawai’i before annexation. Paula tells Kai he’s “so real,” which makes me (1) cringe, and (2) wonder how she’d categorize everyone else. Fake? “Tricky” is the word she chooses for Olivia, her borderline frenemy. She can’t tell Liv about Kai because Liv is the hotel developer in their relationship, with a history of taking what’s Paula’s if she wants it. But what does it say about Paula that they’re still friends, that she said yes to this trip?

Overall, the Mossbacher suite is in disarray on the morning of “Recentering.” Mark wakes up hurting from yesterday’s bender, and Nicole’s sympathy is nonexistent. “Are you going to participate today?” she asks him. “Participate” here means “play one happy family,” but social mores have deteriorated past the point of pretending. Even Paula is sassing Nicole.

Quinn, permanently bunking on the beach now, stares out at the glassy blue sea as local guys paddle an outrigger canoe, bonding in the exact way his father is trying to force. Suddenly, that scuba school that takes place in the kiddie pool feels metaphorical. When Mark confesses he bought Nicole’s $75K worth of bracelets after cheating on her, it doesn’t make father and son closer. It sends Quinn back to the ocean to befriend the watermen. Real relationships have to grow organically in the real world. (Sidenote: I felt oddly proud of Nicole’s poor, alienated rich, white son for introducing himself. Turns out he’s not a misanthrope; he just hates everyone he knows.)

By comparison, the Pattons seem normal today. Shane wears his Cornell hat to breakfast, which is perfect in a way I can’t put into words. (Just imagine Andy Bernard watching The White Lotus on his Roku and gleefully bounding from the sofa.) Rachel wants to talk about her work (again), but instead of journalism, she’s mulling a nonprofit career. No particular cause or charity is identified, and there’s no explanation for why a person who doesn’t have the “drive” for media would succeed elsewhere. She’s just looking for a soft landing. Shane is totally supportive of the plan, whatever it is, so long as he doesn’t have to listen to her talk about it anymore. He has an enemy to vanquish.

Oh, Armond! Armond didn’t make it home last night. He looks and feels terrible. Belinda coaxes the truth from him with one long, empathic stare. And Armond really seems like he’s about to return the girls’ their depleted drug stash when Shane shows up to complain about the previous episode’s Titanic of a sunset cruise. Fed up, Shane wants to talk to the Big Boss. Tripping off their showdown, Armond gives Paula back her bag, minus the drugs. It’s stupid, but also kind of genius. What are they going to say? Excuse me, sir, but our ket is missing?

Armie has one last surprise to distract Shane from contacting senior management: Molly Shannon. A Mike White regular, Shannon barrels in as Shane’s inappropriate mother, Kitty. “Poor thing, she’s white as a sheet,” the OG Mrs. Patton says when she sees the new Mrs. Patton’s unmistakable, justifiable shock to see her mother-in-law on her honeymoon. She’s a daughter-in-law’s nightmare, fretting over little Shane’s little swimmer’s ear and going on about the wedding like she was its main character. The song of Shane and Rachel was perhaps one-note, but suddenly I could not be more excited for the Big Dinner Sequence.

Because by this point in the season, the episodes are definitely taking familiar shape: sunrise; a breakfast spat with the Ps; Armond ping-ponging aimlessly among his guests; Tanya’s problem of the day, which never quite coheres to the rest of the action; and finally, a hectic, quick-cut, Christopher Nolan-esque dinner hour that brings us to a banal yet thrilling crescendo. The circadian rhythm is a formula of sorts, but it’s a good one. And tonight’s dinner is extra-special. The menu includes a bad first date, a high and hammered maître d’, and Quinn spilling the tea on Mom’s blingy wrist. For those who are so inclined, there will also be hula.

Tanya seems weirdly okay after half-scattering her mother’s ashes; she even renews her offer to fund Belinda’s wellness center. But when she meets a bald deep-sea fisherman too drunk to find his own hotel room in the middle of the day, she abruptly cancels their business dinner. In Tanya’s defense, she thinks Greg is a kindred liberal spirit, vacationing with friends from Black Lives Matter. In actuality, Greg’s a cop. To him, BLM is the Bureau of Land Management. She was attracted to him because she thought he stood for something, but when it turns out he doesn’t, she has sex with him anyway. Tanya’s proving as empty and erratic as the love-starved mother she described, which I guess casts Belinda in the role of the expendable daughter. I’d bet Tanya finds and discards a Belinda everywhere she goes.

A couple of tables over, before the Mai Tais arrive, Shane unilaterally decides to run Rachel’s new trajectory by Kitty, whose idea of nonprofit work is donating a weekend at her Aspen place to a silent auction. (She never goes in February, anyway.) “It’s a great way to give back,” she tells Rachel, approvingly. But when Rachel clarifies she’d like to get a job, Mrs. Patton can’t compute. What nonprofits need is money, she explains. Actually, they need moneymoneymoneymoney. And Rachel and Shane are moneymoneymoneymoney. Yes, Mrs. Patton is a horrifying glimpse into a possible future for Rachel, but at least she’s clear about what she brings to the table.

At one point, though, Rachel saw herself as more of a Nicole. (What happened to “your independence is your power”?) I wonder what she’d think if she knew her would-be mentor had declared herself for the forgotten white man — and Hillary, of course. But tonight it’s Mark’s turn to face Liv’s political inquisition. “For years, I was the good guy,” he says, longingly. Now he suggests they “center the narrative” around Paula. He doesn’t mean it. When pushed, he can’t come up with a single question he’d like to ask her. “When has Paula ever asked me a question?” he bites back, setting a record for the world’s briefest decentering.

I don’t know if it’s the impact of Kai’s story or just the familiarity that comes from spending concentrated time with people, but Paula is getting punchy with the Mossbachers. “What do you stand for?” she asks Mark, who doesn’t answer, which is its own answer. Depressingly, Nicole speculates that no one’s sincere about what they stand for; even anti-capitalists secretly just want to be higher up the food chain. Olivia doesn’t answer, either, but a few scenes later, when she’s sure Paula can’t see, she approaches Kai: “That’s such a cool name.” Olivia’s grown up in the context of extreme privilege, but there remain other kinds of power she’d like to grab.

From all this, Quinn emerges as something of an oracle, espousing what sounds like the show’s point of view: “What does it matter what we think? If we think the right things or the wrong things? We all do the same shit.” His frustration is our frustration.

Usually, this is the point in the episode when Shane and Rachel convince themselves they’re compatible enough to make it through another day. But tonight, Shane’s too distracted. He realizes Armond gave him a fake phone number and storms off to confront him (again). The timing is … unfortunate. Armond offered the waiter with the topknot his choice of shifts and some K to get naked together. So when Shane makes it down to the office, high and naked is how he finds them. Shane laughing in the orange glow of a thousand tiki torches throws off menacing Apocalypse Now vibes. He’s so stoked on destroying this hotel manager it’s revolting. He wants it more than he ever wanted the Pineapple Suite. This is Shane Patton’s opus.

Because for all their ineffectual grumbling and confused politics, it’s the rich, white people fucking up the world on The White Lotus. “I’m your friend,” Olivia tells Paula in bed, either deceitful or half-deranged. Is she any different than Tanya, who is never in a million years going into business with Belinda? (I’ll eat a bikini if I’m wrong.) At least Shane knows what he’s doing: ruining a stranger’s life over a series of small to medium slights. I finally understand why Mike White teased episode one’s dead body in the exact way he did. So that we would watch Shane Patton’s mad glee in the full knowledge that whatever happens next, he simply gets to hop on a plane and leave it all behind.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From AVClub: https://www.avclub.com/salim-owns-the-best-episode-so-far-of-american-gods-sea-1846408055

American gods S3 Ep 8:
The Rapture of Burning

Salim owns the best episode so far of American Gods season three

By Ani Bundel
3/07/21 8:05PM

Omid Abtahi in American GodsPhoto: Starz


“I guess you’d call it a pansexual adventure love-in where you can get your kinky boots on.”

American Gods has wandered away somewhat from the “Coming To America” stories since the first season, but this week, the series returns to the concept, though not entirely from the usual angle. This week’s god, Tu’er Shen (Daniel Jun), known as the rabbit god and the deity of same-sex love in China, has already been in America for 100 years when we meet him in 1951. He’s on the run and given shelter at the Grand Peacock Inn by its transgender proprietor, Toni (Dana Aliya Levinson), who recognizes one of the cops chasing him as a closet case from her past life. As a thank you, Tu’er Shen blesses the inn as his new temple, declaring it will run for decades to come. And lo, it still stands today, as Laura and Salim pull up in their hearse.

Season one started with Salim and the Djinn as a central couple, but Fuller’s departure and the show’s subsequent disarray led to putting queer stories on the back burner. A correction has been long overdue, but this week the series finally gives Salim something to do other than pine by introducing a new love interest, Kai (Noah J. Ricketts).

This week’s other stories move plot points along, and in Laura’s case, introduces a delightful new leprechaun, Liam Doyle, played by the to-die-for Iwan Rheon (Game Of Thrones). But the heart of this week’s episode lies with Salim. It takes half the episode and some curling up in his Djinn sweater before he takes Kai up on his offer and heads to the jamboree downstairs. But once he does, and after some minor hesitation, asks Toni for the honor of escorting her inside, this episode comes alive in a way American Gods has been struggling to achieve since season two.

Orgy scenes are hard to pull off. Punning aside, it’s a real issue when catering to the straight, white cis gaze to dramatize this aspect of queer culture and why it is essential. It’s rare for any media to appropriately capture how the experience shocks a person out of their assumptions of sexuality and morality, and why something that goes against everything about heterosexual society can feel like discovering themselves for the first time. I’m not saying American Gods manages it fully. Nor do I feel like everyone who watches this scene will experience it as the show means it to go over. But for the first time in quite a while, it does feel like the series is reaching for something more, something beyond the norm, a promise of beauty and truth that mainstream TV rarely achieves.



Emily Browning and Iwan Rheon in American GodsPhoto: Starz

But if Salim’s re-awakening is this installment’s joyful heart, it’s Laura’s letting go of Sweeney that echoes the current trend in stories of grief in these pandemic times. Doyle, Laura learns, isn’t just her ticket to Odin’s spear, currently residing in Sweeney’s hoard. He was the original assassin Odin tried to hire to kill Shadow’s inconvenient wife. The experience was a shock to Doyle, who was working as a leprechaun lawyer at the time, and unaware of just how low he’d sunk that someone like Odin would see him as willing to do such a thing. Odin responded by destroying his lucky coin, causing his fortunes to fall.

It takes a lot of work on Laura’s part to bring Doyle around. She claims Sweeney gave her the lucky coin out of guilt; before Odin killed him, the plan was to provide her with the spear as protection. But after all this careful lying, when she realizes she must give away Sweeney’s coin, she balks. After all, it’s all Laura has left of him. For all she makes fun of Salim and his constant wearing of the Djinn’s sweater, she can no less let go of Sweeney than Salim has of the Djinn.

But Laura’s distrust in Doyle turns out to be misplaced. Despite her certainty that he’s taken the coin and disappeared, leaving her with nothing but a box of dust, he’s just super struggling because Sweeney hoards everything. But the misunderstanding leads to the necessary acceptance that the lucky coin and Sweeney are gone. Before Laura heads out, she says goodbye to Sweeney’s ashes, letting them float away. Unlike her, there will be no return for him. At least she has a new leprechaun friend with which to spar. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a zing of chemistry between them that will make this a couple worth watching.



Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle in American GodsPhoto: Starz

Meanwhile, Shadow Moon kidnapping is going according to plan, as the poor dude doesn’t realize until it’s too late and Tyr has drugged his coffee. But he catches on real quick, especially once an EMT trainee comes up trying to help him, and Tyr murders the man by slaughtering him via the throat. As Shadow falls in and out of snowblind dreams of ghosts, Tyr takes him to the Wolf’s Den, where he’s got an old-school display to place Shadow’s body on once he’s dead. This season’s arc might cause one to assume this is revenge for Demeter’s exiting the world. But Tyr claims this is revenge for one of the oldest Norse myths in existence, the story of Fenrir, and Tyr’s sacrifice of his hand in the Binding Of Fenrir myth.

Odin doesn’t take long to track the two down. Upon realizing this has nothing to do with Demeter and not a situation he can scam his way out of, he announces the only way to settle this is “the old way.” Suddenly, we’re back on the beachhead from the American Gods series premiere, where the Vikings first landed. Odin and Tyr are decked out in their original battle armor, fighting it out to the death like the mythological gods they are. But perhaps, like other characters who think “trial by combat” is the right answer, Odin discovers this is not his arena. He’s losing until Shadow Moon steps up and throws Tyr across the sands. Like any reasonable soul who wants to play by the rules, Tyr demands retribution for this interference with Shadow’s life. But, well, anyone who’s watched a WWE match knows what happens when a ringside distraction causes one of the fighters to turn their back on their opponent. This tombstone piledriver means Tyr will rest in peace.

Odin burns Tyr’s body old-school style, surrounded by runes under a full moon. But Shadow has also earned something he never knew was possible — freedom. Odin declares Shadow’s debt is paid, and his son can now return to a normal life. But just as Shadow gets what he wants, he suddenly decides not to return to Lakeside. Remembering Sam’s story of Marguerite’s heartbreak over her son, who went to Florida and never returned, he decides instead to head to Jacksonville.


Stray Observations
-Ms. World is back today, and her dress is fierce.
-I missed the computerized face-hugger. Good to see it reappear.
-Yetide Badaki as ModernTech Bilquis in TechBoy’s subconscious is seriously some great stuff. I am here for all versions of Bilquis.
-I hope Laura and Salim’s parting of ways does not mean a lengthy absence for the latter. I love that Emily Browning keeps trading out scene partners, but Omid Abtahi is too good to lose.
-Leprechauns: Hoarders feels like a spinoff series I can get behind, with or without random battles with the occasional 12ft púca.
-This is another in a series of occasional reminders Iwan Rheon is a folk singer, and you should check out his stuff here.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

From TV Guide: https://www.tvguide.com/news/evil-season-1-episode-3-recap-3-stars/

Evil S1 Ep 3: 3 Stars

Evil Recap: Kristen and David Investigate a Boss From Hell. Maybe literally

Maggie FremontOct. 10, 2019, 8:00 p.m. PT

Mike Colter. CBS

Maybe the greatest mystery of this show is how it can possibly be both hilarious and insanely creepy at the same time. "3 Stars" is a great example of Evil's quirky tone. The Case of the Week has our team investigating a possible Diabolical Obsession (one of six types of possession, and a dangerous one that can cause suicidal ideation or murder in the possessed) afflicting a high-maintenance Broadway producer named Byron Duke (John Glover). His assistant, Patti (Dascha Polanco), has come to the Monsignor (Boris McGiver) because her boss is screaming and throwing things more than usual. It's hard not to laugh when David (Mike Colter) tries to tactfully explain that maybe Patti just has a terrible boss. We'd all like to think our horrible bosses are possessed by demons, but that's just not realistic, Patti. Come on! And then it's impossible not to laugh when Kristen (Katja Herbers) learns that Patti's boss is the Byron Duke and completely geeks out like the little theater nerd we had no idea she was. She's downright giddy. It is the truest of delights.

But then things take a deeply creepy turn: Patti has video of Byron sweating blood from the back of the head and tells them that whenever he walks into the office it gets colder, and when he leaves, it's warmer. It's been like this for six months -- ever since he lost at the Tonys (Byron's outrage when David refers to it as "an award" is yet another laugh out loud moment). It's easy to explain some of the strange things with infected hair plugs and a narcissistic disorder, but then they catch Byron strangling a non-existent person named Joe -- and Joe is strangling him back. And this is not, as Kristen suspects, just the anger management technique of personifying your anger. We know it's not because Byron calls on Joe to talk to the group and Joe does, via the Virtual Assistant (think an Amazon Echo) on his desk. I'm writing this recap while sitting next to my own Echo, so I don't want to say anything too offensive lest she be watching, but that Virtual Assistant is freaky as hell (sorry Alexa, I love you!).

One person not put off by the voice coming from the machine who knows everyone's names and plays noises that sound like they're coming to you live straight from the Bad Place: Ben (Aasif Mandvi). Ben's excited because this isn't a demon -- it's a hacker. Hey everybody gets their kicks somewhere -- even Tech Experts Working For the Catholic Church.

It's clear someone's hacked Byron's system (which would also explain the temperature changes, since it controls the thermostat), but Ben can't figure out how on his own. He enlists the help of his own Tech Expert, his sister Karima (Sohina Sidhu). She's brilliant, but even she is having trouble figuring out how they can reverse hack the hacker and figure out who they are. And then something truly strange happens: "Joe's" voice starts talking to the Shakir siblings through their dad's Virtual Assistant, sitting in the kitchen. And it knows who they are.

But things get stranger still! David eventually cracks the case: The hacker is an IT specialist from whom Byron withheld pay after doing some work for the company. They bring the guy in and he admits to messing with Byron to teach him a lesson. But he also says that he stopped the hacking days ago -- so whoever that was talking from Ben's Virtual Assistant, it wasn't him. When Ben goes to his dad's house to figure out how this could be possible, he finds his sister in distress listening to the Virtual Assistant terrorizing her about where her baby is -- and Ben wants to know what baby it's talking about. Karima runs off. Demon or hacker or whatever, that thing just unearthed a little drama in the Shakir house.

Back at Byron's office, things seem to be much better now that the case has sort of been solved. Joe the Virtual Assistant isn't bothering him anymore, and Byron's never been nicer to his employees. But Joe's not totally gone. Byron gets a Google chat from a "Joe" telling him that "hell is only half full," and Byron promptly walks outside and jumps off the side of the building. So actually nothing about that case was really solved. Heartwarming stuff, huh?

And as disturbing as that case was, the most frightening thing on Evil continues to be Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson). Not only is he still appearing as a figment of David's psyche trying to lead him into temptation, but he's still very much haunting Kristen in real life. Kristen learns that as promised, he's turning over one of her assessments and recommending a 15-year-old boy be tried as an adult. With the help of D.A. Cormier (Danny Burstein), who is really grinding my gears, you guys, Leland is also smearing Kristen's reputation while he's up on the stand. He's still using those therapy notes he stole to discredit her, and now she's become poison to this case. She's of no help to the young defendant, Adam.


Katja Herbers, Evil Jeff Neumann, CBS


This may only be the third episode of the series, but we already know that Kristen is not one to just take the loss. She has a plan. She records a heated conversation she has with Leland about what he's doing in which he says some truly heinous things about his reasoning for sending Adam to prison. He also uses some trickery to jam any recording of his voice, but Ben is able to make a deepfake (he really is a tech expert guys, it's not just a title!) and thanks to Kristen's perfect memory, they recreate the entire conversation. Uh, it does not play well in court. Leland is dead weight to the prosecution.

That's great news for Adam and his mom. It is terrible news for Kristen, who has just made a possible actual demon very, very angry. But on the other hand, she did get to yell "technology's a bitch" in Leland's face, which is very much a win. So Kristen breaks even, I guess.

Before I go and apologize to my Alexa again, we should talk about what seems to be the central mystery of Evil: Who in the hell (maybe literally!) are "The 60" and what are they up to? This week, David gets some advice from the local Demon Exorcist Priest in regards to his visions, which David is positive have something to do with the mysterious 60. He needs to write them down in order to figure out what they mean, so David draws any of the images he can remember. Thanks to Kristen's extensive art history knowledge, when she sees one drawing, she immediately recognizes it as da Vinci's Salvator Mundi.


Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Evil Jeff Neumann, CBS

Hi there, can we chat for a quick second? Yes, Kristen is in David's room for work purposes, but the two have a heart-to-heart (they love talking to each other, aw!) about why David would ever want to be a priest, especially in light of all the scandals that have come out, but also because, well, does he really want to be celibate? You guys, are these two ever going to hook up? Do we want them to? I think yes? But also David seems so sincere about joining the church because he wants to be committed to a community and like, do we want to ruin that for him? I AM TORN!

Anyway, David Googles the painting, which is a portrait of Jesus holding a crystal orb that has three star-like objects within it. After David figures out that some Roman numerals that also figured into his vision are actually longitude and latitude coordinates for New York City, he aligns those three stars from the painting with a map of the United States and learns that they perfectly align with NYC, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. What in the high holy what is going on, and what does it have to do with The 60?

Evil airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE
from the Dexter wiki page: https://dexter.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_102:_Crocodile

Dexter S1 Ep 2: Crocodile

Dexter has taken a little time off to take his boat out and relax. He watches some teenagersmessing around and notes that playing comes easier to them than to him.

He returns to his apartment and Debra brings him bagels and they talk about the Ice Truck Killer Case. After she leaves, Dexter looks over the doll parts that the Ice Truck Killer left for him and notices that the doll's hands have differently painted fingernails.

Dexter attends court to give blood report testimony against a criminal. While leaving, he notices a crying family and sees what he describes as an "opportunity". He enters a court case where Matt Chambers is on trial for manslaughter, for drunkenly running over eighteen-year-old Alexander Pryce with his car. The court is adjourned and Dexter travels to a crime scene just outside Miami.

Dexter examines the body and tells LaGuerta that it originated from the Westbound Causeway, after which he notices that the victim has something in his mouth. After a death rattle spurts blood into his face, Dexter removes a piece of human flesh from the victim's mouth.

Later, back at the station, Debra tells him about her new boyfriend, Sean, a mechanic, and Dexter offers to meet them for lunch along with Rita, and Debra skeptically agrees.

After finding out that the dead man under the causeway was a police officer named Ricky Simmons, James Doakes and Lt. LaGuerta go to make a next-of-kin notification when they find Kara Simmons shot in her home. The homicide team arrives to the house and Dexter takes snapshots of the scene, where he notices an inconsistency in the blood and finds a cell phone.

Dexter stops at Rita's house and tells her about his double date plan, telling her that it was Debra's idea.

At home, Dexter is awoken when Debra phones and tells him that she has found the Refrigerated Truck. She calls the team in and they find human fingertips inside an ice block in the back compartment. The truck is searched and found to be spotless. Later, back at the MMPD (Miami Metro Police Department), they melt the ice and find that the fingertips have differently colored fingernails.

The skin found in Ricky Simmons' mouth is thought to be from Norberto Cervantes, whom Doakes and his team apprehend while he is meeting with Carlos Guerrero.

The Matt Chambers case starts up again and he is put on the stand and Matt tells the court that he reported the car stolen hours before Alexander was hit by it and that he has been sober for several months.

Meanwhile, Doakes and LaGuerta interrogate Cervantes who tells them that Ricky's wife Kara was sleeping with another man. Doakes punches him. María takes a blood sample from his arm to confirm that it was him.

Reconstructing the scene of Kara's shooting, Batista and Dexter find blood which turns out to be a 100% match for Cervantes. María stops Doakes from doing anything about it and tells him that they should look at the big picture and try to get Guerrero.


Dexter stalks his potential victim Matt Chambers to a bar and strikes up a conversation. He finds out that Chambers has moved around from place to place for years. Dexter takes his whiskey glass to lift the fingerprints. After running them through a database, he finds that Chambers has killed or injured people while driving drunk in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and South Boston under the aliases Matthew Brewster and Matt Rasmussen. Dexter then prepares his kill room.

Doakes visits Kara Simmons in the hospital and María notices that he is being overly caring.

Dexter attends the double date with Rita, Debra and Sean. When Rita notices the apparent ease of Debra and Sean's relationship, she starts to feel insecure and Dexter notes his loss for words to comfort her.

Norberto Cervantes is killed in jail by a guard.

Later, Rita starts to kiss Dexter but pulls away from him when it starts getting too sexual. Dexter tells her that he is fine with them not having sex until the time is right for them and she replies that he is a truly decent man.

Dexter examines the dead fingertips and discovers that they were removed postmortem, Debra tells him that the prostitute's name was Sheri Taylor. Debra, at the command of Captain Matthews, is told by LaGuerta that she is being promoted to the Homicide department, although still an officer, not a detective.

LaGuerta tells Doakes that Kara Simmons died of heart failure and voices her suspicions that he was sleeping with her. He confirms it and says that she was going to ask Ricky for a divorce. As a personal favor to Doakes, she refrains from taking him off the case because he tells her that no one is more motivated than him to get justice.

While stalking Matt Chambers, Dexter gets a text message from Debra to celebrate her promotion and she tells him that she dumped Sean because he was married. Dexter thinks back to the time when Harry was late picking him up because he was angry at the decision to let the man who killed his partner walk. He sees Guerrero going to the restroom and he contemplates killing him, but decides against it.

Dexter kidnaps Matt Chambers and forces him to confess to killing Alexander Pryce. He then kills him by stabbing him in the heart. He empties the man's remains into trash bags and returns home after throwing the body parts into the ocean. He finds the doll head back on his fridge door, but when he opens his freezer, he discovers that the doll's body parts are missing. He realizes the Ice Truck Killer has broken into his apartment for a second time.

Quotes
It's just a matter of time before we see how far Matt Chambers' crocodile tears will get him. - Dexter, to himself at the courthouse
Lately, the thing that surprises me most about Rita is how much I like being with her. But whenever that happens with a woman, when I feel comfortable with her, it all goes wrong. That's why I think it's best to take it one step at a time. - Dexter, to himself
Trivia
The term “crocodile tears” refers to tears or expressions of sorrow that are insincere.
During the double date scene at Loco's Crab Shack on Miami Beach, there is a rock wall in the ocean beyond the beach. There are no rocky beaches, much less rock walls in front of Miami Beach.
After the scene where Debra is transferred to homicide, Batista and LaGuerta have a short conversation in the kitchen in Spanish without subtitles. The rough translation is:

LaGuerta: "How's Nina and your daughter?"
Batista: "They're marvelous."
LaGuerta: "You know they need you too, eh?'
Batista: (Small nod, says nothing)
LaGuerta: "Angel, go home."