from Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/the-book-of-boba-fett-series-premiere-recap-episode-1-chapter-one-stranger-in-a-strange-land.html

The Book of Boba Fett S1 Ep 1:
Stranger in a Strange Land

By Keith Phipps

Leaving aside his animated debut as part of the Star Wars Holiday Special, Boba Fett made a powerful impression when he established himself as the most skilled (and most mysterious) of the bounty hunters assembled by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. With just a few lines of dialogue, a striking costume covered in mysterious features (is that an antenna on his helmet?), and a take-no-guff attitude, Fett left Star Wars fans wanting more. Then they got more. Fett returned for one of the most inglorious deaths in all of Star Wars, ending up in the belly of the Sarlacc pretty much by accident. It was an end unbefitting a badass.

That helps explain why Fett’s kept coming back, getting resurrected in novels and comics many times over the years. All of those stories went out the window when Disney bought Lucasfilm, of course, but with the second season of The Mandalorian Fett made a canonical return, played by the New Zealand–born Temuera Morrison, who also played Fett’s adoptive father/genetic clone, Jango Fett, in Attack of the Clones. (It’s complicated.) The Mandalorian left the door wide open for a series chronicling the further adventures of Fett and his newfound partner in crime Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) as they seek to fill a power vacuum in Tatooine’s underworld left by the death of Bib Fortuna (a vacuum they very much helped create).


The Book of Boba Fett teaser attached to the Mandalorian’s season finale ended with a shot of a triumphant Fett atop a throne in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. This first episode kicks off with Fett still in the palace but nursing his wounds in a healing chamber. Being a crime lord is draining work apparently, but his time under gives him an opportunity to reflect on his past (and for the show to offer up some flashbacks depicting it).

In what looks likely to be a pattern for this series, Fett’s reflections fill in his backstory, from his childhood (which we knew about already) to his post–Return of the Jedi adventures on Tatooine (which we did not). These latter scenes pick up the action moments after we last saw Fett in Return of the Jedi. He’s seemingly down-and-out in the belly of the Sarlacc (where he’s soon to be digested over a thousand years, according to the best Star Wars science). But with a little resourcefulness he burns his way out. (Also, that antennalike device serves as a powerful flashlight.) But Boba’s escape just marks the beginning of his troubles. First Jawas steal his armor then Tusken Raiders kidnap him, drag him through the sand, and hold him prisoner. Tied to a post, he nearly escapes after subduing a massiff (the Tuskens’ doglike companion animals) only to see his efforts undermined by a sniveling Rodian prisoner beside him.

Fett does seem to earn some respect from a Tusken warrior (Joanna Bennett) and chief (Xavier Jimenez) in the process, however. That respect grows in a later flashback when Fett — after witnessing some toughs steal water from a moisture farm — survives a forced-labor expedition digging for moisture-rich gourds and rescues a Tusken kid from a Ray Harryhausen–inspired beast with six limbs. This newcomer might be good for more than digging in the sand, it would seem.

Meanwhile in the present, Fett and Shand have some work to do setting up shop and making sure everyone on Tatooine knows who the new daimyo in town is. Some residents seemingly get with the program immediately. Dokk, a representative of the Trandoshan family who used to employ Fett, offers a generous tribute accompanied by a kind of ominous wish that he “never leave Mos Espa.” Even more ominous, Mok Shaiz (David Pasquesi), an unctuous Twi’lek representative of the (still unseen) mayor of Mos Espa, offers a tribute of … nothing. In fact, he demands a tribute of his own (with a smile on his face). This could be troublesome.

It could also offer a challenge to Fett’s management philosophy. Against the advice of de facto protocol droid 8D8 (a character previously seen working in a torture chamber in Return of the Jedi and here voiced by Matt Berry), Fett doesn’t torture. He also forgives, believing this will win him more loyalty than threats, as evidenced by his recruitment of a pair of Gamorrean guards previously loyal to Bib Fortuna (and to Jabba before that). Shand’s not sure about this approach nor is she entirely on board with Fett’s decision to walk the streets of Mos Espa rather than be paraded about by minions. Will this funky, man-of-the-people strategy pay off?

It seems to, at least at first. Paying a visit to the Sanctuary, a kind of upscale version of Mos Eisley’s cantina, Fett meets the club’s Twi’lek owner Garsa Fwip (Jennifer Beals). (He also enjoys a little music by Max Rebo. Nice to see he’s stayed busy since his gig as the leader of Jabba’s house band ended so abruptly.) They exchange short pleasantries and Fett leaves with a helmet filled with coins given in tribute. But he doesn’t have long to enjoy his score.

In the streets of Mos Espa, a gaggle of would-be assassins target Fett and Shand and almost get the better of them. (Maybe retaining those Gamorreans wasn’t such a bad idea after all.) Shand gives chase to the survivors with the orders to bring one back alive. But who sent them? The Mayor? Fwip? Some adversary we haven’t met yet? Max Rebo? And will Fett be able to extract this information without torture and show 8D8 he knows what he’s doing? All that, and more info about Fett’s past, will have to wait until the next episode.

Bantha Tracks

• Written by series creator Jon Favreau and directed by Robert Rodriguez, “Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land” gets this new series off to a rousing start. That’s no small task since The Book of Boba Fett almost has to recreate Fett as a character. Fett was incredibly effective in Empire Strikes Back as a man of mystery. We learned a bit more about him during his Mandalorian appearances, but those didn’t necessarily mean he could hold the spotlight all on his own. It’s one thing to stand in the shadows and wear a cool helmet. It’s another to be a character with history and depth. Morrison ably steps up here, bringing gravity and flashes of understated humor to the role. It should be fun to see what he does with the character.

• “Chapter 1” also establishes The Book of Boba Fett as a series that’s part crime story, part Western, and part old-fashioned sci-fi pulp adventure. Rodriguez, who directed one of The Mandalorian’s most action-packed episodes in its second season, arrives with a lot of experience in all three styles and blends them well. (He’ll be back later this season, too.) It helps that the Star Wars universe is such that shows and movies within it can nod to many genres while still feeling like Star Wars.

• The Tuskens debuted as analogs to Native Americans in the first Star Wars movie, where they were treated as savage warriors. That depiction has grown more nuanced over time, particularly in The Mandalorian, in which they were presented not as fearsome barbarians but as marginalized and misunderstood people with ways of their own. The Book of Boba Fett looks to deepen it further by offering an up-close look at Tusken life, but it also seems to be on a course to recycle the iffy trope of a “civilized” person adapting the ways of an Indigenous people and ascending to a position of power within their culture. (A Man Called Horse, a hit 1970 western starring Richard Harris as a man kidnapped and tortured by a Sioux tribe who then becomes their leader, would seem to be a particular model.) Will future episodes subvert this?

• “I would not be surprised if you received another delegation in the future.” Sounds like the setup for a future episode.

From Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/hawkeye-miniseries-episode-1-recap.html

Hawkeye S1 Ep 1: Never Meet Your Heroes

By Keith Phipps


It’s Christmastime in New York, and all is not well for Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), the bow-toting Avenger who’d really just like a break from the superheroism of his past and spend some time with his kids. That’s why, when we first meet him in Hawkeye, the latest MCU extension to land on Disney+, he’s in New York with his kids — Lila (Ava Russo), Cooper (Ben Sakamoto), and Nathaniel (Cade Woodward) — and not back home on the farm with his wife, Laura (Linda Cardellini). After all that world-saving and blipping out of existence, he needs some time to bond with the children and forget everything else for a few days ahead of Christmas. Except he can’t, when the evening’s entertainment includes Rogers: The Musical, a splashy Broadway show featuring the adventures of the Avengers. He can’t when he gets approached for a selfie at a urinal. He can’t when the owner of the Chinatown restaurant they visit for dinner insists on letting him eat for free. And he really can’t when the news features a story involving Ronin, his discarded vigilante alter ego, apparently fleeing the scene of a crime (and seemingly saving a dog in the process). He’s Hawkeye, and it looks like he’s going to be stuck being Hawkeye no matter how hard he tries.

What Clint doesn’t realize, even as the episode ends, is that he’s now not the only archery enthusiast with a yen for justice roaming the streets of New York. He’s not even the first archery enthusiast to appear in this first episode of Hawkeye, written by showrunner Jonathan Igla (a veteran of Mad Men, Bridgerton, and other series) and directed by Rhys Thomas. The premiere opens in 2012, a notable year in the MCU thanks to the Chitauri attack on New York. It’s a different sort of battle troubling young Kate Bishop (Clara Stack), however, in the episode’s first moments as she listens to her parents, Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) and Derek (Brian D’Arcy James), fight about whether or not they’ll need to sell the luxury penthouse they call home.

But, before long, the arrival of the Chitauri makes the fight irrelevant. After witnessing Clint’s heroics from the vantage of the penthouse’s now-missing wall, Kate’s left with only her mother to take care of her and a wish for one thing to serve as the focus of her attention: a bow and arrow. Flash-forward nine years, and the now college-age Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) has held onto her love for archery — and developed a talent for getting into mischief with it. She’s earned trophies but also picked up a steep bill for her mother to pay after an amazing shot destroys a clock tower. Though annoyed, Eleanor has the resources to pay the bill. Whatever has happened in the interim she’s found a way to hold onto the penthouse and accumulate wealth.

When Kate returns home for the holidays, she discovers Eleanor has accumulated something else as well. (Kate also keeps a separate residence away from her mom. It’s kind of a dump but, factoring in New York rents, it’s another sign that the Bishop family isn’t hurting for money.) Specifically, she notices that the penthouse is now filled with swords. It’s also now apparently frequented by Jack Duquesne (Better Call Saul’s Tony Dalton), who’s become quite intimate with Eleanor.

For comics readers, it’s not hard to connect the dots between the Duquesne name and all those swords, which helps explain why both Jack and his father Armand (Simon Callow) are so eager to obtain a one-of-a-kind retractable sword when it turns up at a charity auction, one held in the secret backroom of another charity event, and one Kate wouldn’t have witnessed at all if she hadn’t coincidentally decided to attend in the same sort of black tuxedo used by the event’s waitstaff.

However, for Kate’s curiosity, it proves to be a fortunate coincidence (even if it plays as something of a screenwriterly convenience). Not long after Armand mentions Eleanor and Armand’s engagement to Kate — news that takes her aback — she witnesses Eleanor and Armand having some kind of argument. Slipping behind the scenes, she stumbles on the auction, watches as the fabulously rich bid on rare items — a dinosaur skull precedes Ronin’s sword — then finds herself donning the next item up for bid, Ronin’s costume, and putting her martial arts skills to the test when a gang of tracksuit-clad Russian criminals with a fondness for the word “bro” crash bomb their way into the auction in search of a clock.

This detail will also ring some bells for readers of the comics that helped inspire the series, a 23-issue mid-’10s run written by Matt Fraction (he serves as a series consultant) and drawn by David Aja that remade Hawkeye as an ordinary guy just trying to protect the residents of a New York apartment building. (“This is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger,” the book’s introductory text established.) Hawkeye can’t quite do that. Being part of the MCU means Clint carries too much baggage and recent trauma into the series for the story to ignore. The sight of an actor playing Black Widow in Rogers: The Musical triggers so much distress he turns off his hearing aid. And he’s still haunted by his murderous actions as Ronin. After all that, it’s hard to go back to being a fun-loving dad (and traveling the galaxy, losing Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, and watching half the population disappear). But Hawkeye seems to be pulling Clint in a more street-level direction. WandaVision took the form of a dark post-modern romp. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier worked as a globetrotting action movie in miniseries form. Loki offered up a twisty, cosmic adventure. At least at this early stage, Hawkeye looks like it could be the MCU’s first mystery procedural. It even ends with an unsolved crime: the murder of Armand.

But how does it work? This premiere gets things off to a promising if short-on-fireworks start. It also has a lot of setting up to do, so much that we barely get to know the grown-up Kate before she’s off investigating a mystery (though casting the charming Steinfeld helps make that less of a problem) and only gets faint hints of what Clint’s going through. The episode also ends with a moment that sets up the element that, assuming it continues to borrow from Fraction and Aja’s work, ought to be the heart of the series: Clint’s mentorship of Kate. But whether Renner and Steinfeld will be as fun together as Clint and Kate were on the page remains to be seen.

Still, all signs point to yes, and there’s a lot to like in this first outing. The appropriately tacky musical, which features a peppy song composed by the Hairspray team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, is fun, Igla and Thomas keep the pace brisk, and the Christmas season setting gives Hawkeye an atmosphere that sets it apart from other MCU stories (though the score’s constant referencing of “Carol of the Bells” might drive the point home a little too insistently). Supporting players like Farmiga don’t have that much to do in this episode; you don’t hire actors like that without plans to make good use of them. Plus, in another element ported over from the Fraction/Aja comics, there’s an adorable, resourceful one-eyed dog in the mix, the one and only Pizza Dog (who earns his name quickly after Kate brings him back to her apartment). All in all, it’s a promising start even when the premiere doesn’t quite hit … what’s an archery term that would work here?

Loose Arrows

• Though Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark seems like an obvious satirical target given its Marvel-ness, Rogers: The Musical seems like a more conventional sort of 21st-century IP-driven Broadway musical. Is this the last we see or hear of it? It would make a fun running gag.

• Kate attends a college with a building called Stane Tower, a callback to the villainous Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges in Iron Man. Is this merely an Easter egg, or should we expect the Stane family to figure into this story somehow? It’s the sort of family that would socialize with the Bishops and the Duquesnes.

• In the bathroom, Clint encounters graffiti reading “Thanos Was Right,” which has to chafe. Is this just a bit of cynical graffiti, or should we now imagine an MCU with a pro-Thanos contingent? Surely a powerful but inarguably hateful and destructive leader who’s been defeated and disgraced in such a public fashion couldn’t still have followers, right? Superhero stories are wild.

• If you like Pizza Dog, you’re going to love the Instagram account of Jolt, the golden retriever thespian who plays him. (Jolt has both eyes, incidentally.)

• Clint’s need for a hearing aid is new to the character in the MCU, but Clint’s hearing loss roots in the comics. It’s a fitting touch: Clint’s a superhero without superpowers. He’s just a guy who’s been around all kinds of loud noises for a long time. It makes sense.

• To say more about Jack Duquesne’s comic book analog now would probably count as a spoiler. But it’s there waiting to be googled if you’re curious.

• “What would you do in a hurricane?” Kate asks her father. “I would do what I always do: protect you,” he replies. That line seems significant. James is a cast member. We probably haven’t seen the last of him.

• Monogrammed butterscotch? Is this a clue, or are the Duquesnes just that rich?

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

From Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/the-witcher-recap-season-1-episode-2-four-marks.html

The Witcher S1 Ep 2: Four Marks

By Scott Meslow


Geralt of Rivia’s last job didn’t go so well. After reluctantly killing Renfri in Blaviken, he was confronted by Stregobor, who reneged on the promised price of “whatever you want” by inciting the townsfolk into stoning Geralt until he left town.

So it’s back on the road again, looking for an odd job that’ll put a little coin in his pocket. And it’s not long before he steps into a tavern and encounters another misfit: a wayward bard whose music inspires the jeering patrons to toss vegetables at him. (In a clever, revealing little character beat, the bard picks up the fresh veggies and saves them for later.)


This is the TV show’s version of the fan-favorite character Jaskier (whose name has previously been translated to “Dandelion” in English). And when Geralt gets hired by a bar patron to find a demon who has been recently causing trouble, Jaskier decides to tag along and see if the witcher’s exploits might inspire a new song.

And, honestly, I kind of dig this Hercules: The Legendary Journeys approach to Geralt’s story, which seems to promise new wacky buddies and adventures in every episode. At the very least, it adds some color to Henry Cavill’s Geralt, who tends to be a little one-note and monotone unless he’s actively riffing with somebody.

So Geralt rides off to confront the “demon,” who actually turns out to be a relatively harmless “sylvan” — basically a person with a goat’s head — named Torque. After a brief scuffle, Torque ties up Geralt and Jaskier and takes them to his buddy: an elf named Filavandrel, sometimes hailed as the “elf king.” The reality, however, doesn’t befit that grandiose title. Filavandrel is in hiding in the wake of a human-led genocide of the elves, which is described euphemistically as “the Great Cleansing.”

Of course, Geralt continues to insist that he’s not a human, and he’s more than happy to move along without turning this ragtag crew over to its tormentors. And just like the premiere, Geralt basically has one piece of advice when he meets somebody in a bad situation: Run away and make a new life someplace else. It’s a philosophy that speaks to Geralt’s life as a nomad, but it’s also totally unrealistic for most people, who are understandably attached to their homes.

In any case, Filavandrel and his companions aren’t going anywhere — but they’ve also decided Geralt isn’t a threat. So they let him go, he gives them the 150 ducat he received in advance, they give Jaskier a new lute to replace the one they broke, and everyone wanders off relatively happy. Jaskier even decides to write a new song about Geralt’s adventure, though Geralt is characteristically grumpy about it.

While I’m sure we’ll meet Filavandrel again someday, this story is both straightforward and self-contained: just a fun little adventure with our witcher and his obnoxious but charming new friend. But the real meat of the episode comes from a parallel plot that follows a new character: a young sorceress named Yennefer. (Friendly advice: If you don’t want anything spoiled, don’t even Google that name.)

At the beginning of the episode, we meet Yennefer as the abused and unloved stepdaughter of a pig farmer, forced to work in the slop while peers mock her for her hunched back. But like Carrie, all that adolescent abuse eventually seems to awaken something in Yennefer. At a moment of high stress, Yennefer suddenly teleports away to a magical place. A friendly young man named Istredd sends her right back. But it isn’t long before a mysterious and glamorous sorceress named Tissaia de Vries — having sensed Yennefer’s raw power — arrives and buys her away from her stepfather for the four marks that give the episode its title.

In rapid succession — maybe a little too rapid — Yennefer learns the ins and outs of life at the Witcher equivalent of Hogwarts. When she first arrives, she attempts suicide, taking her stepfather’s cruelty as a sign that no one will ever love her. But before long, Yennefer becomes curious about exploring the limits of her own magical powers alongside peers that, for the first time, she can connect with. They levitate rocks and read each other’s minds and catch lightning in bottles until Tissaia decides it’s time to figure out which of the girls should “ascend.”

Yennefer’s final test, which seems to be the real test, is all about manipulation. Throughout her training, she’s been sneaking off to meet with a young man named Istredd, who harbors an obvious crush on her. As they meet again, Yennefer reveals that Tissaia has discovered the affair and plans to send her away. In a fairly clumsy bit of exposition, Yennefer also reveals that her real father was an elf who died in the Great Cleansing. Yennefer and Istredd kiss, and Yennefer leaves with a special flower she receives from Istredd.

And she promptly brings the flower to Tissaia, who ordered her to wrest it from Istredd in the first place. Yennefer watches, and eventually helps, as Tissaia gives several of her peers another hard lesson: turning them into electric eels in service of a greater magical power. For now, at least, Yennefer is most useful in her current form.

You might be feeling pretty bad for Istredd right now. But wait! In a subsequent scene, we learn that Istredd is running a con on Yennefer too. Stregobor, our creepy old wizard buddy from the last episode, pops up to reveal he has been ordering Istredd to romance Yennefer all along. Both of the apprentices seem to be pawns in some kind of greater game played by their masters — and while The Witcher is currently splitting its time between Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, the recurring characters popping up in these apparently disconnected story lines are surely a sign that this massive world will start to come together before the season comes to an end.

Stray Arrows:

• Most of this episode is spent with Geralt and Yennefer, but we get a little more time with Ciri, too. In brief: She evades the Nilfgaardian soldiers, camps out with a Cintran family that hated the late queen but doesn’t recognize that she is the queen’s granddaughter, and then escapes again when the Nilfgaardians show up and kill everybody. She also makes friends with a helpful, mostly silent elf boy named Dara, who roasts a rat over a spit for her to eat.

• There’s a weird moment when the guy at the bar looks at Geralt and says, “You take no prisoners, I hear” — exactly the thing Queen Calanthe said about the invading Nilfgaardians. A suspicious person might start to wonder if there’s any connection between Geralt and that army of killers …

• “There I go again, just delivering exposition,” says Jaskier right after delivering some bad exposition. He also calls out the Act Two break. Cute — but acknowledging the lazy stuff doesn’t give you a free pass to do the lazy stuff.

• I know The Witcher’s world is big enough to account for different areas that use different types of money, but what’s the conversion rate between marks (four for Yennefer, ten for a pig) and ducat (150 to go find a demon)?

• I’m sure it’s a coincidence that the most gifted teenage witch in Yennefer’s class is named Sabrina — but hey, why not have a little Netflix cross-promotion?

• Jaskier refers to Geralt as “White Wolf,” which has been a common nickname for Geralt throughout the Witcher franchise. I guess this is how he got it.

Black Summer S2 Ep 5: White Horse

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

from Reasy Steady Cut: https://readysteadycut.com/2021/06/17/recap-black-summer-season-2-episode-5-netflix-series/



by Daniel Hart

Let’s be honest, apart from the ending, what is the point of this episode?

The title screen ‘Meet” pops up. We return to Spears, who is hungry and desperate. He finds an empty packet of crisps and tries to eat the crumbs, but there’s nothing there. A truck then drives by on the road and pulls up, so Spears hides behind a tree. When Spears reaches the road, a man (Braithwaite) finds him and gives him water — he claims to recognize him, but Spears is not sure and tests him, asking what his name is. Braithwaite says he is good with faces, but not names — he calls him Kevin, but that makes Spears even more paranoid.

Braithwaite tells Spears that they need to get off the road quickly and double up like two brothers. After plenty of small talk with each other, Spears finally relaxes and gives his name. He follows Braithwaite.

A new partnership

The title screen “Pale Horse” pops up — the two men make their way through the woods. Suddenly they see a man on a horse, so they get to the ground, and Braithwaite aims with his gun. The horserider keeps riding, and no trouble is caused. Spears tells Braithwaite to stop messing around by giving him different names. Braithwaite tells him that it’s a free country, and he can walk wherever he wants. They come across a struggling zombie, so Braithwaite tells Spears to kill it with a rock. He then provides Spears with alcohol and a gun.

Drinking goes wrong

Braithwaite decides to make a fire, and episode 5 becomes survival 101. Now enjoying the fire, Braithwaite tells Spears that he is Big James’ little brother, and Spears swigs his alcohol. The pair reminisce now they understand where they are both from — they drunkenly enjoy their conversation with each other. Braithwaite then talks about “bygones,” and the conversation dampens slightly. Spears suddenly wheezes, so Braithwaite wants to check out his wound — the men end up fighting each other like dumb, drunken, brawling men.

An infected wound

The title screen, “Exchange Rates,” pops up. Braithwaite wakes Spears up — it’s raining badly, and they can hear a horse galloping nearby. They can hear screaming and growling in the distance, and both men are unsure what to do. Spears is still struggling, and Braithwaite asks again how bad is his wound is. When he looks at it, he tells him it is infected. The men keep moving through the rain, chit-chatting. Braithwaite tells Spears that he’s never ridden a horse before, and he likes how pretty they are when they run.

The strange house

Suddenly, they hear the zombies, so they keep fleeing and shooting them down. The two men finally find a house, head inside, and shut the doors. When they look around the place, there’s writing all over the wall — it’s about an ascension. They noticed blood on the floors. When they go upstairs, there are loads of dead bodies, all in yellow clothing. A man sits in the middle of the dead bodies, and he tells them, “you made it,” and says he has been waiting for them — he passes Spears a pistol. The man thanks him, and Spears shoots him square in the head. Behind him, Braithwaite retches.

The ending of Black Summer season 2, episode 5

The title screen “Little James” pops up. Spears tells Braithwaite that he remembers him and says he killed his sorry a*s — he thought what he did was enough. Braithwaite calls it a miracle and tells Spears that he wasn’t expecting him to shoot him twice in the back, but he explains he isn’t a vengeful person. Spears raises that he lost his gun, so it takes the choice out of the situation. Suddenly, the pale horse walks down the river banks, and Braithwaite is mesmerized by it. A single tear leaves his eye, and then Spears points the gun at the back of his head. He doesn’t shoot, and Braithwaite walks off.

Episode 5 is mostly an empty chapter with plenty of small talk and mind games that extinguishes the efforts of the previous two episodes.

Hightown S2 Ep 6: Behind Every Skirt Is A Slip

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

Hightown S2 Ep 6:
Behind Every Skirt Is A Slip

From Alexus Renee: https://alexusrenee.com/hightown-season-2-episode-6-recap/

By Sir Anthony — Nov 2021

It’s the day before Thanksgiving on the Cape: things are looking up for Ray, and looking grim for Jackie. Frankie is filled with anxiety over his business with Jorge. Here’s What you missed!

Previously on Hightown Season 2 Episode 5, Ray gets crossed and beaten to a pulp by a young man he once arrested. Jackie tells Leslie she loves her after sexting and Leslie ghosts her. The stripper Jorge is dating, Daisy, leaked some information to Frankie and he killed her assuming if she told about Jorge beating on her- what else will she tell?

Renee proves herself to be ruthless by killing Jorge and disposing of his body. Thereafter, she visited Ray and regurgitated his words, telling him, “I fucking love you!” at gunpoint…

On Hightown Season 2 Episode 6, a terribly distraught and teary-eyed Renee is standing at Ray’s door while he has a gun to her face. He was baffled why she visited him, dismissive at first, yet Renee was adamant about entering his home. He frisked her and allowed her inside and she pleaded with him and apologized for what she had done to him. Ray was still bloodied and his face looked like he went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, yet she still went to kiss him and they had sex!
Stood Up

Meanwhile, Jackie woke alone and frustrated immediately calling Leslie and got no answer. Then she called Daisy for intel to no avail. When she got to the office, she finally saw Leslie and attempted to talk about the issue yet Leslie shut her down as their terms of screwing around was that it wasn’t to be serious- just a fling. Leslie told Jackie she got way too serious, too fast.

Jackie zoomed over to Ray’s place and he was still naked in bed with Renee. She needed to talk to him about Leslie. Since Ray and Leslie had hooked up previously she figured he’ll have advice. But Ray had warned her that Leslie was psycho and won’t offer any guidance. Jackie was pissed and stormed away.

Thereafter, Ray asked Renee what was going on but she remained coy. When she left, she had flashbacks of Jorge’s horrifically bloody death. She practiced her alibi to Frankie and went home to him. When she got him, she played it off as they had to attend Junior’s pageant later that day.

Charmaine stepped off the PJ, extra fly, wearing designer clothing, clad in designer bags… yet there was no Jorge to pick her up as planned. She called him and was pissed as she smuggling the next shipment!
Apology Not Accepted

Jackie went to Ed’s place to apologize for her harsh words to him after the botched sting operation. He confessed she had some truth to her words that he was too old to still be on th force and was retiring. Jackie was against his decision but had to accept it.

When Jackie left Linda stopped her to give her an earful. Jackie had bit Ed’s head off as she was upset with her own issues with Leslie and Ed was always like a father to her. He had put up with all of her drinking and women yet she couldn’t tolerate his one mistake.
Missing

Ray tailed Renee and called her to ask when he could see her again. She lied about her location as he watched her go into a pawn shop. She entered the shop to buy a replacement bullet from the one she fired into Jorge. She then replaced the missing bullet.

Charmaine had to take a rideshare home and put her package up telling Aileen not to mess with it. She called Frankie about Jorge and he decided they should meet in person.

When Charmaine and Frankie met, it was apparent he didn’t know where Jorge was and he would find his cousin.
Agitated

Jackie tried to visit a triple-A class but was agitated and left. Then, Jackie went to a bar for day-drinking and ran into an old fling, Devon, who was with a friend. She tried to hit on the woman but was stifled. Suddenly, Jackie is at her place eating a woman out and the lady had a loud orgasm. It wasn’t Devon, but Devon’s random friend.

Jackie was still agitated and the woman tried to go down on her but she only wanted to masturbate solo. Then kicked the woman out attempting masturbation and couldn’t get in the mood. She tried looking at Leslie’s sext pic and that only angered her.
Accidental

Frankie went to visit his bodyguard questioning him about Jorge. He hadn’t seen him as he was cleaning up Daisy’s body all night. Frankie got pissed, chastising the man, demanding he finds Jorge!

Frankie came to the club and asked Renee had she seen Jorge the night before. Of course, she lied. He asked whether Jorge took any money and checked the safe. Suddenly, Renee saw a bloodstain and covered it while Frankie’s back was turned. Frankie then grabbed the gun from the desk and they exited for the pageant. Meanwhile, Ray had followed Renee and put a GPS tracker under her car.

On the ride home, Frankie was concerned something happened to Jorge and questioned Renee again- convinced something was off. The conversation of Daisy came up and Frankie got upset, telling Renee Jorge wasn’t with Daisy!

Osito had been getting closer to his nurse while rehabbing his leg. When Osito came in for a session he overheard her phone call with her boyfriend about having financial issues. Her car had gone out. When she got home, a brand new truck was waiting on her.

When Charmaine got back home, she found Aileen unresponsive on the floor with traces of snorting some of the contents of the package. She died and Charmaine grieved over her lifeless body!

Saintille got a call from the morgue about a young teen accidentally overdosing. He recognized it was Aileen and immediately kicked a search warrant crusade into action against Charmaine. Saintille ran into Charmaine at the hospital and offered her a way out if she would cooperate and turn against the Cuevas cousins. She stonewalled the cop and he left.
Need Answers

When Jackie got home, Ray went to visit and asked for her help with the Cuevas case. He asked her whether they were looking into Renee and the conversation immediately turned into an argument. Ray was back involved with the woman who ruined his life and Jackie was sleeping with her partner. She kicked him out and went to Leslie’s home to talk.

Jackie was in pain and wanted to know why Leslie ghosted her. To Leslie, it was a fling. Jackie thought the woman had feelings for her too and was afraid of commitment. Leslie rebutted she doesn’t have feelings and it wasn’t fair to Jackie had she lied to her.
Off The Wagon

Renee made an excuse with Frankie to go see Ray. He used the opportunity to question her loyalty. She claimed to want a normal life, not one tethered to a murderous drug dealer. He pleaded to know what she was hiding but their minds were on sex…

Jackie went back home and had a drink with her father. She had nowhere to go, emotionally disastered, and waned from sobriety…

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-3-premiere-review-xix/

Black Sails S3 Ep 1

By TS Rhodes

January 24, 2016|


Black Sails gets off to a bang-up start, heavy on the history. I can’t say how happy I am that Blackbeard looks like he’ll be a major role, not the walk-on that the black-bearded logwood cuter from season one was, and hopefully not the mini-role that Lowe was in season one.

History: Teach went by a number of names, and Drummond was one of them. Teach did retire, and did subsequently return to piracy. Was he married? The jury is still out on that one; there’s no proof one way or the other. Rumors, however, continue to persist that he did.

And Blackbeard was buddies with Charles Vane. Yes, indeed he was. During Blackbeard’s “retirement” Vane showed up at his hideout on Oracoke Island, and the two pirate crews partied together. Vane wanted a revolution, a rebellion of the have-nots (led by the pirates) against the privileged people of the world. Stories persist that, having lived among the privileged during his retirement, Blackbeard came to the same way of thinking.

(One note, however. It’s damned uncomfortable to sit around with three or four loaded flintlocks strapped to your chest. Don’t ask me how I know this.)

The smart writing carries on with Flint. The man’s gone just a bloody crazy as we thought he would. He’s now taking his revenge against anyone who executes pirates. The scene of Flint’s attack on the magistrate. The man thinks that he’ll be a special case, that Flint will treat him differently because he’s an honest man.

But, as the authorities treat Billy Bones, Vane and Flint the same, despite their vastly different reasons for resorting to piracy, so Flint now treats the honest magistrate the same as the dishonest. Flint’s long look at the dead wife may betray something – the image of her body echoes that of Miranda when she falls. But Flint remains unmoved. He’s choosing his madness.

There’s another theme that I don’t like quite so much. Apparently, inspired by the theme of “Blackbeard” the male actors in this show have all decided to grow out their facial hair. Flint’s beard stands out next to his nearly bald head. Silver is sporting a dashing set of whiskers fit for a Victorian villain. Even Vane is looking fuzzy. Given the heat in the Caribbean and the fact that beards were unfashionable at the time, I don’t like it. (Okay I like Silver a little. Soft spot for Victorian villains and all that.)

But the smart writing and generally appropriate use of historic fact continues. I really enjoyed the little scene of the play in Max’s new tavern. It reminds us what has been going on with Eleanor while at the same time showing us that the pirates loved to put on plays, and to watch them. Similarly, Vane’s history is nicely alluded to. I love it when the show can keep viewers up to speed without blatantly saying, “AS YOU REMEMBER…”

I really hope we see some of Jack Rackham’s past. This historic man’s life is a mystery, like so many pirates. We keep getting glimpses of this Jack’s past. His language is always decidedly a cut above, and his inability to do the kind of dirty fighting the pirate excel at certainly hints that he didn’t grow up in a rough neighborhood. And what other pirate would think to hire a cello player to serenade him while he sits on the can? (Has anyone else noticed a minor sub-theme of Jack Rackham reading a newspaper while taking care of his morning business?)

This is where the time frame gets a little vague. It’s supposedly been two weeks since the Urca gold arrived at Nassau. That’s really not enough time for Flint to have carried out his several raids, or for Silver’s amputated leg to have healed sufficiently that he can even pretend to walk on a wooden prosthesis. But, like a lot of shows that involve sailing, it seems that some flexibility is necessary.

But however long it’s been since last we saw our band of heroes, one thing is certain and that is that the fort (Fort Nassau stood from 1697 to 1897, and is now the site of a Hilton hotel) got blasted to kingdom come last season, and it need to be repaired.

Historically, the fort was originally repaired by Hornigold, who simply gathered builders by offering all the free beer and rum his laborers could drink. Everyone who had run through their last cruise’s plunder signed on, and the pirates had a merry, if somewhat tipsy, building party, that set the fort up for several years.

Jack, who has flooded the market with gold, has different problems. Everyone knows he’s rich, and with no common enemy in sight, these pirates only want to party. A truly brilliant leader might have inspired them to rebuild the fort in case the Spanish come looking to take the gold, but Jack isn’t that guy.

Instead, he’s hatched a plan to bring in slaves (courtesy of Vane) to do the work. In fact, finding out who was carrying slaves and where the ship would be would be damn near impossible. Many ships of the period carried a few slaves, say, five or six, as part of a mixed cargo. That wouldn’t be remarked on, so it would be hard to single such a ship out, even if you had near-perfect intelligence. But the new purpose-built slave ships, ships that carried scores of slaves, would be coming to the Caribbean direct from Africa. With no stops between, and the Bahamas the first landfall after a trans-Atlantic voyage, no one could know when a slave ship was going to appear.

But, just as sometimes in modern thrillers the cell phones need to not work, there’s got to be a few “gimme-s” in a pirate story, and I’m willing to play along with this one, because it puts Vane (former slave) in cahoots with Rackham (former slave owner?) to bring this labor into Nassau.

This, in turn, set up one of the problems the pirates had. Would pirates deal in slaves? Some wouldn’t and set captured slaves free. Others treated captured slaves like any other property. It was a sticky a problem for the pirates as it was for America’s Founding Fathers. And the pirates had the additional problem that slavery wasn’t quite a racial thing yet. White people were also sold as slaves. Will we see any of them?

Max, as usual, is the voice of reason. She’s the one to say out loud how delicate the situation is. If the pirates won’t repair the fort, will they defend it? Is the money really a benefit, or is it the most dangerous liability ever? Max, as a woman, and especially as a woman of color, with no family or connections, always has the most to lose. With Anne Bonny, she can speak to the pirate’s greatest fears.

Flint’s final confrontation with Hornigold also explains the situation. The English government is so afraid of the pirates (they really were) that they are willing to pardon them all. Flint makes his case very well. Men willing to pardon pirates are living in fear. Will we surrender to men who fear us?

And then he heads into the storm.

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

Dopesick S1 Ep 7: Black Box Warning

(Note - I accidentally watched these 2 episodes out of order thanks to Hulu's wacky interface. So here's 2 reviews back to back. Weeee!) 

from the Review Geek: https://www.thereviewgeek.com/dopesick-s1e7review/

10/11/2021 by Greg Wheeler


Episode 7 of Dopesick Season 1 is easily the best of the season; an absorbing, shocking chapter that deals with the depths of Purdue Pharma’s corruption. We begin in 1962 with a big revelation. This isn’t the Sackler’s first rodeo when it comes to bending the rules and facing the wrath of the court. Back then, they were grilled by Senator Dodd, who questions the ethics of Purdue Pharma. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen across this season, influential men can be influenced by stacks of cash and that’s what seems to have happened here.

Fast forward to 2002 and Dodd has a “very, very high regard” for Purdue. The thing is, the stacks of evidence are mounting and it’s beginning increasingly difficult to ignore what Oxy is doing.

Rewind a year to 2001 and Betsy continues to slip further into the world of addiction. Diane shows to find her, with the girl in an awful state deep in the depths of a junkie house. “I wanna go home,” She whispers, as Diane scoops Betsy up and takes the girl out of that place. This scene is important, because directly after this we cut to Richard and the gang, excitedly chirping about producing a range of Oxy for children too. Good god.


Thankfully, they’re stopped in their tracks by the FDA wording, which gets alarm bells ringing right the way across the company.

With OxyContin doing the rounds and ravaging town, a lot of flyers begin cropping up too. Diane sees this as a good opportunity to bring Betsy along for the ride. Now, Dr Van Zee happens to be leading the charge here and he wants to take Oxy off the market. In order to do so, he encourages all the residents to sign a petition to take the drug off the market.

The FDA though have plans to put a Black Box warning on the new label. Now Sackler, ever the opportunist, decides to team up with Kathy and get around the wording on the label. As Richard tells them all, they need to “give a little” in order to sway the FDA to their way of thinking.

In exchange for the Black Box warning label, Sackler manages to convince the FDA to approve wording that “addiction is reported to be rare” and they’re allowed to use it for moderate pain. With this new wording, the marketing team can push for greater sales and potentially triple their sales.

Billy Cutler is growing more disillusioned with Oxy by the episode, and here he questions the breakthrough pain and the idea of pushing a drug harder despite the Black Box warning label. In fact, he ends up breaking into his boss’ office and taking training tapes off the shelf.

Billy happens to be one of the top sellers at Purdue too but it’s Amber who talks him around. She’s on course to be the Regional Manager in Louisiana and invites Billy along for the ride. She believes it’s a booming market and wants to use him to make more money. The thing is, Amber doesn’t actually care about him per-se, she only really cares about his credentials as a seller. And it’s clear she’s using his feelings against him.

Art Van Zee heads back to his clinic where Finnix rocks up. Now, Finnix is still taking methadone and combining that with therapy to get over his addiction. This seems to work pretty well, although he still can’t stop thinking about Oxy. According to Art, it take 2 years to get over the addiction fully, as Oxy actually rewires the brain.

Finnix is incredulous, eventually learning that there’s a new drug called Suboxone on the market. Some patients do need to take it for the rest of their lives but it’s a good chance to try something new. He even phones Betsy and suggests she too try this drug to get clean. He apologizes for putting her through this but she simply retorts a “I love you,” as a sign of respect.

That evening, Betsy begins to grow disillusioned with her life. In the car with her mum though, Diane opens up and blames herself for the Oxy addiction. In fact, she outright admits that she heard her that night when she admitted the truth about her sexuality. Diane supports her but in order to live a normal life and not be an addict, Betsy needs to get clean. And this is just what they need to approve the process and take up Finnix on his offer.

Betsy heads back to see her dealer and decides to get “one hell of a send off” before she skips over to Suboxone. The ensuing shot sends her over the edge, and she passes away. When Finnix rings, he learns about Betsy passing away.


In 2002, Bridget continues to push for the FDA and the others to review what Purdue have done. With the autopsy reports, they bring overwhelming evidence of the addictions. Now, the Purdue lawyers do their best to gt around this, claiming it’s “overly simplistic”. In fact, Bridget fights back and claims it’s exhaustive and actually really in-depth. Only, the FDA side with Purdue despite the overwhelming evidence and decides to completely ignore the evidence.

Bridget sits down with her husband later that evening, claiming that her job is destroying her life. Only, he clearly doesn’t know Bridget that well given the job IS her life.
Off the back of this, a divorce is heavily hinted.

In 2006, Randy and Rick continue to work tirelessly to jail the executives at the top. That means Kathy, Richard and the rest of the rotten Sacker family responsible for this. Now, the man behind the approval of the new label is a guy called Curtis Wright. It turns out, a year before the approval process, Purdue rented out a hotel suite in Rockville just down the road from FDA. They spent 3 days together, in close collusion with Wright, to get around the wording. In fact, it would seem that Curtis Wright was the one who actually wrote the warning label itself.

Van Zee’s petition goes absolutely nowhere too. Disgustingly, it made Purdue push their marketing harder. Although they had 10,000 signatures, Rick strikes gold and decides to use the testimonies from the executives instead. Under oath, they confirm that they didn’t know about the addictions until 2000. Only, they were actually informed of abuse back in 1997 through emails, internal documents and the like.

As a smile crosses Rick’s lips, he realizes he can get all three executives on the basis of lying to Congress and conspiracy to defraud. The real kicker here is that they could flip on Richard Sackler and the others to save their own skin.

The trouble is, it looks like Maine justice has been fully corrupted, all the way up to the top. Randy and Rick refuse to hear fellow lawyer Alice’s pleas and instead, head into the meeting and immediately inform Purdue that they’re going to indict Michael Friedman, Paul Goldenheim and Howard Udell on felony charges.

As the episode closes out, we’re left with a chilling thought from Purdue Pharma in the court room: “No law or regulations will ever be able to stop the miracle of modern pharmaceuticals.”

The Episode Review

Dopesick’s penultimate episode heads back on screens, leaving a pretty damning assessment of the opioid crisis in America. Claiming proudly that no laws can affect “modern pharma” is pretty chilling and as we’ve seen across this season, the FDA can be bought out, no matter the cost.


It’s a pretty damning assessment of how far Purdue has been willing to go, and even manages to turn this Black Box warning into something that actually benefits them. It’s pretty shocking and perhaps Betsy’s death was always inevitably going to happen. Her cycle of addiction ultimately comes to a close when the one thing keeping her hopeful – Grace – happens to be with child and ready to live her life.

Oxy has destroyed lives and hearing Purdue high-fiving and fully aware that they’ve dodged a bullet back in 2001 is absolutely shocking and pretty sickening to hear. That’s only made worse of course by the discourse about providing Oxy for children.

Everything here is poised nicely for a dramatic and shocking finale to kick into play next week, and all roads seem to point toward a big conclusion to this story. We’ll have to wait and see where this one goes next though.