Michael Stephenson's Blog, page 11

Once Upon A Time; Twice A Wasted Hour #OnceUponATime #DarkSwan #DarkHook

Once Upon A Time; Twice A Wasted Hour #OnceUponATime #DarkSwan #DarkHook

All pictures courtesy of ABC

These fools pulled the old longer-but-not-better switcheroo on us last night. Was it just me or did that second hour of the two hour not-yet-winter finale really feel like that unlockable mini-mission that you let your little brother play only after you beat the entire game but you didn't want him messing up your saved game. Yeah, it was confusing and kind of a waste.

This week's Once Upon A Time (#OnceUponATime) was super-sized to fill that extra hour that the dying show Blood and Oil usually stews in. Unfortunately, while the show as a whole was good, the second hour was unnecessary. For that reason, I won't mention much about it. But the first hour was amazing! Excalibur finally restored to one sword, now all that remained was for Emma Swan to make a decision on which way she'd go, good or evil. A talk with Hook who still loves her reveals that she has undergone her plan of evil just for him. What that means we soon find out. But what is clear almost immediately is that her plan requires a life.

Cut to Selena AKA the Wicked Witch who is still sitting in prison two months pregnant with a wristband banning her from using magic. Suddenly, her stomach swells from 2 months preggers to her water breaking and needing a doctor immediately. Surprise, surprise, the only doctor that seems to be worth anything is Dr. Whale, the same guy that apparently made Frankenstein in the first (or second?) season. A little banter betwixt them as she threw him against a wall with some magic a while back and before they knew it, a baby popped out.
And then Emma arrived. But was she there to take the baby? No. Apparently she sped up Selena's pregnancy to get rid of the baby from her own would-be useable vessel. Wow, I made that more confusing than it needed to be. OK, she kidnaps both Hook and Selena down to her evil lair where she assures him she is still good and wants to banish the evil. But the only way to do that is to imbue all of her evil in someone else--Selena--and then cut her down with Excalibur.

And then things went uh-rye.

First Hook unlocked Selena's bracelet. Then they escaped upstairs where Swan seemed to have frozen everyone in the town before coming back inside in hopes of finishing her plan. But in the middle of her escape, Selena happens to find the dreamcatcher that can show you truth and what you need to see and all that. Hook throws some squid ink on Emma to keep her in place and unarmed as Selena shows him the truth in the catcher. The truth goes back to the fairy tale land six weeks earlier.

Before escaping back to Storybrooke, King Arthur and Selena tried one last time to get Emma to unite the blade and give it over to him so he could complete his quest to rule the kingdom and end all dark magic. Redundant? Yes, seeing as how everyone was already focused on doing this, but he wants all the glory. Still in control of Merlin and the bottom half of the sword, he orders the great and powerful wizard to kill Emma. As luck would have it, they duke it out only for Merlin to fight off the greatest evil and regain control of his senses. But not before Hook is sliced by accident with the sword's blade. Emma does some quick healing magic and everything is good.
But everything isn't good. Failing to mention it earlier, Merlin finally tells the group that a slice from the blade cannot be healed under any means. As she is about to reunite the two blade halves, he lays dying. But being the dark one she is, she concocts a plan which I didn't even quite understand, somehow making him a secondary dark one, thereby saving his life through imbuing him with evil. An around about way of using death magic to save him/bring him back from the dead, she is punished by being made dark once again.
Thus, to rid the evil from both herself and Hook, she must cast it out of both of them and into Selena before cutting her down. It's the only way to rid herself of such evil. I probably should feel exceptionally bad that I actually find that to be a good plan sense Selena seems only to want to be evil. They don't have to cut her down, just send her back to her land and put some sort of spell on her to never be able to come back. Unfortunately, after learning all of this Hook lets his own dark one tendencies take over and thinks she's still the evil one in need of destroying. The first hour ends there as the second hour takes us back to the land of the BRAVE.
Unrelated almost entirely to the first half of the show, Merida is challenged to find a magical helmet her father ordered from a witch or face her queendom going from humans to wolves. Bringing back Mulan who apparently trained her and Red Riding Hood who had mysteriously disappeared just for this storyline apparently, the three women seek the helmet. After producers earlier in the season talked about bringing back Mulan's lesbian story and giving her a happy ending, I almost got really pissed that it looked like they were about to make Merida and Mulan--the two strongest female characters in Disney's "princess" line-up--gay. Because clearly you can only be a strong girl/woman if you're gay, right? Thankfully they changed it to where Mulan and Red left together after defeating the killer of Merida's father. The killer? King Arthur. He and Selena escaped back to Camelot.

The couple that wears a similar color on the Spectrum together...
The helmet found, Merida refuses to return it to the witch only to discover the entire thing was a crap test to see if she'd have the character to be a noble leader. She talks to her dead dad, swears revenge against Arthur, the end. The entire hour had me wondering why this wasn't divided up and stuffed into a few episodes over the course of a few weeks. Instead, it played like the lame hour-long sequel to Brave I never wanted (almost as long as the movie, by the way). So while the first hour had me soaring, the second was a huge let down.
What do you think? Did you enjoy both hours equally? Were you excited to see Mulan again? Do you like the potential pairing with Red Riding Hood? What about the #DarkCouple? Will Hook and Emma both rid themselves of the darkness or will one succumb to it for good (see what I did there)? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "between Kandi's gullibility and Kim Fields' faces, I'm already too through with this season of Real Housewives of Atlanta."


P.S. Now that wasn't even a real sign-off, was it? It was just a mentioning of a reality show I watch. Gosh, am I even trying anymore? I'll definitely try next time.
Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

NaNoWriMo Progress Update November 2015 #NaNoWriMo #writer #NaBloPoMo

NaNoWriMo Progress Update November 2015 #NaNoWriMo #Writer #NaBloPoMo
Emblem courtesy of NaNoWriMo Sponsors
This book is a future number one bestseller. That is what I have convinced myself. That is what I believe it to be. That is what it one day will be. This book, this mystery, this novel about a murder is what will be on every mature reader's mind come one year's time. The re-readability, the depth of character, the richness of whodunnit--all of it will mingle in people's minds. They may not love the characters, or even like them, but they know them. They know them as well as any person can know a fictional character, as well as anyone can truly know anyone else in this world. And it'll make them fearful. And it'll make them inquisitive. And it'll make them wonder how did he know? How did I know that it was going to be a bestseller, that it would occupy the mind and drive them to talk about it so constantly, to loathe and cherish it all at once. This book is a future number one bestseller, and boy is it pushing me to the brink.
Courtesy Harper RoofingSo, what are we talking about here? A man and a roof. Sounds simple, right? When it comes out, and you see the title, you'll know that this was the book I dared myself to write for NaNoWriMo (#NaNoWriMo) or National Novel Writing Month. For those unfamiliar with it, the name says most of it. Every November for the last few months writers challenge themselves to write either an entire novel or somewhere near 50,000 words (that's the average I've seen). Currently, we are precisely halfway through the month and I am only 50,000 words into my manuscript after 12 days of writing. I had to take two days off to do yard work and get my garden winter-ready. That is roughly just under 4000 words a day--off my usual word count. Why am I so off, you ask? I think it has something to do with NaBloPoMo.

Emblem courtesy of the BlogHer network
NaBloPoMo (#NaBloPoMo) is National Blog Posting Month which I guess is also this month. Me, in all of my genius, decided that not only would this be the first year ever I participated in NaNoWriMo but also in NaBloPoMo since I have a blog and why not. The latter is a challenge to make one blog post per day for the entirety of the month (holidays too. Yikes!) So far so good, but because of that the novel has somewhat suffered.



I don't often get writer's block. I keep my flow going by working on multiple projects at a time. But for this challenge I cut back to just this novel, the posts and editing a short story. Now, much of my time is spent pacing back and forth. I'm near halfway through the novel and the crazy part? I've only just now gotten to the hard part. If I wrote at my normal pace, skipping a few posts a week, I'd probably be finishing sometime at the end of this week, but this whole challenge is driving me crazy #WriterProblems. Have I lost hope that I can completely crush both challenges? No, not yet, but I am growing antsy about the novel.
I know what you're saying by now. You've probably thought all sorts of, "he's delusional" and "bestsellers take time" and "no one writes a bestseller for NaNoWriMo," but a guy can try. And if I succeed I'm just telling you doubters now that I reserve the right to smear it in your face and be as petty as I can. For you supporters, thanks for the support.
On the good note, I have all of my characters well-shaped, I know much of the plot but I am struggling with the ending scene. I've already written the inciting incident, one of the larger action sequences (though I don't feel comfortable with how it unravels), and stuffed it with clues of who it could be. However, I am still struggling to write for three of the characters and haven't been as "showy" and descriptive as I'd like in a few scenes. I know, I rarely ever talk about writing on this blog which is why it is such a (refreshing?) change, but I feel I needed to do at least one post on my month's progress.
So, how are you doing? Are you a writer or a reader or both? If a writer, are you taking the NaNoWriMo challenge? What about the NaBloPoMo challenge as a blogger? Did you even know about the NaBloPoMo? I think it's new to this year. Let me know about your writing experiences from this month and as an added bonus, if you've written something, tell me what was your favorite part and least favorite part of the writing experience. And if you're new to the blog, check out some of the other posts as I usually talk about TV and movies and a host of other things. Know what you should be watching and what's getting canceled and stay tuned for some funny (hopefully) posts in the coming holiday weeks.
Anyway, let me know what you're writing/reading in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend now a 5-star rated comedy novel. #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, "I'm going to write a novel! 'But Jimmy, writing a novel can take years and thousands of words slung together to make meaning and a plot.' "I'm going to read a novel." 'They're kinda long.' "I'm going to take a nap!"

P.S. That would probably be a good sign-off if it weren't so long. Dang it, Michael, you've fuddied it up again. I'll think of something better the next time.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

The Season's First Officially Canceled Show #WickedCity #ABC

The Season's First Officially Canceled Show #WickedCity #ABC
In truth, I am struggling to figure out how to intro this post or even try to summon my own personal brand of snark. For those that subscribe and for those readers that don't, by now you know that I am not a politco by any means. I have brought up certain political viewpoints and counterpoints but much of that has been geared toward stuff that occurs in the ranks of Hollywood and other entertainment outlets. But politics isn't my bag. Well, as the world knows by now, Paris, France just yesterday on Friday, November 13, fell under attack by the group we call IS or ISIS. The number of losses astonishing, I dare not repeat it as it continues to climb well beyond the bounds of sanity. What I will say is that terrorism cannot shake us as a global community. Do not allow this catastrophe to steal the light which burns deep within your spirit. Do not allow these heinous acts to cloud your eyes to the good that, while it may seem deeply hidden away more often than not, exists within all of us. Do not allow this tragedy and the thousands of others that occur each day around the world because of evil's unresting spirit to be forgotten, to numb you, break or remake you into something that you are not. I, in no way, try to relinquish or justify these acts. I am appalled by such beasts. What I will say is that remember if you are to stand for peace, STAND for peace; it is not just terrorism that requires action. Support Paris! #PeaceForParis #LiveInHarmony. Je suis France. My prayers are with them, as I hope are yours if you are religious.
Picture courtesy of ABC
Now, with that said, we have our first big cancellation news from this new TV season and, per usual, it comes from ABC. Look, you can talk about ABC like a dog all you want and about how they're always canceling their new shows which may be why you don't watch them or they never put on anything good, but you have to admit that they do try very hard to think outside of the box while still staying true to their network goals. That means that they try appealing to all demographics. Fox doesn't do that. CW doesn't do that. AMC doesn't really do that (The Walking Dead is not a family show; whoever said it was I clearly misread their sarcasm). And while CBS does it, they do it in very incremental bits each season, i.e., cop shows galore and not a lot of creativity. The only one that really matches up with ABC is NBC, another seldom watched channel. So when ABC comes out with their fall season schedule, it's a good bet that 50% of the shows on there will be misses (a la Wicked City) or potential classics (a la Quantico). And, unfortunately, Wicked City (#WickedCity) has erred on the former, but you knew that... from the title... and from me mentioning it in the previous sentence.
Ladies and gentlemen, after three weeks, three episodes, ABC has officially axed their freshman Tuesday crime drama. For those of you wondering what the hell this show even is/was about, refer back to my three week roundup/review/recap from earlier this week (click the tag below) when their last episode played. Again, though I haven't done the post on why I do a three week roundup, this is almost the exact reason why.

Plagued with a slew of problems, the least not being its mediocrity (oh I shrink at being so critical of someone else's creative work), the show seemed doomed from the start. Little summer advertising, a lack of artistry within the storytelling, not too good acting (Taissa, I'm looking at you) and bland characters whose development actually felt like filler, the show never had that one gotcha moment so crucial for nearly any creative endeavor. You almost didn't care what would happen next and--well, actually that's exactly how people felt. And to top it off, it had the lead in of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD which, while it maintains its own loyal viewers (of which I am one) has a very small and specialized group of people that enjoy it. Not to say that those viewers wouldn't be into Wicked City, however, the audience overlap might have been greater if the freshman show had played like a Sin City movie.
Instead it played like a common crime drama or worse, a "very special two-hour episode" of a crime drama that they tried dragging out into 10 to 13 episodes. Fare thee well, Wicked City. We hardly knew ye. In Memoriam.
Don't cry, Jeremy Sisto. You'll get another show... maybe. 
One other thing to mention here, I had planned to have all the posts of cancellations be titled In Memoriam followed by whatever psuedo-clever quip I could conjure, but due to the Paris attacks I didn't do that this time. However, in the future I will start them with those words. Also, I will keep a running In Memoriam post for all the shows canceled this season.
What do you think? Did you ever see or even hear about this show? If so, did you like it or should they have taken to the back woods and turned it into glue two episodes in? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "just for your moment of sanity, here's a video of a guy singing about Patti Labelle's Sweet Potato pies."


P.S. Is it really that good though? Well, I was gonna make my own family recipe of sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving, but now I might have to order me a #PattiePie.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

And So The White Hat Moves Into The White House #Scandal #ABC #TGITAwakens

And So The White Hat Moves Into The White House #Scandal #ABC #TGITAwakens

All pictures courtesy of ABC

Well, the stuff hit the fan or nearly hit the fan... sort of. With Scandal moving ever so close to its winter finale, last night finally put some heat back into the otherwise lackluster couple of weeks.

The latest episode of Scandal (#Scandal) began with the framing device of a treaty or accord or whatever they call it when two countries that have been feuding non-militarily finally come together and open their borders to each other, singing and holding hands as they skip through that yellow-flowered field of love. Holding a dinner for the leaders of the Middle Eastern Muslim country, Cyrus is shocked when they accept Liv instead of shunning her as the president's full-time hoe. As she and the President dine with the leader, his interpreter slyly sneaks a plea for asylum in between the otherwise frivolous banter.
The man wants to come to America at first for reasons unknown other than the fact that the leader has become obsessively violent, killing anyone who so much as breathes incorrectly in his presence. Kept under lock and key by his country's security, Olivia tells him that he better have really good leverage/intel on something dirty his country is doing in order to risk the history-making signing. The intel he gives her is of the nuclear variety, expressing how he knows of a factory where they are making and housing nuclear weapons. Not wanting to risk the treaty, the President says he wants nothing to do with this and hands it off to Liv.

Meanwhile, as she puts her team on figuring out if the coordinates the man gave to this secret site reveal anything worthwhile, she also has to deal with the slow-rise of the aftermath of her releasing her father from prison, or rather, playing a part in his release. Never one to stray too far away from his baby girl, Eli comes to visit her office and expresses a true sense of fear. Someone is trying to kill him and he's afraid they'll succeed. What? The devil's afraid of going to hell? I'm shocked! Dear God, no. Somebody stop him from being killed. What has he done to deserve such a fate!?
Anyway, having compassion for some reason unknown to me, she tells all of her current "men"--Jake, the president--that her father is in danger. Knowing the man's a world-class criminal who has tried to kill them before, of course both men swell with sympathy deep in their hearts for the man. The truth is that the president can't wait to see Eli dead and even sicks Jake on the hunt to find him. Always one step behind, Jake comes too late to the hideaway he tracked Eli to, finding instead the former secret service man that killed the President's son. But apparently Fitz ordered Jake not to kill the man just bring him back in because ever since he's been gettin' sex on the reg' from Liv, he's become a cuddly teddy bear.

Back to the guy seeking asylum, when the team manages to find the listed coordinates on satellite, they do see a building there with huge trucks entering and exiting. A scan for nuclear activity reveals zip! The guy must have lied--anything to get out of his country and to the land of the free. Denying his asylum, Liv focuses her efforts on trying to figure out how to tell Fitz about her father and what she did there. But Huck spots a discrepancy in the satellite pictures over the course of weeks. While tons of trucks come in and out of the facility, the 18-wheelers sitting in the back of the supposed soda facility never move. What does come in and out are the water tankers. Why the need for so much water? To cool mega servers. Turns out the factory is a cover for a cyber warfare division that has been responsible for countless digital attacks on western targets. The guy was partially right.
Running back to the man, Liv finds him with a slit wrist in the bathroom of his hospital room (her team had to poison him just to get him away from his country's own detail). The doctors manage to save his life after which he reveals the reason he wanted asylum. He's gay. And not to stereotype or be insensitive but gays in the Middle East don't fair well no matter how important they are to their leaders.
The day saved, Liv can go back to her place happy, right? Wrong! The side story of finding her father got Cyrus up to his old tricks of manipulating at a doctorate-level and using USADA David to dig through the prison files and figure out who got Eli released. Though Mellie actually did the act, the paperwork somehow points back to Liv. She is then detained and brought to that creepy interrogation cell with the poor lighting and walls that look dungeon-esque.\
Epic Cry Face! 
Now forced to tell Fitz, Liv comes clean about everything in a beautifully artful scene in which none of the dialogue is heard as the song "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" plays in the background. Disgusted, Fitz only needed time to cool off before making another power play of his own and releasing her without charges. But she is released right into the White House, the place she didn't want to be living in because it felt like a cage. Her face telling it all, she is not the least thrilled to be living with her love-of-her-life boyfriend as she watches the servants move all of her clothes into their closet. Smooth move, Fitz. The episode ended on Eli being roped to a chair in a factory and who else but Huck coming to "ask him some questions." I loved this episode and I will be referring back to it in a few weeks when every show starts going on that long winter/holiday hiatus and the Christmas carols start playing and nothing is on to watch, but for now I'll keep my secret but interesting topic under wraps.
What do you think? Should Fitz have been so forgiving of Olivia so quickly? Do you like how he made the silent power play to get what he wants, knowing that she can't make a real objection to her new digs? Do you think Huck will actually kill Eli or will the writers/producers find a way to keep their big villain around? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "will you still love me... in the morning? 'Wait, you're still gonna be here in the morning? Because I kinda like to sleep alone."

P.S. For all you comedy fans out there, Amy Schumer's Trainwreck is out for the Holiday season. I thought it was an OK comedy, but nothing to write home about. But hey, if you like it, good for you.

P.P.S. After a late-night viewing of NBC's The Blacklist, I might have to make that my DVRRewind as I see the Provocateurs are hard at work trying to fluster people. The same guy seeking asylum on Scandal was also doing the exact same thing on The Blacklist in the same time slot. Blowing your mind yet?

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Ladies And Gentlemen, Our First New Show Renewal #Blindspot #DVRRewind #NBC #Renewed

Ladies And Gentlemen, Our First New Show Renewal #Blindspot#DVRRewind #NBC #Renewed
All pictures courtesy of NBC 

So, I'm switching up things a little as I'm doing a DVR rewind slightly earlier than usual by doing it in the middle of the week. Technically by the time you read this, it'll be Thursday and not Wednesday which is when I'm writing it, but who cares about semantics. It's time to talk the latest episode of Blindspot.
But first the big news. After weeks of trying to figure out if Jane Doe was really what the American people wanted, and giving into a full season order for the freshman crime procedural drama, NBC executives finally pulled the trigger and renewed Blindspot (#Blindspot) for a second season. For fans of the show this is clearly great news. Not only do we and all of you late comers get to see Jane/Taylor's journey play out for longer than a year, we also get to obsess over what each tattoo means and the will they/won't they dichotomy between her and Weller. So again, if you haven't seen the show and are looking for a new show to watch that you know won't be canceled anytime soon, then you might want to use some of the upcoming Thanksgiving and other Holiday time not just shopping but bingeing on the first half of the season and see if you like it. There's also my Blindspot three week roundup post which you can access by clicking the tag Blindspot at the bottom of this article.

Now, on to the actual episode. This week's episode saw the group tackling another corruption scandal. Picking up mid-scene from the previous episode, Agent Weller and his boss who's named Bethany (a black Bethany? Well, I never met one but I'm sure they exist) discuss the secret program she was a part of a long while ago. Code-named: Daylight, it is revealed in flashbacks as she tells him about it that it was a joint program between the FBI, CIA, and the White House Political Director (uh, what?), led by the President's Chief of Staff. What it did was compile a mass of illegally obtained data that posed actionable threats in the form of terrorism or other criminal activity. Essentially it was the Patriot Act on steroids, spying on the American people to protect them from the few evil-doers.
Begrudgingly agreeing to use the program, Weller's boss needed a way to launder the illegally obtained info so that it would appear legal. She created a fake snitch story and pinned it to an already known criminal that they caught last week. Incensed by his mentor's law-breaking, Weller stays upset the entire episode which, frankly, isn't that much of a difference in his facial expression as any other time--when will this dude start smiling more? With that in the back of his mind and flashbacks of the genesis and use of the program sprinkled through the episode, Weller must focus on figuring out the next case.

For a brief moment, the writers tease us with a potential case that has nothing to do with Jane's tattoos when two cops are shot dead in the street. A message written in blood (or possibly just red paint) reads "Butcher the Butchers." The loving term "Butchers" is used for the street name for the cops of the 65th NY precinct as just last year the cops set off a racial riot when one of them gunned down an unarmed black man. Though some of the cops got fired, everyone was on high tension in the neighborhood ever since. Now with the cop murder and the Butcher nickname used, they think it's a revenge killing. And, oh yeah, Jane had a tattoo of a butcher's knife with 65 written on it and surrounded by what first looked like sniper crosshairs.
The normal jockeying for power between the Feds and the cops aside, Weller and his crew take over the case and talk to the man's partner. While interviewing her, they realize that the cops all wear body cams in that precinct as part of the pilot program before rolling it out nationally. Using the footage from the dead man's body cam, they find a scuffle between him and a pro footballer (the American kind). They track him to his house where he is throwing a party filled with scantily clad women. Naturally, he runs, they pursue, Jane tackles him.

Back in interrogation, he tells them that the cop tried extorting him after catching him sleeping with a man a week earlier (he was still snugly in that closet). The man wanted 50,000 from him every month. As it turns out, the footage on the body cams logs to a computer any cop can access, meaning the dead cop wasn't the one looking at and using the footage. Figuring out that the crosshairs on Jane's tattoo aren't from a gun scope but a camera, they discover that two other officers were behind the extortion who they go to ply the man's widow for anything she might know.
A big shootout at the woman's house ends one cop's life and puts the other in the hospital. But wait, the twist which I saw coming from a mile away, was that it was really all orchestrated by their captain, who Bethany takes out with a strategic car crash as they ride to see the hospitalized officer. Congrats all around, the show winds down with Bethany flashing back one last time to see the glory of her bad wig as the Political Deputy woman committed suicide after growing a conscience. Surprise, they were in love with each other and the Politico wanted to run away to Hong Kong. Somebody finally pointed out that Jane has been wearing the same crusty clothes more than Bill Cosby wears sweaters (now if we can change up that hair too), the other FBI agent who made a deal with the CIA deputy knows he holds the power and Weller took a huge step toward forgiving his father by having a drink with him. Next week looks pretty good. Hopefully it leads to an explosive mid-season finale.

What do you think? Were you as tired of seeing Jane wearing the same sweaty white under-tank too? Do you think blonde computer tech girl will get back with her nerdy boyfriend? Will Weller ever trust his boss again? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "so you have a closet full of poorly worded hipster tees?"

P.S. Sure, Jane's shirt is far from a hipster tee, but she wears it in both an ironic and utilitarian manner. They don't give her enough money for clothes? Wait, are they even paying her? Huh? I'll think of something better next time.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Wicked Wolves With No Need For Sheep's Clothing #WickedCity #PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundUp

Wicked Wolves With No Need For Sheep's Clothing #WickedCity#PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundUp


All pictures courtesy of ABC 

Just what we need, another crime drama. Yayyy! Once again, we're back for another look at a new series' first three episodes. As always, I will point you to the # premiere week link above to read my initial thoughts on this show, but as a refresher I will say that I wasn't too keen on this show as I knew little about it as with most later season premieres. This wasn't as highly promoted as some of the other ABC shows and the little I read of it made it seem like another so-so drama. So, is Wicked City (#WickedCity) as wicked as it needs to be?

Wicked City is an ensemble narrative that follows the exploits of both the killer(s), the detectives following them and the journalists covering the story. The setting: 1980s Los Angeles, Sunset Strip. There, a supposed charismatic killer named Kent played by Ed Westwick stalks the night. A cunning liar, he deceives young, naive women into thinking he works as whatever they might want or need at the moment. She wants to be a singer, he's a music producer, an actor and he's a casting director. Convinced they can sleep their way to the top, they leave the club with him and take a car trip out to a ridge overlooking the starlit city. There, as they perform fellatio or other sex acts on him, they hear their name on the radio in what is supposed to be a special dedication to them. It is during this time that he kills them, usually by stabbing. He then will decapitate the victim and either leave their head in a safe somewhere for the cops to find, or leave their body out in the open to taunt the cops.
Things get dicey when he comes across two women that change his life forever. The second is a budding reporter played by Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story fame) that he chooses as a new victim. The cops already in contact with her and hot on his trail, he abandons picking her up when he sees the dressed down detectives talking to her about the sting. Now, instead of making her the victim, he uses her and her journalistic prowess to help feed into his fame obsession.

The second woman Betty, played by Erika Christensen, is a nurse in desperate yearning for something interesting to happen in her life. A single mother, she raises two children on her own and is slightly older than his usual victims. He doesn't kill her only after finding out she has kids. Instead, he ties her to a bed and asks her to indulge his necrophiliac desires by lying perfectly still as he touches her. Finally, he grabs a knife and slices off the restraints, earning her confidence as he has imprinted upon her similar to Jacob in the Twilight series.
With all the murders going on resembling another serial killer, the real life Hillside Strangler, Detective Jack Roth played by Jeremy Sisto both takes on the case and a new partner just as hungry for fame as the journalists and the killer. Not without his own demons, Jack is a married man with a teenage daughter and a mistress who works undercover in the war on drugs. Though it is never said nor implied, somehow I feel that his wife knows about this other woman as their relationship seems more than just a recent development.

With the players set, the pieces move each at their own pace, allowing the audience to figure out who they will and won't root for and why. The life-altering event taking place for Kent is personified in Betty. Though he wasn't actively looking for it, Kent believes he found a soulmate in Betty. While her hypocrisy is shown when she crushes a bug after telling her children not to kill it because it deserved life too, her desire to move up from bug to something more fleshly isn't given much gravitas. A clear victim of a long-suffering broken heart, Betty is mentally malleable enough to go along with things she's never done before. In the second episode, she is convinced with nothing more than an extended hand to come home with him for a threesome with a girl he plans to kill.
Picking up in the second episode, she listens to his lies to the girl as he told Betty something completely different, even changing his name by a letter when he first introduced himself. Still down for whatever, they take the girl back to a room, tie her up and he does the same thing to her as he did to Betty, only this time watching as Betty does what I think we're supposed to believe is her first lesbian "kiss." From terrified to jovial, the girl laughs off the wicked games as she is the third wheel in the sexcapades.

Meanwhile, after seeing the gruesomeness of her first murder scene and being the near next victim of a serial killer, the reporter decides that not only does she doubt her ability to cover the art and culture section of the rag she writes for, but wants to run home because the big city is too much for her. After a tumble in the sheets with Evan Ross, her boss, she receives a personal envelope with info inside it from the killer. And so his game starts. Just as the Zodiac killer before him, he sends clues, riddles and little quips to her knowing that she'll share them with the police, hoping they'll follow his wild goose chase through the streets, apartments and libraries of LA (a clue left in episode three is in the library). What we don't know, however, is if he is a high-level genius like everyone else on TV seems to be or is just a normal guy who takes great care to toy with the law. He is seen working at a garage as a mechanic and while he does read, little is known about his other indulgences.

The detective and his partner squabble every so often about how to work the case or try to keep the reporter "kids" from getting themselves killed. For everything the detectives have going for them, I actually find their side of the story to be the most boring so far, unfortunately. Somehow, the inability to root for the good guys doesn't diminish the show. There was a brief scene where Jack ran into his mistress undercover and had to bust her for buying drugs. They argued that he could have blown her cover. She says that while stopping a serial killer would be great, illicit drugs kill far more people in a year than the psychopath can murder in a life time. Outside of that, not much is really going on with the detectives even into the third episode.
In the third episode, Detective Jack gets into another skirmish with his partner about how they should be working the case. His partner suggests that he should be the lead and not Jack, which the man ignores. During the second episode they found a body buried under the floorboards of an old rundown building. Head on, it belonged to a woman that had been murdered years before. The address was given to them through the clues left by the killer for the reporter. Not until the third episode does Detective Jack really work on the back story of the found woman.
The New Partner and Jack
Going back to the place where they found the body, he dares to get into the hole where the body had been stashed. Covering himself up with the floorboards, he notices an old-fashioned heart carving presumably by the killer. From there and a few other pieces of evidence, he deduces that the woman was special to the killer, that he loved her, that he had to be in her life for a while, and that the killer made her his bride after her death as she wore a ring on her decayed finger. Her clothes had been laundered and her wig was almost new at the time they found her meaning that she was like a security blanket which he returned to often. Their question: what has changed for him to give up his security blanket/love of his life to the police? Again, Betty is the change.

A story book night, episode 3 started with the murder of Kent's next victim in front of Betty. Believing her different, Kent finds the previous girl once more after losing her in the second episode after their threesome. Making her his victim, he ties her up and throws her into his trunk as he drives Betty out to the cliff. There, he and Betty get out of the car where he then pulls the girl from the trunk, takes her into the front seat of his car (he has a weird fetish of killing them while sitting in the driver's seat) and stabs her countless times. Her initial reaction to run, Betty takes off into the forest while telling the story of the wolf in sheep's clothing to her children later. Falling to the ground, she fears him then gives into passion as he comes for her.
The next 50 minutes is spent comparing what is happening with him and Betty to the Phantom Of The Opera--a beloved musical in my eyes. He has taken off his mask and shown his true colors, daring to fall in love with her though she might be a normal person. In luck, she shows him that she isn't a normal person as she hesitantly accepts his offer to belong to him. Her ex, a large married guy, comes back around trying to threaten her into sleeping with him again and she doesn't do it. Though Kent doesn't do anything to the man yet, the guy lingers around and sees his old girl going with this new gigolo-looking guy. At the end of the show, Betty is seen talking up a brunette at the bar on the strip where they met just so she can seduce the girl into being her and Kent's next victim.

Meanwhile, the journalists kept running around the city, switching roles with the detectives for the night as far as having the most boring story arc. They find the library clues and help the cops find another head locked in a box. They exchange pleasantries with the cops, absorb threats to stay away from the case and try to keep their relationship platonic after having goodbye sex when the young woman wanted to leave.
Detective Jack, meanwhile, gets out from the creepy crawlspace where the body used to be stashed and goes home to spend time reading Phantom. He falls for his teenage daughter's trickery to let her go with her friend to a party that was supposed to be chaperoned by adults. As it turns out, the party was nothing more than a crowded car of friends (mostly boys) driving around the city drinking and smoking. They mention how her dad happens to be working the case and, just to fit in, she tells them that the killer sexes the bodies only after killing them. Jack and his wife get into a fight about how easily duped he is and only then does he panic. He leaves to take a tip from the reporter about where the next body might be found just as his daughter gets back home to face her mother and things end there.
What's my grade? I give it a C+. Here's the thing, this series is in desperate need of a much more stylized form of storytelling. While I think the plot is intriguing (it is loosely based on the real life couple of Doug Clark and Carol Bundy--never trust anyone with the last name Bundy), the way it is filmed and told doesn't inspire much of anything, really. A more artistic hand could make the lights lighter and the darks darker. Right now, certain characters don't ring true and others don't feel like part of the story. It's quite hard to explain it, save for if I compare it to something like Breaking Bad or Mad Men. In those shows each scene oozes tension. There's nothing flat. Here, with the onset of every commercial break I kept pausing my DVR and rewinding it a little because I felt like I had missed something crucial. But I never missed anything, making the show bland in taste and texture.
"Just me, nearly blending into the background." Taissa
Also, while I think Ed Westwick and Erika Christensen are killing it, and Jeremy Sisto is doing an OK job so far with what he's given, Evan Ross and Taissa Farmiga's acting sticks out. While I loved her in the American Horror Story franchise and wished she had gotten a role on Scream Queens instead of this, I feel like here she takes a step back in her growth as an actress. Everything about the role seems like it should be for a woman slightly older or someone with a richer sense of the character. Those who haven't seen her in anything else, if this was their introduction to her might be inclined to say that she can't act, and the role she plays here makes it hard for me to argue that.
Should you be watching it? The toughness of this is that I originally read this was supposed to be an anthology series like AHS or American Crime, each season telling a different story, meaning that this one doesn't have long to stay on your tube. With that said, I can only give the recommendation to take a look at the first two episodes and see if you enjoy the tone. It is different than the procedurals that plague our airwaves and is ABC thinking outside of the box for a change, but there's nothing there to really write home about so far. Maybe it's an ode to the slow build. Who knows.
What do you think? Am I being too rough on this freshman series? Is Kent and Betty's twisted romance entangling you yet? Have you even seen the show? If so, do you think Betty will survive to the end? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "come on, Kent. You're killing like Betty White out there."

P.S. I could think of almost nothing else the entire time while writing this article, except for Betty White. Wow, was this really back in the days when the name Betty was common? Maybe that's even farther back. I'll think of something better to say next time.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Up, Up, and A, Uh... Hm? Where Do We Go After Up? #Supergirl #PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundUp

Up, Up, and A, Uh... Hm? Where Do We Go After Up? #Supergirl#PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundUp

All pictures courtesy of CBS
Once again it is that time, ladies and gentlemen. It's been on for three weeks (wow! That went by fast). It's time for Supergirl's (#Supergirl) three week roundup. My initials thoughts for this show were sparse as it premiered so late into the fall season that I didn't see the need to think about it much. Suffice it to say that I enjoy all comic book stuff (frankly, I enjoy anything with a good story that can entertain me) and give most of it a chance just because I like seeing the stuff. Fun fact: I also really enjoy TV so, yeah. Amidst the crowded marketplace that is the comic book movie/TV shared conglomeration multinational corporate universe, how is the latest superheroine doing? More hot and cold than Katy Perry in that one song that she sang. God, what was the name of that song?

Supergirl, starring Melissa Benoist as our titular character, follows the exploits of the supposedly lesser known cousin of the man in blue, Superman. For those who don't read the comics and didn't see the 80s film Supergirl of which I have fond memories of seeing, let me give you a little back story. As covered in the premiere, Kal-el's parents weren't just idiots who were going to send their baby son off to some alien planet alone while they died. Instead, they decided to send his cousin Kara-el in her own pod. A girl of 13 at the time of the planet's destruction, she was to take care of her baby cousin and make sure he was protected from whatever foolishness might pop off on earth.

Well, things didn't go as planned when her spacecraft got knocked off course and ended up spending 24 years trapped inside the phantom zone, which is neither a floating piece of thin glass like in the original Superman movies nor penis-shaped pods that go into a spaceship in Snyder's Man Of Steel. Here, it is somewhat of a cosmic mist/black hole/event horizon type thing. They try not to bog the viewer down with specifics but what we do know is that somehow after 24 years of frozen time in that zone, her pod escaped and crashed to earth.

Already established as Superman, her cousin finds her and her pod and brings her to the Danvers' family (do not get that confused with Marvel in any way) where she lives out her days with an older sister, gasp! Flash forward about 12 years and we find are humble hero being anything but heroic. A near carbon copy of her cousin, she finds herself wearing glasses, some of the cutest skirts and dresses I've seen in a while (yes, straight men do notice stuff like that) and working at a digital and print media empire founded, formed and run by Cat Grant played by TV vet Calista Flockhart (glad to see her back after Brothers and Sisters). Hence, Catco subs in for the Daily Planet, and National City (hey, that used to be a Midwestern bank for which my mother worked) is the fill-in Metropolis.
Funny, this city's Jimmy Olsen is the same Jimmy Olsen, though he's six feet of black hunkiness and prefers to be called James (OK, that may have gone too far, but I can admit when another man is attractive). Played by Mehcad Brooks, James just moved from Metropolis. Now, the pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist is running the photo department for Catco. It is established pretty early that not only is Superman very well established as he was wearing the costume when he found Kara years ago (somewhere around 11 or 12, meaning he's around 36 after spending 24 years on Earth without her; I did so many maths there), but he also has had enough time on earth to let a few people discover his secret identity. That probably means that Lois knows who he is by now. I guessed within the first few minutes that he sent James there specifically to look after his cousin Kara and maybe push her to become her own eventual hero. What he probably didn't expect were the goo eyes she'd make at James.
Is it hot in here, or do I just have the Fever?
That's right, if I were her friend I would give Kara a brush machete for Christmas to clear out some of that safari grass because she has the deepest jungle fever that I've seen allowed on prime time at 8pm on Monday nights in a long time. Never mind the fact that her other colleague who is a bit of a nerd (what Jimmy was to Clark Kent) has a huge crush on her, her guy is of the tall, black, bald and handsome variety, not to mention older. Due to what I see as one of the biggest problems of this show which I will cover later, he doesn't let on to knowing that she is Clark's cousin right away, so they have to do this dance which was a total farce in my eyes.
Currently a regular 24-year-old woman waiting to make her mark on the world, she lives alone in an apartment which is clearly too expensive for her if National City is any bigger than a pea. Her sister, played by the always lovely Chyler Leigh (still miss you on Grey's; still think Not Another Teen Movie is so underrated; we won't mention Taxi Brooklyn) has a talk with her before leaving for a flight. As luck would have it, Kara sees the flight in danger hours later and flies up to save it, performing her first heroic feat. Things get dicey when people complain about how she saved the flight, having to turn the plane on its side, scraping the wing across a bridge and landing the plane in the river where it slowly sank after all the people were rescued.
A clear novice, heroism felt good and contrary to her sister's demands not to reveal herself, she does. First she tells her love-struck coworker that she saved the plane because she, too, is a Kryptonian. Then she goes through a quick 90s Clueless shopping/getting ready for a party montage to find a proper superhero costume. No, seriously, she just had everything she needed lying around. The red boots, the golden belt, the modest but stylish skirt--I'll give you the S and even the cape but really? Come on! And out to save more people. As she tries being a hero again, tracking down her first ever super-powered enemy, she gets into a real fight with him and realizes, "holy cannoli, I don't know how to fight." She is saved by, wait for it... wait for it... her sister! What? I know, right?
Turns out, her sister Alex works for an organization called the DEO--Department of Extranormal Operations. And in this organization is where I found my most beloved character. The head of the DEO is this deliciously over-the-top black guy that delivers his lines so perfectly that they run the line of complete cheesy camp and realistic seriousness. The closest thing I could think of to describe him would be the pilots or Leslie Nelson's character in the Airplane movies. His constant scowl and bad mood make me want to do nothing more than flick his nose and watch him freak out about it.
Anyway, Alex has been working for the DEO for a while. Since Superman's arrival, the governments of the world felt they needed to keep watch for more aliens. Remember that strange ill-explained phantom zone? Apparently Kara wasn't the only one in there. During her escape, her spacepod somehow tugboat-ed out a larger prison vessel which crashed on earth too. Housing not just Kryptonians but prisoners throughout the galaxy (or universe, whichever) this dropped a clue to the history of Krypton. It seems they served as galactic peacekeepers/jailers. With Krypton gone villains who got locked away by Kara's mom (a judge there) want revenge on the remaining Kryptonians as well as to take over the world. The DEO's job is to stop that. After a little back and forth about how she isn't ready and is just a hindrance whereas Superman is built for this, they support her in a fight against the big guy that was throwing her around.
Kara saves the day by heat visioning the crap out of his ax and standing nearby as he killed himself, talking about something that was coming. The day saved, she escapes with few scratches and lives to be given the moniker Supergirl by Cat Grant. There's some back and forth about calling her a girl as opposed to a woman, and Cat explains it away to make it sound cool. James tells her he knows her secret and gives her a present from Clark--an indestructible cape. I want to delve into what's wrong with this show so much, but I still have two episodes to get through.
The second episode shows more of what the first bad guy eluded to. Kara's gallery of rogues is led by a very familiar face. Before the planet exploded, Kara's mom sentenced one last criminal to the phantom zone, her own twin sister. Outside of the mind-blowing fact that Krypton had twins just as Earth, we are to understand that she was a general (cough General Zod cough) who wants to subjugate the planet. Why she hasn't already done this, I don't know as she has plenty of supervillains on her side.
My mother's evil twin sister Astra... or the other one. 
Kara's first brush with kryptonite, she and her adopted earth sister fight in a training chamber so Alex can teach her tactical sparring. She doesn't learn much but does leave sore. Cat not only treats her like crap but wants James to use his Supes connections to get her an exclusive sit down with Supergirl or else he's fired. She also suggests the heroine start small and work her way up to big stuff after she ruined an oil tanker by ripping it open when trying to pull it away from a fire--eco-disaster.
Over-The-Top Black guy, you make my day.Taking the advice, she does start small, stopping robbery, saving snakes named fluffy from trees--the usual stuff. But when a bug-alien that disguises itself as human kills and feeds on power, she has to stop him, unknowing that he works for her aunt. She and her aunt tussle as her sister defeats the bug. Over-the-top black guy makes some snappy comments about not calling her Supergirl and it is revealed that he, too, is some kind of enhanced human or alien as his eyes occasionally glow red. Finally, to save James' job, she goes and talks to Cat.
The third show opened with the continuing interview where Kara reveals that she is Superman's cousin. James then slips up and blurts out that Clark Kent is superman (is there no secrecy anymore). They find a little office space down the hall from their desks that no one uses that they decide to make into their psuedo-base, and I was like whaaaa? So, you're really just gonna have your superhero HQ in an office down the hall from where you work? OK. And to top it all off Cat made Kara treat that redheaded man like a redheaded stepchild. "That's hair-ist!" you say? First off, don't yell at me, because the show decided to pick on the ginger. The villain of the week: Reactron, a human poisoned with radiation who lost his family during a Superman rescue mission. Now, he uses a suit to fly and fight against all superpowered beings but especially against Superman--he's nearly killed him a few times.

When he nearly kills Kara she is saved by her cousin who swooshes in last minute and rescues both her and this other guy who thinks she's nothing but a menace. The hero she is, she throws a fit about not needing his help and how James was wrong for calling him because she could have saved the day herself. Then, during Cat's party later that night, the guy comes back with his suit supercharged and tries again to kill her. James runs distraction and gets the guy to chase him while Kara is fed info on how to stop him, which she subsequently does. Her confidence at an all time high, she goes to possibly ask James out the next day but finds that Lois Lane's younger sister is there to visit James. As it turns out, she also has a fever hailing from where the lion sleeps tonight as James is implied to be her ex. Kara sulks and chats with Superman on the computer to cheer herself up. And as if the show couldn't get anymore cheesy, they end with her and Alex eating while the song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" plays in the background. Are you serious? Boy, where do I begin on my critique.
What's my rating? I give this show a B-. Before you chomp my head off superhero fans, let me explain. A few years back I was ordered to write a book entitled The Provocateur by a group of people. Not my proudest work, one of the things in the book is the idea that women are constant imitators and rarely originators outside of bringing life into this world. In other words, they will take something already formed and created by men and make it theirs. I know, that will piss off plenty of female readers but while the female Ghostbusters, the planned female version of Ocean's Eleven, the Expendabelles and a slew of other movies play into this very trend, none of them top Supergirl's imitation.
My laser beams glow blue because I don't want to be mistaken for Superman
I really like this show, but it is hella frustrating for the show to be packaged the way it is. As much as it tries to stay away from Superman, they mention him every single episode between every single commercial break. We get it, Kara doesn't want to be known as the lesser female version, but if she spent less time bringing it up, maybe people wouldn't notice. Oddly, this leads to my biggest gripe with the show--there wasn't enough Superman, or rather enough of his influence.
From what the show tells us, Kal-el found his cousin out in the middle of nowhere and dropped her with a loving family (Dean Cain from Lois and Clark, and the original Supergirl from the 80s movie). After that it suggests that was the last time she really saw or talked to him, and that even though he knows she is probably one of the only other people in the world who is similar to him, he isn't the least bit concerned with her. Even taking into account the crystals in his fortress of solitude, he doesn't want to know about what his parents were really like, how kind they were as an aunt and uncle, how much they really loved each other, or how Krypton was. What was it like to go to school there, to grow up there, the sunsets, the sunrises, etc.

This is your family! Don't contact me ever for anything. Love, Superman.
Apparently, he doesn't care about any of that because he's too busy saving the world? Also, he knows that she'll be dealing with superpowers but it seems he never showed her the fortress, or the crystals, or taught her how to fly, or anything... ever! Listen, I know that there's some filling in of the audience that needs to be done, but to have Kara be just as clueless about her cousin as everyone else is, if not more subverts one of the main purposes of the show and it also paints Superman in an even worse light than Man of Steel did. Superman is kind of a dick to not share or care anything about his little cousin. I understand family riffs and all of that, but there shouldn't have been any of that. Superman is acting more like Batman every day.
As I mentioned up top, one of the main purposes of the show was to be a pillar of feminism and femininity which I can understand. But I feel in more ways than one that the show misfires drastically on this thrust. First off, they called out Millennials (as is the cool thing to do now) as being the whiny bunch that constantly needs help. Not going to say that is or isn't true about some of the Millennials I've known, but I will say that it doesn't look good to possibly offend the very viewership you covet. Then, Supergirl plays directly into this. 
Not only does the show play into the stereotype that women don't know what they want (help or no help), but that they do need help. She has the entire DEO to help her defeat villains. Superman had, what, Jimmy with a camera and Lois who, let's be honest, was more of a hindrance than a help? She has a set-out model for what to do and how to be and she still complains because she feels it's unfair to compare her to Supes because he's a man? Because none of her criticism could be genuine like what Supes got as a hero, it all comes from a sexist slant? Ugh! Essentially the entire show is not Supergirl, not a story of its own making that could have taken these strange and wonderful turns, exploring how it is to adjust to a culture after living in another one for so long or figuring out how to be a better superhero than those that came before you. No, this is Superman in a skirt. This is why people (both men and women) complain about stuff like the new Ghostbusters, because the only change made is a gender swap. And with so much rich back story waiting to be mined and a virtually new character (people didn't look fondly on that 80s movie like I did), they could have done some really cool stuff. Instead, we get the same, "you aren't ready. Hide your powers. You can't do this. Oh you're a girl. I'm gonna prove that I'm just as capable as a man," shtick we've been getting for years from other superhero shows (minus the girl part). This was also the complaint people had with the shared universe thing for DC because they wonder how new superheroes will act when the old ones have been around for years. "Well, they'll act the same way and have the same struggles." Maybe, but not likely.

With that said, should you be watching? Yes. Look, with all of the stuff that's on Mondays at 8pm, it is difficult to type that definitive yes in there, but I did it because I do like the show. I enjoy the cast. I had doubts about Melissa (really only because I wanted a natural blonde for the role as Supergirl is supposed to be) but she does a fine job with what they give her. And that over-the-top black guy can give Hotels.com's Mr. Obvious a run for his money, and is worth the price of admission alone. As far as the female audience, though I actually find Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to be a smarter show, I think this is more family-oriented and has less chance at producing dead air. Don't, however, expect something ground-breaking. Also, don't listen to those supposed Hollywood insiders that say that this will revolutionize TV and film superheroes because Hollywood won't be afraid to make a female superhero anymore. Don't know where they got that BS, but Hollywood was never afraid to make a female superhero, otherwise the original Wonder Woman show, the 80s Supergirl and practically the first three X-men movies wouldn't have even gotten made, let alone Catwoman.
What do you think? Am I being too hard on the show? Were you expecting something a little different like I was, knowing that Kara hadn't come to earth as a baby? Were you expecting for her to at least have some family contact with Clark? Do you even watch this show? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalking
If you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "she's got jungle fever. He's got jungle fever. They both got jungle fever. They're in love."
P.S. I think I'm paraphrasing but Stevie Wonder couldn't have said it better. I'll try to think of something better next post.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Twinsanity (or in other words, yes this title is a lazy copout) #Quantico #ABC

Twinsanity (or in other words, yes this title is a lazy copout) #Quantico #ABC
All pictures courtesy of ABC 
So, last night while writing this I contemplated whether I would make my next NaBloPoMo post about a show as they usually are or if I would switch it up and make it about the writing. Tomorrow I probably will make it one on the writing and how that is going as NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are competing for my writing time. Heck, writing a blog post a day is a lot of work but to be trying to finish a bestselling novel in the same time is proving even more difficult. In my six days of writing last week I didn't get anywhere near where I wanted to get in my novel, but I'm rocking it out on the posts. More about that tomorrow. For now, let's talk some crazy spy-ness.

This week's Quantico (#Quantico) was a big episode because it finally covered the twins. Leaving us with a cliffhanger from last week when the two women locked Asher in their bathroom, this episode opened with the recruits going through some more physical fitness stuff all without Asher. Where everyone thought he was, I don't know (it bothered me all episode) but since no one asked, it clearly showed just how much they care for their fellow recruit. He had to deal with the head lady who didn't want her secret project compromised with him opening his big mouth about the truth. What does Asher do as soon as she lets him out and he goes to class, he tells "Nimah" to stay away from him, "both of you," while sitting next to the blonde gay guy who already found out he wasn't gay. That might have been a clue, might not have--I don't know. What I do know is that he was pissed.

Back in the future just after the terrorist attack, after Alex discovered the footage showing one of the twins in Grand Central before the blast, she jumped to the conclusion that they had either been turned by radical Islam or had always been radical Muslims. But when they find an address for the twins in NYC (why was everyone stationed in NYC?), Alex and Asher go to their apartment to find Raina praying and unaware of where her sister is or if she was still alive. As a side, yes, Raina (or Rayna?) is the name of the twin sister who is the kinder one who likes Asher, but they went under her sister's name for whatever reason.
Hi, I'm Fletcher
As the story switches back and forth we see that Alex and the gang are all in danger both in the future and the past, or the present and the past. Ahh, now I'm getting confused. Back as trainees, their mid-term exam was to use all of their skills acquired from the first third of training to complete a test. Thinking it a written exam after receiving a paper, they quickly realize the paper is blank and start to consider other ways they could be getting tested. Alex thinks it has something to do with the amount of papers they received. The group hands in the paper and realize they are one piece short, a 60 out of 61 people. When they use the classroom surveillance to discover it was the rich kid Fletcher who never got a paper, he freaks out about how he shouldn't have been there and was failing out anyway. He storms out the room and triggers a full classroom shutdown that shuts the blinds and turns off the AC. Now they have to figure out if he was a real traitor/danger to his fellow trainees like the suicidal Mormon was earlier in the year, or if he is part of the test.

Their quest of discovery leads them to find a trigger under his seat counting down from three hours. His girlfriend, tomboy who likes Booth, said that he went for a walk the night before causing the group to check the surveillance camera in the class during that time. He's on the recording placing something in the podium. What else is it but a bomb!

Meanwhile, back in the future, Raina takes Asher and Alex to the place where they've been looking down on a house where known Islamic militants have been living. Undercover, they infiltrated the organization as Nemah, and were trying to stop an imminent terrorist threat. With Nimah currently inside, they send Raina across the street to sneak in and take her place, but Nemah doesn't want to switch out. She asks to go back in after telling Alex and Asher about her cover. While undercover for the last week, she had to sleep with the main guy to get more info in hopes of stopping the attack. She never switched out because she didn't want the near virginal Raina to have to submit to the sexual advances of a terrorist. As it happens, he comes back expecting more from Raina than just a few shy giggles.

Everything blows up in their face when Booth and Shelby arrive with a hidden tracker on them, leading Liam and tomboy straight to their location. Not only are they helping fugitive Alex, but they are risking the life of a field agent by allowing Raina to remain in that house. As the FBI raids the apartment, Nimah, Alex, and Booth run across the street to rescue Raina. In the hubbub, the terrorist comes out to see the twins and fires at them, missing and hitting Booth (damn, how many times is this dude gonna get shot... or stabbed?). They manage to escape but only because tomboy loves Booth and she'd rather tend to his wounds than bring in Alex.
Sorry Edie, you're gone from another show. 
Back during training, Asher steps up to diffuse the bomb as he's the only experienced explosives expert. Typical movie/show bomb stuff, he cuts and pulls some wires to speed up the timer, but in doing so opens the door out of the classroom. Some people too frightened by blowing up scamper away. Those that stay watch the countdown end and the director come waltzing in talking about congratulations for passing the test. They needed to risk their lives for the country or else why be there?
Unfortunately those who ran get expelled, including the blonde gay guy that figured out Asher's secret. Oddly, the non-gay Asher allows himself a kiss with the gay guy. A few other stories tidying up: Booth is given the opportunity for reinstatement as a full agent but says he has to think about it; Shelby meets Caleb's dad, the same man she has an affair with in the future; and the director revealed to the group that Nimah and Raina were twins to keep Asher from going crazy.
What do you think? Will Asher and Raina finally get to really start dating? Will Booth find a way not to get shot or stabbed or nearly killed again in the next seven episodes? And who do you suspect is the killer/terrorist? My money is still on Shelby. Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, "when to the show, sittin' in the front row with a black track suit and it's shutdown."

P.S. OK, the shutdown of the FBI classroom reminded me of London rapper Skepta's hit song Shutdown. If you haven't heard it and you like rap you need to check it out. I'll think of a better sign-off next time, but until then everything is shutdown!

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Sickness And Re-Birth #AmericanHorrorStory #AHSHotel #DVRRewind

Sickness And Re-Birth #AmericanHorrorStory #AHSHotel #DVRRewind
All pictures courtesy of FX 
As NaBloPoMo pushes forward (more on that later), I find myself nearly overwhelmed with all of the writing. Today is someone important's birthday and I can't sit and write all day. But I will try to sneak in a blog post before I have to stop and give all my attention to them.
This week's DVR rewind is once again American Horror Story Hotel (#AHSHotel). Like any good fan, I've been keeping up every week with my DVR (sometimes I can't watch it live because I have to write or am watching something else), and man has it become crazy. Vampires galore and ghosts killing people in deadly ghost parties, and Angela Bassett still looking fine at her age (side note: I have a little crush on Angela Bassett. So what, it's not a crime!). They're throwing a lot of movie motifs and tropes at us and though we've seen and read plenty of them before, they feel fresh.

After last week's discovery that her son was still living (sorta) in the Hotel Cortez with Lady Gaga as his new mom, Alex the nurse married to the detective agreed to become a "vampire" just like her son so she could be around him forever. This week's episode "Room Service" opened with her not yet conformed to the full effects. A sickly dead look on her face, she works to cure the boy with measles and holistic parents. Near death because his parents neglected to give him a measles vaccination, Alex does the dumbest thing ever and pumps the boy's IV full of some of her own blood after gorging on a few packets locked in storage. Now watch this stupid chick next week as she tries to convince Gaga that she didn't know what would happen. If she says that I will give her the most severe side eye the world has ever known. With the child first appearing fine, hell breaks loose as the mother takes the boy home and suddenly things start turning very Salem's Lot-ty.


The boy does in his parents the morning before going off to school on what was the school's celebration day of Halloween. Costumed up, he talks to his best female friend and gets her to sneak away to the closet in back of the room to kiss. Mind you they're only around nine or ten years old but they get caught when he bites the girl's lip and allows her to taste his blood. And so the infection begins. The teacher's throat slit, he turns his entire class, which then try gorging on another man who I can only guess was the principal. By the time it ends, every adult is dead and the vampire children have to be "rescued" by SWAT from the tall gunman wearing all black--a lie they crafted.

Meanwhile, Angela Bassett's and Matt Bomer's characters plot to bring down Queen Gaga. With Matt out of the picture as her main boy-toy squeeze, they use the next best thing, his mother. Still going through the immortal sickness herself, Kathy Bates finally drinks a blood mixture made specifically for Gaga by the cross-dressing bartender Liz Taylor. Over blood cocktails and cat food (read: liver pate) for some arrogant hipster guests, Liz reveals his story. He's not gay nor does he say he is a transgender but just a crossdresser.

Thirty years prior he had a family, a wife and a kid and either flew airplanes or was a pharmaceutical rep (did anyone else get confused by that? He said that the picture of the airplane the boy drew was wrong because he flew in a 757, right? But he also said he was a rep). One day, while on a business trip to LA, he meets Gaga as she sneaks into his room while he is having a Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" moment. Completely wasting the chance for Gaga to say the words, "you're on the right track baby, you were born this way," she instead convinces him to no longer hide and walk down the hall in a negligee, fur and makeup. He does and gets caught by the guys on the business trip with him. They tease, then gay bash, then throats get sliced open by Gaga and he never goes back to his family, sending them money until the youngest kid turned 18. The takeaway: he's not a frickin' vampire or a ghost!

His bravery--or deadbeatness, whichever--inspires Kathy Bates to kill the uppity guests and feed on them as she will be visible, she will matter.

Meanwhile, the detective did nothing the whole episode but freak out about everything. Now, lately I've been feeling a little mentally slower than normal and it has concerned me greatly, but I made sure to pay close attention last night and I was quite confused on his story too. Last week after attending the murder ghost soiree (fancy word for dinner party) he ended up leaving with Blonde And Teased, Sarah Paulson's character. But when we first see him on this week's episode, he is in his captain's office complaining about doing a full building search on these people claiming to be famed killers. His reputation already fractured after a mental break suffered five years earlier, his captain can't have such behavior reflect badly on his precinct and fires dude. And I was all like, "what!?" They're firing people now because they don't want to go through the hassle of doing their own job, basically? Whoa! OK.


And as if that weren't confusing enough, his next scene had him waking in bed with blondie but not remembering it. Now, did she save him that night, take him to his room, screw the memory of sex right out of him, he went to the police station, got fired, came back to the hotel where she subsequently screwed him so good she sexed his memory out AGAIN because that's how they played it unless there was some time-jump in there I'm not aware of. Dude woke up and demanded she get out of his bed as only bits and pieces of their slap and tickle session flashed through his mind.
I had sex with who? How many times? 
I'm not really sure where his story line is going but with his wife now sleeping in a coffin with their vampire son and him not being any wiser that she's even moved into the hotel, one question I do have is who the hell is taking care of their daughter? Did that bother anyone else? I mean, you got these bloodthirsty vampire kids about to take over the city and I don't know where their other child is. And that is truly terrifying.

What do you think? Are you loving this season of American Horror Story or is it not your most favorite rendition? Do you think Angela, Matt and Kathy will bring down Gaga or are they all fated for some big weird vampire sex scene (hey, it's two ex-lovers and an old lady. I'm just saying Gaga doesn't discriminate)? And what do you think will develop from the kid vampires? Will they have to get their own rendition of Van Helsing up in there? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, "'when there's some-thing strange in your neigh-bor-hood, who you gonna call?' Wait, do the Ghostbusters do vampires or just demons, gooey green blobs and overgrown marshmallows?"
P.S. I swear when I first saw Angela Bassett's character I thought for sure they were doing their own female take on Van Helsing which makes Gaga sorta Dracula. Come on, a Vampire infestation only has about two names on the list: Dracula and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer. It's true. Better sign-off next time. You know the deal.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball

Truth Be Told... I Have No Idea How I Feel About This Show #TruthBeTold #PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundup

Truth Be Told... I Have No Idea How I Feel About This Show #TruthBeTold #PremiereWeek #3WeekRoundup
All pictures courtesy of NBC unless otherwise noted 
Surprise, I'm doing another three week roundup of a new show this season because, you know, I wanna keep you all informed about what you should and shouldn't be watching and the things you have or haven't heard of. Is this one late? Yes, by a week, but some of these late-premiering shows I wasn't going to initially do because it really ticked me off that the networks don't give us everything all at once. I like all at once, the overload of it. Anyway, as with all of these posts if you want to know my initial thoughts on this show and any other network TV new show then click the #Premiere Week link up top but as a refresher I'll say that my thoughts on this show were sparse because I had no idea what this show was about. NBC's fall lineup marketing budget clearly went all to Heroes Reborn, The Player and Blindspot because some of the other new shows I didn't even see an ad for until September when the other shows had been advertised all summer long. Hell, I didn't even know when Grimm was coming back until a week before it did. So how is the old Wesen-dominated supernatural/fairy tale show's new lead-in doing?
Truth Be Told (#TruthBeTold) stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Vanessa Lachey, and two newbie black actors (new to me) that fans might have caught glimpses of in recent comedies. Tone Bell (the man, just in case anyone has trouble identifying gender based on name) was most recently seen as the witty wise-cracking bailiff on NBC's other failed comedy from last year Bad Judge. Was that show Seinfeld or Friends or The Office, no; however, I rather enjoyed its dysfunction. I thought Tone did quite well as the sidekick--yes, I know black sidekick guy is a stereotype but he did it well. The other newbie to me is Bresha Webb who is probably most famous for her guest starring stint on Grey's Anatomy, though her IMDb page might say differently. Although a viewer might also recognize her if they happen to be a big horror buff who loves Indies (side note: I am and I can only remember her from Grey's). Together, these four make up the two couples around which this show is based.

The premise of the show as I now understand it is for them to approach possible hot button/ controversial/non-PC topics in the typical 90s sitcom way. Yes, that means it has a laugh track. No, I don't think it hinders the show. It should be noted that this show was originally entitled People Are Talking which defines the ho-humness perfectly. Mainly focusing on marriage, it at least gets the diversity reward as it features only one white man in the cast (no white women. Sorry). Outside of those few details that is pretty much it. That's about all you need to know about the show and hence, why NBC probably didn't promote it very well and why they stuck it on Fridays in the dead zone that is 8:30. I know this doesn't fare to well as Constantine ran at 8pm last year (it switched times with Grimm which still managed to pull an audience) and it did nothing. Dracula had been on at 9pm after Grimm the previous season and it also did nothing. The point is that outside of Grimm and Dateline, NBC hasn't had success with filling the third hour of prime time regardless of if its 8 or 9 and regardless of the type of shows they put there. This year, they go for the two straight comedies and while Undateable Live seems like the biggest farce a network has perpetrated on its loyal viewers, at least it does have a certain intrigue to it because it's live. Truth be told, Truth Be Told does not have that (you knew I'd use that joke at least once in this post. Wordplay. Tee-hee!).
For the little buzz (we're talking so little a bee couldn't hear it) surrounding this show and the concept, there's not a lot of controversy to the subject matter. You want true controversy read The Provocateur but I digress. The first three episodes seemed like standard fare right out of a 90s sitcom playbook. Everything from the babysitter has a dark past to old couples arguing vs. new couples arguing to little kid sees what she shouldn't--it's all there for the watching and for you to enjoy at your leisure. Ground-breaking? No. Oddly, not even the black jokes have any bite anymore as Mark's character's use of the N-word is briefly discussed. I'm not sure how to even summarize the three episodes any more succinctly as I did a few sentences back but here it goes.

The first episode started in a Chinese restaurant where we meet Mark and Tone's characters and briefly debate the authenticity of the counter girl's Chinese accent. Tone correctly points out that the accent is fake, after which they leave to the valet and Tone asks for his Porshe. When returning the car, the valet gives the keys to the white man based on the fact that a John Mayer CD was playing inside. So black people can't like John Mayer? He was on Chappelle Show with Dave Chappelle. THE CHAPPELLE SHOW WITH DAVE CHAPPELLE! I love John Mayer's music and anybody that tells me I can't is just gonna make me write in even more prominently capitalized letters--it's possible... I think.
The rest of the episode deals with some tickets Tone's wife gets from an ex to go backstage at a Jay-Z concert. Mark and his wife are invited but have to find a babysitter for their one night out in 46 days. Naturally, she's hot but she also has a Latina complexion which makes her "racially ambiguous." Neverminding that, Tone thinks he recognized her from a porno. The two men investigate his claim and think it's her. Tone doesn't want to tell the ladies, fearing it will ruin the night. But Mark--did I mention he is an Ethics professor--blurts out the truth as they sit in the driveway. The babysitter comes out to catch them all watching side-by-side videos of the porn and a vacation vid from her Facebook, prompting her to leave. They never get the answer to the question and their night is ruined. See where this series is going?
The second episode goes in a similar fashion as Tone gets tickets to the AVN awards (for people not in the know or who actually have morals the AVN stands for Adult Video Gubernatorial Awards--the "guber" is silent. Or wait, that N might stand for news, though what network carries porn news?. Playing a rising star comedian, he is an honored guest because the producers want access to his Twitter following. Since Mark and Vanessa are the longer-standing couple, they try to school Tone and Bresha on how to have trust. Yadda, yadda, yadda, he lies about an after-party, she shows her insecurity, they start not to go but have to go back home and interrupt the guys' night to solve the conflict with their wives, Tone and Bresha end up not going while Mark and Vanessa go with the other two guys in the group. All is forgiven and lessons in truth, honesty and trust are learned. Hiz-zah!

The third episode sees Mark having to babysit swap with the Orthodox Jewish couple from across the street. Watching after his daughter and their daughter, he panics and takes them to Tone and Bresha's house where Tone has a sing-a-long karaoke of the full soundtrack of Disney's Frozen because his wife thought his gift request for the film was a joke. For reasons that defy logic, Tone goes to take a shower while the kids and Mark are over there. As Mark tries to get the karaoke machine to work, the Jewish girl runs off through the house, wanders through the unlocked bathroom door and sees through the perfectly clear, non-fogging shower glass (a kind of creepy feature for a bathroom unless you live in the Playboy mansion) and sees Tone's "BBC." At that point, I didn't know what was more shocking: the fact that they've used this same instance countless times on TV before or the fact that they said BBC. OK, really I wasn't shocked at all that they used the set-up, but I really wanted to write an "or" comparative statement and I had nothing else to compare their use of the word BBC to.
Naturally, everyone but ethicist Mark wants to cover it up. But when she draws a picture of it and the parents think it is of the male babysitter instead, their cover-up results in his firing. A potential good thing as Mark and Vanessa now have access to the great babysitter, Mark blurts out the truth while at the Jewish household. Even though they already don't like the black guy, the Jewish family still decides to attend Mark and Vanessa's daughter's sixth birthday party knowing that their none-children having black friends will be there. The judgy stay-at-home moms are looking for career woman Vanessa to redeem herself from last year's fairy princess stripper-gate but the party blows. Frozen sing-a-long time! Recently working in a yogurt commercial, Tone happens to have a costume similar to Olaf the snowman and comes out for all the kids to see and touch and enjoy. When he starts to get jiggy with it the suit rips exposing, once again, his BBC. I know what your'e thinking right now. "Whoa, wait a minute. Did that guy just say something about getting jiggy with it?" Yes, I fit that Will Smith reference in. Yep.
What's my grade? I give this a C. I enjoy the chemistry of the cast and think everyone plays off of each other well. I especially like Tone as I did in Bad Judge. But at times Mark sticks out as if he doesn't fully believe in the character or the script. Sometimes I wish Zack could just go back to when the days were simple, and he and his cardboard Kelly cutout could live in peace. A guy can dream, can't he?

Picture courtesy of Saved By The Bell
Should you be watching? Meh! If you already have something else to watch or do on Friday, then no you probably shouldn't tune in for this show. If, however, you use your DVR as much as you breathe air, then give this a shot and see how it feels in your eyeballs (that came out more creepy than I anticipated). While the show is hit or miss and a rehash of something you've already seen before, it did give me a few laughs and it might do the same for you, depending on your sense of humor and your mood. I binge-watched the first three episodes after a long day of outside winter preparation for my gardens which I will be posting about soon. My body was fatigued and I hadn't used my brain much all day. Oh, and Ashley Tisdale was on there too. Yay, Ashley Tisdale.
What do you think? Am I being too hard on this freshman show and not seeing its comedic brilliance? Do you watch the show? If so, who is your favorite character and why? The episode order has been cut so this might not make it. If you want it to, tell all your friends about it. Do you want it to survive or is this cancel-bait? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).


Check out my new comedy novel  Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, "hey, I'm just your typical black sidekick. Thank god this isn't a scary movie because if it was I'd probably already be--ahhh! Stop killing me!"

P.S. Though he is a lead, why does Tone Bell still feel like a sidekick here? Maybe it's because they're always filmed inside Mark and Vanessa's house? Don't know. I'll come up with a better sign-off next time.

Amazon
Goodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball