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Is This AM Or FM? Or Sirius? Or XM? Wait, Does XM Even Exist Anymore? #Frequency #CW #3weekroundup

Is This AM Or FM? Or Sirius? Or XM? Wait, Does XM Even Exist Anymore? #Frequency #CW #3weekroundup
All pictures courtesy of the CW

You know the introduction script: ‘nother three-week roundup, new series, recap/review, some half-brained attempt at a witty metaphor, and the title Frequency sloppily woven into the intro paragraph. Let’s get to it!Frequency is CW’s newest show to add to its bevy of strange sci-fi and superhero shows. It’s funny: when the WB and UPN merged to create the CW, I would’ve never guessed the channel would morph into the home for high-concept creative programming as it has (side note: high-concept is industry talk for a show that is high in idea but can be easily explained in one or two sentences; not to be confused with high-brow) become. Sure, the WB had stuff like Angel and Buffy through the 90s, but UPN still had a plethora of black sitcoms and shows that saw normal people in normal settings. Suddenly, you look across the network landscape and you see every network trying to go slightly strange with their programming in order to capitalize on the superhero craze. Unfortunately, no other network has managed to do it quite like the CW, mixing their comic-book-fare with other creative sci-fi or strange-fic shows in for the crowd of people who still shy away from saying that they watch anything on the Syfy channel regularly. For a channel that has been sporting such programs that have beasts, vampires, ghosts, demons, post-apocalyptic societies and the like, Frequency fits right in with the rest of the weird and crazy, while toeing the line of realistic and simplistic.
Wow, so even though I hit you with a second introductory paragraph after trying to speed into the review with the first one, you’re going to excuse that and keep reading as the real review starts... now! OK, so Frequency, as I suspected but didn’t know in my preview review, is a show based off the film of the same name that came out more than a decade ago. Starring Jim Caviezel (Jesus) and Dennis Quaid, it followed a detective trying to stop a murder with the help of his father. The twist? His father died 20 years prior. The show has taken the same concept and applied it to a father/daughter combo. Raimy Sullivan (played by Peyton List most recently off of The Flash) is a homicide detective living in our current time. Let me just point out the strangeness of the CW’s two newest shows. If you read my No Tomorrow review, you will know that the star who plays Evie, Tori Anderson, is playing a 30 going on 31-year-old but is actually about 27, 28. Here, on Frequency, we have Peyton playing a 28-year-old when she is actually 30, which is strange because, to me, both women look their real ages, granted it’s not that big of a difference, but still. I guess I can forgive CW for what I thought was ageism on No Tomorrow since I thought a 30-year-old actress should have been playing Evie. Also, I know this tangent is long, but I could totally see the actresses switching roles and bringing a cool unique new twist to both characters while still having each show work.

OK, tangent over. You need to know what the show is about and that’s why you’re here. Raimy is a young woman on the cusp of the rest of her life. She just celebrated her 28th birthday, she found a black-boxed diamond ring in her boyfriend’s things that morning (she’s totally going to say yes, even though she hasn’t yet met his parents), and she just recently got a new case as a homicide detective, but when her boyfriend Daniel (played by Daniel Bonjour) goes to her house and finds an old ham radio in the garage, he starts to set it up for her as a surprise, only to find her objecting to the gesture. Her problem: the ham radio reminds her of her father. Her father was a cop, too, and, from what she’s been told, a dirty one.
Frank SullivanFrank Sullivan (played by Riley Smith) served as an undercover cop, gang unit, back 20 years prior in 1996 New York/New Jersey area. A Mets fan, he loves his only daughter, his long-suffering wife, and his pursuit of justice. We find him on the precipice of ending a years-long undercover beat that would bring down an entire crime organization while also trying to enjoy the ‘96 World Series (Tangent: Cleveland Indians are in it this year! Go Tribe!). His daughter’s eighth birthday, he leaves her a plush pink pony toy in a beat-up old buried coffee can in the backyard, and watches from afar as she digs it up before going off to school with her mother—it’s sort of their father-daughter thing. We don’t find out until a little later why they have this system but suffice it to say that things aren’t going well.

And then something crazy happens. On the night that Raimy spends some time at her old house drinking and what not after her 28th, she sees the old ham radio light up in the garage. She wanders in to find a man’s voice creaking across the frequency, slightly alcohol and cigar-addled as he plays with the radio like it’s a toy. Just looking for someone to connect with (he tells his little daughter that if they get the right frequency they can talk to astronauts up in space Gravity-style), he drums up a conversation with Raimy about the world series. He tells her his call sign and she thinks that can’t be his call sign because it’s her call sign, too. It doesn’t take long for both of them to freak-out and dang near curse each other out as they both believe the other is messing around. What’s the man’s name? Frank. Not possible, because Raimy’s dad’s name was Frank. ‘Oh, and you’re named Raimy? Raimy, what?’ “Sullivan!” ‘No way, because that’s my daughter’s name and she’s eight years old, it’s her birthday.’ “I just turned 28 and it’s my birthday.” You get the weirdness going on here, right?
So, it happens again and this time as Raimy is sitting at the radio, back in 1996, Frank allows a cigar to sit on the radio’s top and start to burn through the cheap metal. Raimy looks at her current-day radio and sees the smoke rising 20 years later as the burn scars into the radio, and warns him that he’s burning the radio. Too freaky.
Finally, to test this strange connection, Frank takes a soldering pen and burns a flag onto the top of the radio. The flag is a symbol for the flagpole at the back of the yard where he’s buried a special coffee can for her to dig up. Raimy goes out her house 20 years later and digs the coffee can up to find a Polaroid of her father holding a newspaper with the date of precisely 20 years prior. She goes back to the radio to tell him about the terrible picture he took and that’s when they realize that by some magical chance, they have tuned into a frequency that allows them to talk to each other through time-space. Putting aside how easily they accept this, both of them are rather excited for this opportunity, though Raimy is a little hesitant. Her problem stems not from the fact that this can’t be possible, but from the things she was told about her father. When she tells him that she is a detective too, now, he finds the idea that he’ll be on the force with his daughter in 20 years crazy. At 28, she’s as old as he is, slightly older. And then everything hits the fan when she bursts his bubble and tells him that he won’t be on the force, nor retired, but that he is dead, and in fact, dies/died tomorrow. Yes, he’s set to die shortly and it’s disappointing. Here’s another tangent for you, the actor playing Frank, Riley Smith is not 28 or even 30 as he is supposed to be, nor is he 48 like he would be if he had lived all through the 20 years since he’s died, but is actually 38 right directly in the middle. Now, I think that was done strategically so that they could easily age him up or down either way and not have it be too drastic looking. He can play younger but why they set his age in his 20s is beyond me, save for that they wanted to say that she is older than he ever lived to be, which they didn’t really have to do.
Raimy nearly hangs up on him after telling him about his death and how they’ll fish his body out of a local lake a few days after, along with some gangster he was linked to. She believes his dirty dealings is what got him killed but he insists that he was just doing the job the entire time and that the whole reason he’s even near the area they found his body is because there was supposed to be a police sting to finally end his undercover op. But she never hears about an undercover op. He is supposed to get shot dead, followed by the gangster. Who does this? They don’t know.

Wanting to believe her father even though she still suspects him of being dirty, Raimy joins forces with him to save his life. She conducts her own investigation in the future while Frank keeps his eyes wide open in the past. Raimy has a sneaking suspicion that this set-up was by the police he was working with based on the fact that she heard nothing about the sting. If the cops weren’t crooked, then a sting would actually have been mentioned and he would’ve died an honorable death in the line of duty rather than a crooked cop who got what he deserved.
When Raimy goes to visit one of her father’s old police buddies that Frank told her was involved in the sting-that-never-happened that night, she finds that he is a security guard who left the force long ago because he couldn’t deal with the guilt. He reveals that there never was supposed to be a sting and that Raimy’s boss at the time set him up to take the fall because he was working with the gangsters. She rushes back home to the radio to tell her father and that’s when we realize the limitations of the radio’s power. Frank’s not only already at the meet, but the other gangster that is supposed to die with him already has a gun to his head and knows he’s a cop.
Frank with friend SatchFar from stupid, Frank took his daughter’s warning from the previous day when she first told him and went to the exact shipyard place that she told him he got shot, and stashed a gun for himself. When the gangster started to shoot him, he smacked the gun from the guy’s hand, twisted around to get his own gun and yanked it from his stash place. Rather than shooting the gangster, he watches as the guy gets shot by the third shooter that was always meant to take out the gangster. The gangster dies while Frank shoots back at the third guy, but still takes a bullet from the man. Frank then runs out of the alley and is seen by a getaway car. He fires at the car as they fire at him and he drops to the ground.

As he is lying dying on the ground, back in present day, Raimy is curled up in a corner near the radio as she believes she has failed again. But when Frank breathes another breath in the past and rolls to his side and up to reveal that the bullet is in him but it didn’t kill him, suddenly Raimy has a rush of memories from the last 20 years flood her brain, memories that hadn’t before existed, memories of a life spent with a father that not only lived to see her 9th, 10th and 11th birthday, but lived long enough to see her strut into the bullpen in her beat-cop blues fresh from the academy, and dote on his cop daughter. Unfortunately, as soon as she exits her garage/shed, her best friend Gordo (Lenny Jacobson) greets her and wonders about her strange new enlightenment. “Everything’s different now,” she exalts. Her father wasn’t murdered, but Gordo quickly brings her world back to the ground when he tells her that her father died in a car crash about five years ago at the age of 43. While she finds it sad that he’s gone, it’s not that sad because she got to grow up with him and at least he wasn’t killed and didn’t die a corrupt cop, but was hailed as a hero for having survived an undercover gang gig that went horribly wrong. Funny thing: she remembers it both ways, both her life without him and this new life she never actually lived with him. Similar to NBC’s Timeless time travelers, both historical timelines are etched into her memory, though everyone around her only remembers the one timeline. And for that she is thankful.
Who does Frank wake up to in his timeline but his boss, the very man who set him up to take the fall and painted him as a dirty cop posthumously, Stan Hope (played by Anthony Ruivivar). He even gets a visit from his wife and little Raimy while in the hospital, and here’s where I forgot to mention something earlier because I didn’t have room to fit it in. See, the new case that Raimy just got in her time is actually an old case, a very old and ongoing case. In a recent marsh dredging, police found a very old body, nothing but bones left. Rosary beads tied around the wrist and ankle, the ME believes it is the body of one of the victims of the Nightingale killer, an area-famous serial killer from 20 years prior that was never caught. The killer grew famous for killing nurses. One of the nurses that had gone missing long ago was just now found and that was her body. Funny enough, Raimy’s mother was also a nurse and worked with the woman that got killed by Nightingale. But when visiting Raimy’s father in the hospital, even though Raimy’s mother wasn’t on call that night, she still wore her badge to use her clout to get to see her husband without having to check in and go through protocol. While there, she is stopped by the Nightingale killer’s would-be fourth victim and takes some packets of something from the woman who was going to take an elevator downstairs to drop them in a storage room. Since Raimy and her mother are going down anyway as they exit the hospital, her mother takes them and they get on the elevator with the Nightingale himself, when before the other nurse would’ve gotten on. See where this is going?
Left to Right: Raimy's friend, Raimy, DanielRaimy, knowing she’s late to her and her boyfriend’s (soon-to-be fiance) favorite restaurant to meet his parents in present time, she rushes over there to find him sitting with his mom and dad. But when she introduces herself, they are shocked and he has to walk her away from his people as he doesn’t know her. It turns out that he’s engaged to another woman already. Daniel and Raimy never met because the way they originally met in the other timeline was that her mother introduced her daughter to this handsome gentleman that had broken his arm in a nasty motor vehicle accident and had come to the hospital for stitches. Yep, her mother is now dead in this timeline, and without her being there to nurse Daniel, Raimy never meets him. And because she still has all the memories from both when her father lived and when he died, she doesn’t realize until she is called into the police station by her captain that the remains found in the swamp earlier (the same remains that had already been identified) are actually her mother’s in this new timeline. Not only that, but the Nightingale who had previously stopped at four victims did not only not stop at four, but is still killing and still has never been caught though they have a rough sketch. And that is where we leave off this episode and jump into the mystery of the season.

Episode two starts with a rehash of the remains found in the swamp. Not only is the examiner changed from a fat white man to a red-haired black woman, but the victim’s remains are definitely Raimy’s mother. Her mother Julie Sullivan (played by Devin Kelley who is the same age as Peyton List and eight years younger than Riley but is also supposed to be in her late 20s) is said to have gone missing in early January of 1997. This is great because not only does she not die immediately, but Raimy and Frank have discovered that their days mirror each other so that the same amount of time passes by for both of them (one day in present is one day in the past and vice versa), meaning they have, roughly two and a half months to catch the Nightingale killer and stop her from dying. The interesting thing about this show is that they can work this case in either timeline and, so long as it ends before January 11th, they can save her.
Their jumping-off point for their investigation stems from the very existence of a fourth body. Let’s first establish the two timelines to help us all understand this show a lot easier. We’ll call the first timeline when Frank dies the BadCop timeline and the second timeline the Mother timeline. We good there? Everybody understand that when I switch between the two? OK, good. So, in the original timeline AKA the BadCop timeline, the Nightingale killer was known to only have ever had three victims that were found in or near the swamp/marsh, all of them found within a very short amount of time. These killings supposedly stopped just after Frank died. However, the discovery of the fourth body extended the timeline in which the killer was active by nearly three months. So, because his original kills extended beyond the time parameter at least by a few months on the plus-side of time, why not on the minus side, too? In other words, maybe he was killing or doing something at the swamp earlier than when the killings supposedly started. This leads to Raimy and Frank both combing through past crimes of any kind at the swamp as they figured the killer had familiarity with his ultimate crime scene, some deeper connection to it that would make him want to kill there.
Left to Right: Julie (Devin Kelley), Raimy
In each of their digs into the past, they collectively discover a sexual assault case by some young kid that had been expunged. A man with the last name Goff was the perpetrator and he lives in the same house that he grew up in. Now firmly in the Mother timeline, Raimy goes to visit the man who is now in his mid-to-late 40s and looks like a family guy. He tells her about how the case was expunged and looks slightly nervous about being hassled by the police. She leaves and goes to tell her father back in his time.
Captain that set Frank upBack in Frank’s time, he is dealing with great pressures and changes. With his cover blown, he is given a position in homicide as a detective and paired with one of his good friends on the force and future captain Satch Rayna, who is played by the always dependable Mekhi Phifer. Now, I don’t want to go too deep into my verdict of the show yet, but let’s just say that I’m giving a serious side-eye at the producers and the makeup and costume departments who think that Mekhi as the oldest main cast member on the show really can play himself 20 years apart. He looks like a middle-aged man in both 1996 and 2016, LOL. I digress. As you can guess, he fills the role of boss and mentor to Raimy in the future as he had a brotherly bond with her father Frank in the past in both the BadCop and the Mother timeline. Now partnered with Frank in the Mother timeline, he virtually has not changed in role nor tone. He and Frank go to the same Goff house that Raimy went to in her time where they try to talk to the young boy about the nurse he sexually assaulted. Meanwhile, Raimy discovers that another girl who went to the same college as this Goff man back in her father’s time went missing in the midst of the Nightingale killings. They are trying to build a case that the killer still didn’t have an MO quite yet.

Raimy decides to go back out to the house that she visited the day prior, which, if you remember the way this thing works, is precisely 20 years after Frank and Satch visited the house. In Frank’s time, as soon as Goff’s mother tells them to scram and Goff sees them walking toward his work shed, he comes out to talk with them. His mother lets him say nothing, and the cops leave. But in his haste to get out there, he left the tool shed’s cellar door unlocked. Surprise, surprise, he had the missing woman from his college (not)locked deep inside waiting, presumably, to die. She escapes, smacks him with a shovel and sprints into the woods. In Raimy’s time, she goes to Goff’s house again and is shocked when a completely different guy opens the door and tells her that the Goff family used to live there 20 years ago or so. The future, her present, is constantly changing based off what she is telling her father.
The race is on to find the escaped girl in Frank’s time, but meanwhile, Frank has other things to deal with. His two years spent undercover put a canyon between him and his wife Julie. He’s trying to reconnect with her as he is just now flirting with the idea of moving back into the house—he moved out to protect them. Meanwhile, future Raimy keeps telling him that he needs to tell Julie that she’s going to die, but it’s obviously too complicated for him to blurt this out without some info on how he knows this as fact. When he takes Julie to the radio to have her talk with future Raimy, Raimy freezes up. Having just come from the Goff house, she now realizes that everything she says directly into her past, to her mother, her father, herself, can all change the future. She gets scared that telling her mother will change something else in a big way and says nothing, which only drives a bigger wedge between her parents. And that’s when I realized this show is not about time travel or fixing past faults but is about a family of people that can’t depend on each other. This episode ends with Raimy going back to the Goff house late at night and looking in a space where the tool shed once stood the day before when she visited, and digging through the soft, fertile ground to find a cellar where she automatically theorizes Goff kept his prisoners.
Episode three explores this prison cellar theory more as we already know the answer. Running the course of roughly two days time. In the first day, Frank and Satch go back to Goff’s house in their time and do an illegal “exigent circumstances” search of the tool shed, finding an empty cellar. With the boy gone and his mother not talking, Satch is ready to go because he doesn’t want to get sued by this lady, and then they see footprints in fresh mud that point into the woods to the side of the house. As Raimy sits at her detective’s desk back in 2016 checking and rechecking the police report status of the college girl that had never been found, she wills her father and Satch to the girl. They find the young woman passed out in the woods from having run all night trying to escape, and the report changes before Raimy’s very eyes. Yet another thing erased from everyone’s memory but hers.
I Remember EverythingNow the chase is on for Goff. With the rescue of the girl, Raimy looks to the big board dominating her homicide unit and still sees the biggest crime they have marked is the active Nightingale killer. She reads the rest of the newly found woman’s report to find that Goff was never found. So, both she and Frank venture to find Goff in their respective times. Frank insists to Satch that this guy is the Nightingale killer they’ve been looking for, that he has ample connections to prove or at least suggest that, and that as soon as they catch him, they will have ended one of the biggest cases in the Jersey/New York area.

Raimy, meanwhile, does some digging on her end to find out that Goff’s mother never gave him up and is in federal prison herself. Raimy talks to the woman, threatening that if she doesn’t finally tell where her son would have gone for the last 20 years, then the police will find him and possibly kill him on sight. At least with her, she’ll guarantee she can bring him in unharmed. Momma Goff finally gives him up. Meanwhile, in Frank’s time, they let momma Goff go to use her as fishing bait to lure Goff in. When she makes a series of calls to a place near Washington Square in the town, they automatically suspect it is him she is calling.
As Raimy finds Goff in an abandoned warehouse, her Father and Satch stake out his place in their time. Raimy fights with the middle-aged man and brings him down, handcuffing him and throwing him into the back of her car. She takes him out to a place near the lake, the same place they fished her father’s dead body from in the BadCop timeline, and throws him to the ground. She can’t stand the thought of this man having done that terrible deed to her mother, and is about to shoot him. Back in 1996, Frank and Satch spot Goff and take off after him in a foot race through a busy part of town. In both scenarios, he doesn’t want to go to jail. In the past, he sees a cab zooming down the street and casually walks in front of it to get hit. And right as Raimy cocks her gun in the future, she looks down to see Goff having disappeared. He died from those injuries.

Speaking of injuries, Raimy runs back home in hopes of finding her mother stalking the house only to find a bouquet of flowers left by one of her mother’s friends a few days ago. Ever since the body was confirmed as Julie, people have been wanting to have an official mourning service, which Raimy has objected to, because she doesn’t want to have that memory in her mind when she and her father ultimately save her mother. But the sobering fact is that Goff was not the Nightingale. Funny enough, she gets pissed at her father because he had an instinct the guy wasn’t the Nightingale the entire time but let her follow her own instincts that had her so sure the man was. She tells him about not letting her lose it again, which is so ridiculous, but I’m not going to go there. She takes solace in the fact that together, she, her father and Satch saved a young woman and countless others who would’ve died by Goff’s hands. She ends the show by looking at the Facebook photos and videos of the once dead woman sitting with her husband and small son as they are on vacation and out at a restaurant.
What’s my grade? Another hard one, I give it a B-. OK, so, to start, the original movie was not like a gigantic success nor really a cult classic. It was a movie that most people saw, said, “Oh, that was kinda different,” and moved on with their lives. I mention this to say that it didn’t become something studied and obsessed over as other time travel movies, making some of its inherent problems less argued about. The show, while improving on some of those problems, adopts some of its own. First, I guess I can ignore the ages and so-so makeup on the people. For me, Devin Kelley is a very pretty girl, yet in both time frames (old and young) she looks older than 30. Having seen her initially on ABC’s Resurrection, I know that she looks way better than that. In neither case does she look the age she is supposed to be playing, nor her real age. Speaking of which, what is the point in saying that these characters are all in their 20s when none of them are in their 20s in real life? Again, I could let it go with Peyton but with everyone else, it bugs me for reasons I can’t fully explain. Especially with an eight-year-old daughter, in the 90s? Look at the birth statistics and you’ll see that the early-life births where people were having their children in their teens had significantly decreased after the baby boom. Most people, especially Gen Xers were having their children well into their 20s and 30s. If you just made both parents 30, I think that would have been easier, especially when jumping back and forth in time and trying to figure out everyone’s ages. That’s something that’ll only bug me, but again, the makeup is a small problem.

Next, we have the problem of Raimy and how she treats Frank over the radio. I get it, she first remembered him as a corrupt cop in the BadCop timeline, but when the Mother timeline kicks in, it almost feels like she has no change in demeanor or attitude toward him. One of the things wrong with the movie that is also wrong with the show is how little the changes made affected the son or daughter’s personality. Losing a parent and the emotional toll that takes on someone is hard for anyone, especially someone so young. Adding the “bad guy” angle to it would’ve hardened Raimy to a plethora of world experiences. But when she is thrust into the Mother timeline, her personality doesn’t seem to change. She’s virtually the same person. Remember, though, that she was not raised by a loving, nurse (natural caregiver) mother as in the BadCop timeline, but by a hardened, once undercover cop father in the new Mother timeline. I get that she has both sets of memories, but it still feels like it should affect her personality in some way.
Finally, the rules of this non-time-traveling adventure are sort of as-we-go-along carefree. In other words, some things won’t properly make sense when over-thinking them. When reviewing these shows for you guys, I generally will watch each of the three first episodes twice, once at normal speed and a second time to spot-check specifics that will be important for the review. In my second viewing of the 1st three episodes here, I realized three things that stuck out. The first is easiest to explain or question as it has to do with the death of Goff and Raimy’s memories. After Goff disappears from before her, Raimy runs back home in hopes of seeing her mother gliding across the wooden floors of the house, a dramatic visual (she returns to nothing changed). The problem is that the first episode already established that new memories would flood back into her mind the instant something significant happened as it did with her father surviving the gunshot. Why, then, did she run back? Shouldn’t she have already had her memories of her mother returned to her? It’s not just a nitpick but an actually valid complaint.
Speaking of Goff, let’s talk about that fight had between him and Raimy. When she is about to shoot him in that abandoned lot near the lake, she is bleeding from a cut on her forehead put there by him in the fight. Then he vanishes because on the same day 20 years prior he walked into traffic and died after a foot race with Frank and Satch. The problem, however, is that the cut remained on her forehead; in fact, she had to get it cleaned and patched. But if he was dead, wouldn’t the cut not be there? I went to IMDb while checking to make sure of the names, and came across the same question on the boards there. Someone there had a theory that this means that all things that happen to her in the present, regardless of how the past changes, will still stay with her similar to how her memories remain. But that essentially makes her an anomaly in any and all of the timelines. She can be shot, stabbed and even killed by people who are already dead, which, if not carefully monitored by the writers and producers, can become confusing for the viewers.
The third thing I noted about the Goff case was the glazed-over fact that Frank’s time is still moving forward and that she didn’t jump farther back in time to talk with him. Confusing? Think of this: one of the main reasons they went after Goff was because Raimy thought that he already had a link to the marsh and with attacking nurses. Then, when asked why she thought he could have kidnapped this college student, she said because maybe he hadn’t decided on his MO yet, or something to that effect. The college student would have not only been out of his usual range of victims (she wasn’t a nurse) but would also have been killed far from the marsh. On first viewing, you might miss the fact that the Nightingale killer was already established well within his MO before her father’s death. He was already an experienced killer and had been killing enough for the cops to not only have pursued him but named him. Remember, also, that in the BadCop timeline, he stopped shortly after Frank’s death (no, Frank is definitely not the killer), meaning he was ending not beginning his murderous spree. Yet, Goff was treated as if he was just starting or revisiting something he fantasized about doing. Yes, the escaped college girl said that he said there were others before her, but none of that fit with the established timeline, let alone with the evidence if you understand. It doesn’t make full sense to me. And it makes more sense for Raimy to start investigating why exactly the killer would keep killing over the course of 20 years, rather than stopping all because her father survived.
Should you be watching? Maybe. With all of the flaws I’ve listed, and there are more, I still think that this show is quality sci-fi/fantasy for fans of the genre. It is a time-traveling piece without the fancy time-traveling machine, and, similar to The Flash, focuses on lesser known events in the personal lives of the characters rather than looking at big historical events that can be studied. That may actually be a good thing as they have more leeway to play with the differing timelines. When reviewing MacGuyver, this is what I was talking about when saying that procedurals should have more to them than the classic 80s setup. Granted, MacGuyver is on a bigger network and with a better time, and it may do well because it doesn’t make you think and focus on something, but make no bones about it, Frequency is just as much of a cop/secret agent/lawyer procedural as MacGuyver or any of these other a-case-a-week shows out there, but similar to How to Get Away With Murder or The Blacklist (not to compare this show to those), there is an overarching case that needs to be solved and it is quite interesting. With the time aspect, there’s a lot of places this show can go and nothing is off the table concerning any of the main characters’ lives... or deaths. Frequency airs at 9pm EST Wednesdays on the CW, just after Arrow.
What do you think? Have you seen Frequency? If not, do you think you’ll tune in now? If so, what is your favorite part of the show? How do you think the Nightingale killer is related to Frank? And do you think Raimy will ever get her mother back and her father, or will she always have to lose one? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, “Like, OK, so let me explain this again. Goldmember took the time machine to go back in time to the 70s to try to kill both you and Austin Pow—”‘Scott?’“Yeah?”‘Zip it!’“But I was tryin’ to explain that—”‘Uh, zip it!’“I was just—”‘Zip!’“I was—”‘Zip!’“God! Even I can’t believe he’s run out of better time travel references and has resorted to using a Mike Myers movie reference.”

P.S. In honor of Halloween, I wanted to remind everybody that Mike Myers is always the scariest costume you can wear. Classic and Canadian—could there be anything scarier. I’ll think of a better sign-off next time.  Amazon
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No Stress, No Debt, No Problem #NoTomorrow #CW #3weekroundup

No Stress, No Debt, No Problem #NoTomorrow #CW #3weekroundup
All pictures courtesy of the CW

We’re finally nearing the end of the new-show onslaught and I couldn’t be happier because I have really been wanting to get some other work done and haven’t been able to because I have to watch so many hour-long shows and then watch three episodes and then take the time to review them, not to mention do other work. It’s been crazy. But with a few CW shows left, one on ABC and one on USA, I should be looking good to finish this up by next Friday, fingers crossed. Up for review today we have CW’s new hour-long romantic comedy No Tomorrow. Will this currently low-rated show make you wish you had one more day with it or will it be forgotten by manana? Read on for my review/recap of the first three episodes and to see if I can come up with anything actually resembling wit or good writing. Spoiler Alert: probably not!
No Tomorrow (#NoTomorrow) follows Evie, a young 30-year-old quality control assessor that works at an internet company similar to Amazon. Played by the four-years-younger (don’t know why they didn’t cast an actual 30-year-old but OK, I guess) Tori Anderson, we meet our protagonist at work as she tries to give an uplifting speech about getting things properly done in the warehouse space where she works. The space is very open-plan, rather annoying to me—just felt I needed to point that out—as she has a cubicle but nothing separates the cubicles from the rest of the warehouse. It’s basically like working in the middle of a Sam’s Club or Costco. I digress. Evie is not someone who is overly confident, doesn’t exude leadership (though she wants to have a leadership position) and is overly buttoned-up and cautious while maintaining the big happy-go-lucky grin of a rich, Prozac-addled teenage girl with not a care in the world. Not that she loves her job, she also doesn’t hate it and has found plenty of bright sides to it. I find this character trait rather important because it partially explains her reactions later in the series. While everything seems to be going OK for her (she lives alone in a house in what looks like California somewhere and I’m thinking, “Dang! How much money does she make?”), she has an underlying feeling that something is missing: excitement.
And then she half-meets a new guy.
I say that she half-meets a new guy because they don’t quite talk enough to have a conversation or really do anything other than for her to go googly-eyed at him and his handsomeness. The guy in question is Xavier (pronounced similar to Savior rather than having the hard X). Xavier is a very... unique individual. Played by Joshua Sasse most recently of the defunct ABC musical comedy Galavant, he wears a constant Prince Charming smile while exuding the spirit of a new-age hippy. How does Evie come across this human-skinned unicorn, you ask? By chance—not the rapper, but the actual, you know concept... or maybe fate.
A few weeks prior to the show’s starting point, Evie was shopping at a local farmer’s market with her sister and asked a very hipster question about rutabagas. Xavier saw her from across the way, thought, “Hey, I’d like to sleep with her” and “Dat Ass!” and approached. He made a funny comment, she freaked out at his enchanting eyes and fled from the situation only to realize that she had fallen head-over-heels in lust with him. She laments about it to her coworkers (we’ll get to those characters shortly) and not but a day later she comes home to a package left on her doorstep. Whose errantly-delivered package of sour beer (is that a thing?) could it be but Xavier’s. Where once she thought she would never see him again, she now knows his first and last name, where he lives, and that he just got a very heavy package of some mystery item. When she goes to deliver it, that is when her life changes forever.

Xavier is the antithesis of Evie, not in everything but in a few key ways. He is carefree, doesn’t have a job, lives a life that is only semi-organized (I’m guessing Evie isn’t OCD—yes, I know that’s not technically an adjective—about things because they don’t harp on her love of organizing, so...), and seems to get everything he desires without second thought of the consequences. He, unlike her, knows how to let loose; in fact, he lives his life all loose, no tightness. There’s a joke in there about a Texas brothel, but you can fish it out yourself. When she asks him how he does this, is able to live this kind of life, supports himself while living in his own house and buying specialty junk for himself, he tells her one big not-so-secret secret: he’s figured out that the world is going to end in eight months and twelve days when an asteroid that is currently (supposedly) not on a direct line toward earth will impact earth, decimating all life as we know it. And being the comedy it is, red flashing lights go off over Evie’s head to alert her to her new friend’s insanity. Yeah, the guy is whacked... or is he?
I would like to note here that the CW previously had My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airing on the start of Monday night, but have since moved it to Friday. I say that to say that in this case, the crazy ex-girlfriend in that show truly does have problems that shouldn’t be ignored; here, Xavier is not actually crazy but has a logical explanation for everything. To add, even if the asteroid doesn’t come, he’s still not crazy, just wrong. Before quitting his job, he worked as a copyeditor for a science magazine. While at work and messing around he read an article that appealed to his love for astrology, where he discovered that the asteroid the government said was going to miss all of the earth will, based upon his own tested and re-tested calculations, make an extinction-level impact—we’re talkin’ the one that killed all the dinosaurs. He came to this theory based on NASA’s miscalculation of the effects of global warming and geothermal expansion on earth greatly influencing the space around it. And to this explanation, Evie reacts as she should (thinks he’s crazy) before acting as she shouldn’t: she stays at his house until night so he can show her the asteroid shining brightest in the sky.
Xavier and Evie. "He's crazy but soooo cute!" ~ Evie
And then he drops his life philosophy for the last 8 months on her. He says that they must live their life as they want because they soon won’t be there. He’s made an Apoca-list of everything he wants to do before it all goes kablooey! Strangely, he shows her a notebook filled with the things he wants to do, she reads through the many women he wants to bed before the earth goes, finds her name on the list (he didn’t say he wanted to sleep with her just “find the cute rutabaga girl”), and finds this endearing and kind of cute rather than creepy and in-your-front-bushes stalkerish. Rather than letting this all go and leaving him to be weird to himself, she considers just how hot he is and has to convene with her coworkers about this craziness.
Hank with EvieHer main coworkers consist of a group of three she regularly interacts with. Hank (played by Johnathon Langdon) is a known conspiracy nut, too, so she has to go to him first. Lovable black huggy bear with a medium-top fade, he is her straight male road-dog and looks to be her closest friend outside of her family. One of the better comedy elements of the show, his convincing-hinging-on-over-the-top delivery, and jovial nature keep the sunshine going as both Evie and Xavier are all smiles all the time. It’s like everybody’s on lollipop-flavored PCP and just lovin’ life and livin’ it without a care in the world. He laughs at Xavier’s assertion that the world will end with the strike of an asteroid... because he knows that it will end by the hand of the Russians starting a nuclear holocaust. He’s got a calendar where he’s marked it and has info from the government where supposedly a secret bunker is going to store all the important people the day before the nuclear war kills or mutilates everyone turning them into Whitewalkers or something (made that last part up).

Evie and Hank are joined at work by their friend Kareema (played by Sarayu Blue) who finally brings some sarcastic devil-may-care, Creed Bratton from The Office kind of feel to the show. She does things for the fun of it, too, but most of the things she does are twisted and prank-like against other people. She is here for the drama, and the drama is here for her.
Evie's Boss DeirdreFinally, we have their boss and top manager of the warehouse place Deirdre played by TV vet Amy Pietz. Uptight, low-stated, fear-inducing boss-lady, she secretly has a huge crush on Hank and all of his “manliness” that arouses her immensely at work. Of course, the group doesn’t know this and thinks that she is as cold as Elsa from Frozen, or as robotic as six (or was it seven) of nine from Deep Space Nine. While Evie doesn’t like her, she also doesn’t hate her that much. She’s her boss and that’s that.

Evie turns also to her family for advice on Xavier. And then I, like a self-respecting, decent American, yelled at my screen, “Noooooooooooooooooo!” because I saw veteran actor and known show-killer Ted McGinley playing her father. Joined by mother, who literally has the name Evie’s mother on IMDb, the character is played by Gigi Rice who looks like an older, smilely-er Topanga from Boy Meets World. That wasn’t really a decent sentence, but you know you understood it. Finally, there is her older sister Mary Ann played by Kelly Stables. Mary Anne, I assume, has a guy (she talks like she’s married, but we have yet to see him if she is) and a young black baby. They don’t pay much attention to her thing about the new guy at first as they are distracted by the outside park party for Mary Anne’s eldest son. And then Evie’s ex- or on-a-Friends-style-break-boyfriend shows up.
Soft-talker Timothy (Jesse Rath) comes to talk about how he doesn’t want to be on break anymore and mumbles his way through a proposal... of marriage. Interesting timing. She doesn’t say yes, but doesn’t say no either, and asks for time to think about it. See, he, Evie and Hank used to be the three amigos hanging out and Hank never felt like a third wheel as they did their couples thing. Now that she wants time, Hank misses them hanging out, so he has to be the bro-shoulder to cry on for Timothy.
Soft-talker Timothy
Meanwhile, as Hank and Timothy are hanging with each other, Evie has another encounter with Xavier after he comes to her place this time. They discard the apocalyptic talk in favor of him talking about his list. He invites her to help him do something off the list and finds out that his cousin, with whom he wants to hang, is in jail. So, instead, they do a wild, dangerous, ride on dune buggies through the desert—something Evie would never have done on her own. And because it’s so thrilling, they immediately go back to his place and have hot, rip-ya-clothes-off movie sex. Hey, how could she give proper thought to whether she wants to marry Timothy without first sleeping with another man who she originally and still does think is crazy? It only makes sense.
Like Tamar Braxton once said, he must have a dingaling of gold, because Evie totally forgets about the one mouse that hopped off the jogging wheel when it thought it saw another mouse (it’s afraid of mice) situation that Xavier’s got goin’ on in his brain. Xavier then asks Evie what is something she’s always wanted to do in a make-your-own-list kind of way. Before leaving to go to work (she stayed the night, gasp!), she tells him that she always wanted to bake a potato wrapped in foil in a microwave. Radical stuff here, people. Think bigger. “Try a pogo-stick.” He doesn’t get a proper answer until he tells her to not think about it and she spits out sing in public. Her mom and sister mentioned how she has a beautiful voice but she’s too afraid to sing in public after miserable experiences with the stage before—she vomited during a grade-school play. Xavier sets out to see her conquer this fear and do it, while she rushes off to work.
A little while later, she and Xavier meet up at a bar of his choosing where he essentially rigs it so that she wins the “opportunity” to rock the mic with her voice on a well-worn 80s rock tune. But she’s still nervous, so Xavier begins ripping off his own clothes and getting naked in the bar to embarrass himself to take some of the shame off of her, which makes the situation all the better. Coming off of the stage, she is relieved that she did something wonderful and amazing, but when Hank storms into the bar to tell her how he had to spend the last hour cleaning out her desk, she is stunned to learn that her new guy went behind her back to send an email to her boss Deirdre using her own email account, telling the woman how much she absolutely despised her and how she wanted to quit. There goes the watch reminder that he’s crazy. Xavier gets a big no-no slap on the wrist for that and sends Evie into a tailspin as she tries to figure out how she is going to get her job back.
A little too forward with his determination to get not only her but everyone to switch-up how they live their life before the world ends, Xavier realizes that he’s made a mistake and sends Evie a gift, a pogo-stick. Then, like the creep he is, he spies on her from afar as she tries it out after having initially thrown it away. She quickly falls and busts her head open, winding her up in the hospital. As it turns out, she has a very rare but very serious and potentially life-threatening bodily malfunction in her heart that makes it beat too fast, and that wouldn’t have been caught had she not fallen and busted her butt. Luckily, the doctor’s get to it in time because if it was allowed to go on without treatment it might have killed her, but she has to change some things about her life or it could come back. And here the producers have an out... or an in to more series. More on that later.
Continuing on, while Evie realizes life’s brevity, she does still have serious doubts about Xavier and goes to get her job back. She proves to Deirdre that the email speaking ill of her came from a different IP address than her own computer and that she was essentially hacked. Her boss believes her but enslaves her into a secondary work mission. With Deirdre’s love-lust for big little-man Hank ever growing, she feels that she must have him without barriers. Sadly, because she is his boss and they work together closely (not close enough), there are guidelines by which she has to operate in order to keep her job. She can’t simply say how she feels to him, so she enlists (blackmails) Evie into reading the entirety of the employee company handbook on inter-company fraternizing, and help her plan displays of affection toward him.

Her job back and secure, Evie realizes that even though Xavier was very misguided, his attempt to apologize saved her life and before that minor blip of making her falsely quit her job, he had changed her life for the better. So, she goes back to him with her own budding list of things she wants to do. She reads him on how inappropriate it was for him to do what he did and tells him that she will go at her own pace and take this life-might-end scenario one day at a time as it is her life, but she would still like him to be a part of it and for her to be a part of his. Her plan? She hopes to help him complete his list one activity at a time, switching back and forth between the two lists as he completes one of his tasks and then he helps to complete one of hers. And the first thing she’s got to do? Bake that foil-wrapped potato in his microwave. And boy do the sparks fly from there. Get it? Because it’s a romantic comedy and while the potato sent out sparks and blew up the microwave, there are sparks between Evie and Xavier because they’re falling in love. Right? Right? Boy, you are not gettin’ my best today.
The episode ends when, surprise! that tiny throwaway line about Xavier’s cousin being in jail proves no longer true because the guy just broke out of jail and goes to his cousin’s house where Xavier welcomes him with open arms much to the shock of Evie.
Episode two picks up where we left off with Xavier now helping to saw off his cousin Jesse’s handcuffs in the kitchen while Evie watches with mouth-gaping curiosity and trepidation. Apparently, there was a plan between the two cousins that finally worked; in other words, Xavier not only knew his brother was going to break out of jail, he helped him do it. A moral crisis, even though Jesse only embezzled money from some corrupt businessmen that he worked for, Evie still sees him as an escaped felon who she knows is living in her new non-boyfriend boyfriend’s house (they’ve put no label on what they’re doing but if it looks like a relationship, acts like a relationship and makes both parties involved change like a relationship, then it’s a relationship). Her mind stuck on the criminality of harboring, aiding and abetting a fugitive, and how both Jesse and Xavier could end up in jail, as well as herself for being around them, she struggles not to call the police and turn rat. Back to her friends and family for advice.
Evie tells Hank and Kareema about this, posing Jesse as an illegal California pet instead of an escaped convict. Kareema thinks it is fun, while Hank suspects things aren’t going as well with Xavier as Evie’s ex Timothy thinks, which means there’s a chance for Tim to get her back. When Evie goes to her parents and sister for advice, she learns that her dad is freaking out once again as his store’s (he doesn’t own it, but just works there. You get it) fiscal year is coming to an end and his sales rival is poised to win salesman of the year for the bagillionth time in a row, even though it’s really close. An appliance store, Evie buys Xavier a new microwave after Jesse tries to heat something up and Xavier is reminded that his microwave blew up. Her family too busy to entertain her what-if scenarios, she tries letting it go that Jesse is this escaped criminal. They give him a raggedy wig and a moderate Bin Laden-shave to disguise him and hope for the best.
Evie, Jesse, Xavier, CopAfter Xavier and Jesse go to a storage locker where Xavier has been keeping all of his cousin’s stuff since he went to jail, they found not only some of the money that Jesse stole (he was like a broker, stealing from the corrupt rich and giving most of it to the poor workers that these corrupt rich stole from in the first place) but their time capsule made as little kids and never buried. In it, Xavier finds a recording from his mom who tells him to call her more often and just how proud she is of her son. Evie asks him about his mom but sees it is a hard subject for him and doesn’t get an answer until they complete another one of Xavier’s to-do list things: jump off a famous cliff in the area and down into the waters below. While in the midst of doing something else, they happen upon the cliff and all three of them do it together, another thing that has Evie awe-inspired by what life can really be. But upon returning to the car, Jesse foolishly litters by tossing an empty pop (or soda) can over his shoulder, expecting it to hit the ground. Instead, it hits a cop car. Evie sweats the most when the cop comes to talk to them and asks for everyone’s ID. She keeps side-eyeing Xavier in the driver’s seat as Jesse hands over his newly pressed fake ID. Everybody’s butt cheeks tighten when the cop asks Jesse to get out of the car. All that dissipates when all the cop wants is for Jesse to pick the can off his car and properly dispose of it—thank God they weren’t black, right? Right? Might have been the end of the show. Oh God, this racial insensitivity is killin’ me.

Anyway, the experience makes Xavier realize how dangerous it is for Evie to be around his cousin, and since he wants to keep her in his life and doesn’t want to ruin her life nor his own, he decides that the best idea is to send his cousin away to a country with no extradition. Always the objector, Evie is originally against this, too, as he plans to sneak Jesse through a busy airport with a fake ID and passport and a terrible disguise. Then, she thinks of a great idea to ship him in one of her company’s shipping trucks that would get him either to Canada or Mexico packed inside of a large box, which is cool because he’s been a prisoner for so long that he’s used to small, cramped spaces. The day is saved.
Jump! Jump! 
There’s also some work stuff that goes on where she is terrified to interview in front of an oversight committee there to figure out who to layoff; Deirdre tries to bond more with Hank by eating with him, Evie, and Kareema; Evie nails her thing before the committee; and Deirdre gives Hank an ergonomic chair that leans back at work. My favorite scene of the episode: Hank leans back in it, smashing his fro into Deirdre’s privates by accident and then rubbing his head back and forth without noticing at all what he was doing. It sent them both into bliss as Deirdre winked at Evie who was too grossed out by the display. Also, Hank gives Timothy a hipster makeover to impress Evie but it doesn’t work to get her back, and Xavier finally reveals that his mother died when he was in college but one of her biggest things was jumping off that same cliff that they did earlier. And finally, Xavier went into Evie’s dad’s work and bought, near a dozen washer and dryers to send him over the top to salesman of the year for the first time ever. A heartfelt gesture, Evie goes back to him and they have a backyard foam party.
Episode three returns to Xavier’s pursuit of telling the world the truth about their impending doom. As Evie’s 31st birthday is coming up (again, both actors playing Xavier and Evie are about four years younger than their characters), she struggles to reveal to others outside of Hank just how crazy he is. He’s just a guy who knows that time is fleeting and life is short. But when she goes to a scientific lecture/book-signing by a prominent scientist because Xavier wants to go, she is confronted with just how out-of-it he really is when he tries to run to the woman with his research in hand, begging her to read it. They tase him, leaving her embarrassed to no end. So, she asks Hank to do a dark/deep web dive on Xavier to find out everything about him while she writes a pros/cons list about him—seriously, after the felon-cousin thing, the guy must have a dingaling of gold dipped in diamonds like some super-fancy Babe Ruth candy bar. When Hank can come back with absolutely nothing on Xavier he has to meet the man face to face (side note: they had already unofficially met in the singing bar in the first episode). He leaves that meeting thinking Xavier is in the CIA.
Who Is The Craziest? Hmmm?
Things get embarrassing when Xavier shows up to Evie’s surprise birthday party. At first he is cool, enlightening everyone with his philosophy that you must say and do what you want now before it is too late, but when he takes everyone back to his place to celebrate all of Evie’s birthdays from now until 100, and have a food fight with the 70 or so cakes he had specially made for the occasion, he lets out that the world will end and everybody’s like whaaaaaa? She tells him he can’t run around saying that to people and he tells her that this is him and she needs to be able to deal with that. So, she comes up with the plan that she is going to try helping him prove this theory by getting that same lecturer/scientist/writer to review his work. She gets the woman cornered before Xavier comes in and they show the woman the research. Xavier finally feels good about it. But when Evie sees the woman throw X’s research away, she decides to back his belief by printing out fliers about it and helping him throw them off a building for all the world to read. He doesn’t have to necessarily be right, and she doesn’t have to believe he’s right, so long as she respects that he believes that.
Meanwhile, at work, she deals with some quality control issues that see people getting the wrong shipment. She is supposed to fire the person doing it but when she finds out it is Kareema doing it to mess with people and have fun, she blames it on another guy in packing who has already decided to leave and move across country to be with his second secret family he confessed to having for no reason. Hank and Kareema end up briefly hanging out with their boss when they run into Deirdre at a bar. She tries to confess her undying love for Hank but he flees when she whispers sexily into his ear. He half-confesses to Evie and squirms out the fact that he may have a crush or something on Deirdre but no one can learn of this. And all of the people Xavier talked to at the party find his personality to be a revelation and know that they should listen to him about taking advantage of life. So, her dad quits the salesman gig to become an actor—how very Ted McGinley of you, Ted McGinley. And all is right in the world... save for the asteroid coming to destroy it, but that really isn’t “in” the world yet, so...

What’s my grade? I give it a solid B. I actually enjoy this show, and I think I like it better than I did My Crazy Ex last season. Granted, I was a little bias against My Crazy Ex because of my own book Yep, I’m Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend, but I also think that the attempt at subversive humor there was undermined, in some cases, by the casting and the choice to make it a musical all the way through. This show is bright and sunny and cheerful from beat to beat. With so much of what is on TV (especially what I watch) dark and gritty and with humor that is twisted and visceral, this is a nice change of pace. Granted, I watched this out of its normal time on Tuesdays, but I still think that it not only fits well with the young CW brand, it also goes well with other female-led comedies of the day. The mystery of whether Xavier is right or not is just captivating enough to keep you wondering throughout the season and, depending on how the show-runners do it, could be shown either straight through in one season or have each season be a month in the characters’ lives. While I still think that the casting of slightly younger people is a little ageist, I can forgive it as Evie seems cast perfectly as the perky but orderly 31-year-old, and she is very nice to look at. I welcome Joshua Sasse back on my TV and I enjoy most of the cast, even Ted McGinley. Again, however, as has been the theme this season with certain characters, I don’t see much need for the character of Kareema on the show, other than to employee another woman and minority, which is fine by me. The actress is good and doesn’t detract from the story, but she doesn’t add anything either like the rest of the characters do. Cut her and the show literally doesn’t change at all, and saves a full minute more for ad time.
Pretty much all of the comedy is situational as most comedy writers these days have moved away from actually telling jokes and writing them into scripts, but that is OK. Evie acts accordingly in many areas but completely counter to her nature in others, which may piss some people off who can’t or won’t immediately see that as character growth and expansion. And, I think there’s even an out for the producers if it turns out that Xavier is incorrect about the asteroid: Evie’s newly discovered heart disease. With the name of the show so vague, No Tomorrow could also apply to Evie when, at the end of the season, she realizes that she maybe only has a certain amount of years to live and must do just as Xavier has taught her to do, live her life with reckless abandon, for tomorrow it could end. While this idea can work, I think the bolder idea would be to actually have the asteroid hit and then play it from there as a sunny upbeat apocalyptic comedy like a better version of Last Man on Earth (not to knock that show or its fans).

One of the problems that I see is that it might be too quirky and 90s/aughts rom-com-y for some as each episode will have a similar arc: guy and girl do cool stuff together, guy does something stupid to tick girl off, girl runs to tell her friends/family, girl and guy have a heartfelt conversation about it, guy or girl apologize for offending each other, and finally they make up and make out. There is where Crazy Ex and my book, to a lesser extent, has it on originality. But outside of that, I like it. It’s not phenomenal, but it’s very enjoyable.Should you be watching? Yes. If pretty much all you’re doing is watching and/or reading dark, twisted stuff like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or all the crime shows, and you want something upbeat and cheery for a change, this show might be for you. Remember, however, that this is on the CW so it is geared toward a younger audience and is very in-line, I’d say, with the tone of Supergirl, minus the feminism (I say that not to denigrate the shows that show feminism, but just to say that it’s not trying to prove a point like Crazy Ex is. It’s just trying to entertain). This show is like bubblegum, kinda warm and fuzzy, and might supply a few good chuckles through the holiday season. No Tomorrow currently airs on the CW Tuesdays at 9pm after The Flash.
What do you think? Have you seen No Tomorrow? If not, do you think you’ll tune in to see it now? If you have seen it, what has been your favorite part? Do you think Xavier is right? Do you think that the show could take a religious turn and have “Xavier” supposed to actually be the Savior come back to earth, because that was my first theory, especially considering how you pronounce his name? And will Deirdre wrangle her some Hank or will he continue to resist in his glorious obliviousness? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, “Dude, the apocalypse is happening outside right now! The world’s coming to an end.”‘OK, so what I’m hearin’ is that the apocalypse is happening outside and the world is about to end but you still thought it was a good idea for yo silly butt to come and interrupt me while I’m watchin’ my stories? I’mma see the last of my soaps, damn it! And you betta not interrupt me again!’

P.S. Listen, I’m not gonna knock anybody who wants to achieve something amazing with their life before the world comes to its climactic end. All I’m sayin’ is that some of us have Hulu and Netflix accounts that need our bingeing attention. Better not one single zombie come and bother me while I’m re-watching every season of Desperate Housewives. That was a terrible sign-off but it needed to be said. I’ll think of something better next time.

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I Wonder What It’ll Be Like If She Ends Up Being A President’s Kid Again #Conviction #ABC #3weekroundup

I Wonder What It’ll Be Like If She Ends Up Being A President’s Kid Again #Conviction #ABC #3weekroundup
All pictures courtesy of ABC 

Please excuse me as I am deathly behind on my three-week roundup reviews of this Fall’s new shows. I am trying to squeeze so much stuff into such a small, cramped space of time that I haven’t been able to pump these babies out at the high rate I’m used to. It’s been hard trying to find the time to watch everything as quickly as possible, but don’t fret, for I have another review/recap of a new show right here for you now. This time we have ABC’s new show Conviction. Will this show confine you to its viewership stable or will you be crying out, “give us us free!” after a handful of episodes? Let’s find out.

ABC’s Conviction (#Conviction) stars Hayley Atwell fresh off her semi-star-making stint as Agent Peggy Carter for the Marvel universe. Here, she plays attorney Hayes Morrison, a rather complicated lady who grew up as the daughter of a very famous and powerful man. In fact, he was the most powerful man on earth. He was the US President. That’s right, the character of Hayes is a complete Hollywood makeover of Chelsea Clinton’s life with two swigs of the Bush daughters splashed in for good humor. Not only was her father the president, but he also cheated on her mother, everyone in the US knows that, and her mother is now running for senator of New York state. Hayes even lives in the Big Apple where she’s sure to be mingling with the new version of beatniks, someone who thinks he’s the next Andy Warhol, and the 21st-century yuppy who still uses the word Kafkaesque liberally in casual party conversation, though they have no idea what it really means. A party girl (we’re talking Pharrell Williams, Everybody Nose; obscure reference. I ain’t got time, look it up), we find our vulnerable hero in jail in a holding cell when first we meet her. Why? She’s been booked on possession of cocaine, and instantly we know a great deal about her character.Hayes, unlike Chelsea Clinton but very much so like the Bush sisters, has used her life in the public eye as fuel and reason for her to rebel against her parents’ image at every turn. She despises her father for cheating (maybe there’s some lingering anger there), but instead of shirking from the paparazzi-shutters, she half-embraces it while loathing it all at once. Her look-at-me levels are astronomical as she has used every juncture of her adulthood to piss off anybody who cared for her. Speaking of people who cared for her, enter DA Conner Wallace, played by Eddie Cahill recently off of the canceled Under the Dome. An old... something (we later learn the depth of their relationship), he finds her in jail and makes her an offer she can’t refuse, not for lack of trying. His offer: run his newly minted CIU or Conviction Integrity Unity for him and he’ll make the charges go away. At first, Hayes refuses even after he mentions things about her mother running for election and yadda, yadda, yadda, but she eventually caves when she remembers how little she wants to be featured as the main cause for her family’s strife. Plus, it could be fun to screw with both Conner and her mother in a far more interesting way.

Conner
What is the Conviction Integrity Unit? Simple, it looks into past convictions prosecuted by the city and the DA’s office and makes sure that the people who were convicted are actually guilty. This does not mean that they are like the Innocence Project which looks to prove someone is innocent of a crime—a fact the show has made abundantly clear. They want to make sure that justice was served. How do they do this? Review the evidence, visit the convicted, entertain wilder theories than were conceived before, then give their recommendation on if the conviction should stand, if it should be overturned or if it demands retrial after original burden of proof was debunked.

It’s a very good concept and a great way to re-configure the old law show. I vaguely remember a similar idea on a Dick Wolf show over at NBC in the early aughts, starring one of the lawyers from the Law and Order franchise in the same role. In fact, it might’ve had the same name as this show. Huh.

Anyway, Conner wants a good win for the first case and gives her five days to figure out what she wants to do with each case. This is all about making him look good for when he runs for office the next election cycle. Making him look good doesn’t mean making his original conviction of a case stronger, but simply getting the facts right so that it looks like he is solely about justice rather than a high conviction rate. One of the many problems Hayes first has with the job is that she doesn’t get to pick her own team; that’s been done for her. She is flanked by people who already had their job and really don’t trust her to be or act any other way than like the selfish, entitled, spoiled little privileged white girl that she grew up as and has done nothing to change the narrative of in the public eye. Her first meet: Sam Spencer played by Shawn Ashmore, who I only recently learned has a twin. Ha! Yeah. I didn’t know that. The ADA that Conner originally promised the job to, he’s got no problem being pissy and abrasive to Hayes’ pissy and abrasive demeanor.

Next, she meets, lemur-eyed and doe-tailed Tess Larson (played by Emily Kinney) who is not only a fan of the former First Daughter but the team's paralegal. A familiar face, Hayes thinks she’s met the girl before but Tess says no. We later learn that she was herself involved in a tabloid-trial when her aunt was killed by a family member.

Then we meet Franklin “Frankie” Cruz (played by Manny Montana) who looks slightly out of place with his plain white prep school shirt and tie, butting with his edgier look. Kudos (or maybe not?) to the casting and costume department because I could tell immediately, as could Hayes, though she does it through his tattoos, that he is their past-felon. He looks like a reformed Latin gang member and has the speech intonation of one. He’s also the forensics guy.

MaxineFinally, we have TV and ABC veteran Merrin Dungey (from Alias fame) who joins the cast as Maxine Bohen, a former NY detective who hails from a family line of cops. Her father worked the beat before making detective, so she knows plenty of contacts in the offices and cruisers of the Law. Unfortunately, both cops and prosecutors alike hate when you look into their past cases to snoop around for if they did everything right and got their job done correctly. It’s that same feeling you had when you were younger and your mom came to check to make sure you actually cleaned your room, and properly made your bed as opposed to kicked all of your dirty clothes underneath your bed. Why she has this job is not yet known as she has expressed some discontent with the position similar to Hayes, but she seems far more committed to the position than her new boss.

The good news: Hayes did finagle the ability to choose her own cases. While the team throws out two good cases at her, she chooses a Black former high school football player who was tried and convicted of shooting his girlfriend in the back of the head and leaving her in the woods to rot. She not only thinks he’s innocent but wants the publicity of getting a black guy freed on overturned murder charges. Lily-white Tess sees his photo and asks, “And that matters?” when confronted with the possibility of overturning a life sentence for a Black man. The irony and dark humor was not lost on me.

Hayes tries to play the role of consultant, lest she commit to doing real work. She believes that making Conner appear as a white knight now will not only get him the political cache he wants but give her and the team freedom later when tougher cases come along. She makes her team disperse to talk to the prosecutor that tried the case in front of an all-white jury and sends the past jailbird in Frankie to visit the prison with the past cop Maxine.

The black dude thinks that they are on his side just by questioning the validity of the conviction. He gives his side of the story as per usual on any law show: his timeline might not match up with the girl’s murder, he said he was at the football game when she was being killed, he loved his girlfriend dearly and would never hurt her, etc. One of them notices the pimples on his chest, and he bonds with Frankie. As he holds to his story, the prosecutor holds to his in front of kiss-butt ADA Sam and law-junkie Tess. The man swears that he did everything above-board to get the conviction and that the case was open and shut for a few reasons, mainly because of her journal entries.

After a brief interlude where we meet Hayes’ brother Jackson (played by Daniel Franzese of Mean Girls fame) and learn that he is his mother’s campaign manager for the senate race, we get back to the case. Maxine figures out that Hayes had just come from lockup, and, minutes later, Hayes sticks her foot in her mouth when she starts to give up on the case and says something offensive in front of the boy’s mom. One piece of telling evidence against her son is that he got overheated during the interrogation and nearly lunged at the cop across the table, but Maxine surmises that the acne he had on his chest was from steroid use. He was likely roid ragin’ the day he supposedly killed his girlfriend. We get a not-completely-obligatory but obligatory scene of Hayes showing how much she doesn’t care or respect those around her and her family when she changes her clothes in front of her entire team. She pays a visit to the dead girl’s mother herself and pisses her off with this whole thought that the guy they put away might be innocent of the murder. Her reaction is less than caring to me.

On Right is Tess
Meanwhile, Frankie and Tess trace a path from where the boy played football that night to where the girl was killed to figure out if he had enough time to take the 100-mile round trip to kill her and get back to his game for warmups. He did. Poo! Next, they talk to the detectives who worked the case after jailbird Frankie accuses the cops of planting evidence. While Maxine goes to haunt some of her old cop buddies, Tess and Frankie again go out to perform a little science experiment. Frankie wants to put a dead pig’s body in the forest to see if it’ll attract flies. Why? With the temperature and time of day at which she was found, the body wouldn’t have had flies on it as was said in the police report. If the boy had killed her in the window of time he had to get back to the game, her body would’ve attracted flies. Evidence piece one against him having done the killing.

In the midst of this case, we meet Hayes’ mom at a gala for her senate campaign. They have a contentious relationship talk about her tough upbringing and she holds back tears and it’s all very eh! Back to the case, she starts applying herself after the mom lecture and she tries to find out why the boy had recently bought a gun—he just thought it’d be cool to have a gun. She and the others finally circle back around to the diary and the police accounts taken from the family. The diary revealed that the girl feared someone, who they originally thought was the boy, but was written HE in all caps, referring to someone else’s name. That, coupled with Maxine’s cop buddy and arresting officer burning his police files to hide his own tampering, led them to realize that the cop spoke to the Latina mother without a noted translator to help them converse. The person there to help them translate the woman’s Spanish was the next door neighbor with the initials HE. Turns out he had a big crush on the dead girl and killed her when she rejected his advances. Conner gets the happy ending his political career wants, and Hayes threatens him and tells him that she can’t be controlled. Meanwhile, we learn that Frankie maybe has a love connection in jail (some guy we hardly see), Maxine threatens her old cop buddy by telling him he should retire for evidence tampering, Tess re-reads the article about her aunt’s murder, the ADA Sam gets approached by an old reporter friend and they get hundreds of more cases that excites Hayes.

Episode two focuses on the case of the Prospect Three: three teenage boys charged with the brutal beating of a Black businesswoman during one night of Warriors-style city rampaging along with 32 other rowdy youths. Creating a path of destruction and vandalism through the early night, they started by stealing a camera and recording much of their journey through New York City, burning trash cans, assaulting bicyclists, etc. Already ten years deep into their conviction, they had all confessed to the beating and rape of the black woman that night, after trying to beat up a young white woman on her bike. The first problem with their conviction: the cops fed them the assault weapon, a brick, in the interrogation. When talking to one of the boys, the team discovers that two of the boys were old friends that grew up together, while the third had gone to school with them for a while, but had never really hung with them until that night. Now, in jail, they had bonded and become tight, each one having recanted their confession made under duress.
A deeper dig into the assaulted woman’s history rendered the best results. First, they timed her walk through the park and the boy’s approach to where the assault happened, determining that there was a huge gap in time between when her watch broke and stopped on the time that the cops determined was the time of her attack, and the amount of time it takes a normal-stride walker to reach the point where the attack happened. Science claimed that the spot on her head in which she was hit wiped her memory clean of that night, so she couldn’t remember anything after leaving work—a sly lie to save face in the public’s sight. Turns out, she and another coworker had gone to a Mardi Gras-themed bar where they had drinks, collected some Mardi Gras beads and had sex in a dirty bathroom in public. They both wanted to keep this secret because he was married and she knew it but flirted with him over the course of months. He confessed to her before she testified in the trial (and perjured herself) that it was in the bar during the sex that she broke her watch, and reminded her of the “nasty relations” they had.

From Left to Right: Frankie, Sam, Hayes' mother and Tess
The team stopped for a brief interlude to meet Hayes mom, the future senator, and for Hayes to receive another lecture from her mother, but as it turns out, her mother told her how proud she is of her and mentioned that she hopes she doesn’t screw this case up and make Conner loathe her. For an added knife-twist, this is one of Conner’s personal cases he tried it himself ten years prior. He thought it was a very clean conviction and hates that she dug it back up to look at. But turning a negative into a positive, he spins it that he wants to be thorough in his new CIU, even if it means that he himself was wrong on a past case. He wants justice more than Batman. The press eats it up.

With the confession from the married lover of the black woman, Hayes focuses in on one particular interrogation video and has her team comb back through the files from the boys. As it turns out, the boy that barely knew the other two had grown up in the foster system. As a juvenile, he was charged with sexually assaulting his 13-year-old foster sister in his new foster family. A psycho, he had to take a trophy from her, and stole her sweater. In this case, he stole the woman’s Mardi Gras beads and wore them around his wrist during the interrogation. Also, the fact that he was arrested last (a fact pointed out by Maxine’s past detective experience) shows that he had been separated from the other two boys long enough to go back and attack the woman. Hayes convinces him to do right by his “boys” and confess so they don’t have to spend more time in jail after having served enough time to take care of their other crimes. All is right again, and Hayes got to half-way stick it to the man while Conner got to white-knight once again and turn her game around on her. Except the Black woman is shamed publicly like she feared, and that reporter that has been hounding Sam keeps digging. Craziest of all, they end on a classic Grey’s Anatomy dancing apartment scene. Hmph.

Episode three starts with a bang and keeps giving the punch as Conner continues to show up to events for Hayes’ mother and tells the reporter corp. that Hayes is a brand new person, changed for the better. Pissed that he says she’s different, she goes in search of the foulest, most disgusting case that she can find and seeks to prove that the person is innocent. She finds a bigot, an Islamaphobic ex-military white guy who was convicted of bombing a Mosque, killing a local Imam and four of his fellow Muslim brothers. Considered a hate crime, he went away for consecutive life sentences for a crime that he swears he didn’t do even though he ran a blog where he cataloged his hate for Muslims and how they are supposedly destroying the country, as well as talked about how to properly make a bomb. His excuse for why he didn’t commit the crime: he wanted to blow up a different mosque with a bigger bomb and more people to kill. It’s sad, but it is something Hayes believes. The entire team has a huge problem with even looking into the guy’s case because of his unabashed hatred. Still, they do their jobs even after Frankie threatens to walk out.

After visiting the Imam’s widow, along with the widows of all the other men, Hayes learns that he was a great man, loved by the community and all of that crap. He ministered to troubled youths, helped women in need of marital guidance, etc. The man convicted of the bombing, on the other hand, was on a potential home-grown terrorist watchlist and had been surveilled by the city’s Counter-Terrorism Unit for weeks. Unfortunately, they broke into the bomb expert’s home and read all about his plans to bomb a mosque weeks before the bombing, making the way they got that evidence and why they suspected him so quickly inadmissible due to tampering, which would be impetus for a new trial alone. Also, the bomb he described how to make on his website and the one actually used didn’t have the exact same chemical mix as discovered by Tess and Frankie in another science experiment.

Hayes finally doubles back to her visit to the Imam’s house and the description of the charismatic man that he was, noting that her father was the same way. Eureka! When it clicks that she saw no photos of the dead Imam in his house, she theorized that his widow discovered he had been cheating and was the one to set the bomb. They find one of her purses in which she carried the bomb that day and placed it in a three-ring binder in the top drawer of his desk to be opened at lunchtime. The one thing she didn’t count on: her cheating husband not eating lunch alone that day. She confesses to the crime and is arrested.

Meanwhile, the racist bigot guy tells Sam that his plan as soon as he gets out of jail is to follow through with his original bombing plans and kill a few hundred or thousand people. As committed to justice and stand-up-citizen-y Sam is, he can’t have that. So, in a twist of bad-boy-dom, he tells another prisoner that the bomb guy was actually snitching on other prisoners. Rather than getting the man killed, this actually gets the man to stab a white supremacist on camera in the prison, thusly securing a long stay in the penitentiary for the once-convicted but innocent terrorist, quelling any fears the rest of the team might have about this man getting out on the streets. Hayes doesn’t know what to think of this but does realize just how dangerous the guy who could replace her at any moment truly is. If he’s willing to do that, what else might he do?

We end with Hayes and Conner finally revealing more about their past together. They used to date and live in Chicago where she worked a very good job but got herself fired—a great reason for her to flee the city. Conner knows that the only reason she got herself fired was because what they had was becoming too real for her and she can’t do real emotions like an actual grownup. Still, they want each other and he loves complicated women so they start to sex each other up but are interrupted when news finally breaks with video evidence that Conner offered Hayes the job after she was arrested in a cocaine bust. And this review and the first three episodes thusly have symmetry and all is right in the world.

What’s my grade? OK, admittedly I think I grade ABC on a curve because I’ve enjoyed some of the things they’ve put out so much over the years. However, I will give this a B-/C+ for a myriad of reasons that annoy me. I think that the acting is good for the material they are given, however, I have my doubts about Hayley. I don’t think this is the right role for her. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very unique female character and I do want to see her on TV or in film more playing strong women, but I don’t like how this role suits her. Oddly enough, I think that she and Piper Perabo on Notorious, the other new ABC drama, should switch roles. I could even go for her in the role on Quantico played by Priyanka Chopra, but since Priyanka is so great in that role and I enjoy that they have a non-white female lead, I will back away from that idea. Still, this role feels like it would suit someone else better.

Maybe I don’t like her in the role because of the character herself. Hayes is a terrible character from my perspective. This comes from the Mark Gordon Company, the second producers on all the great Shonda Rhimes shows, and Quantico. and you can see the similarities between them all. Unfortunately, Hayes seems to take some of the worst attributes of Olivia Pope and magnifies them into a very annoying and eye-roll-inducing walking middle finger. Whereas we didn’t fully understand Olivia’s motivations for why she lives the life she does until a few seasons in, here we are bombarded with Hayes motivations that stem from her need to rebel against her parents, specifically her father (in line with Olivia’s motivations). But where Olivia has true conviction in trying not only to be a good person, be the antithesis of her father, Hayes really has none of that. In all three episodes, she clearly doesn’t care about any of the people whose cases she’s actually reviewed. In fact, the show has yet to show her care about anything other than trying to piss people off a lot. Looking at the contrary nature of episode one and episode three, she willingly wants to give up on the innocent black kid multiple times without having given much effort, yet is convinced that the racist bigot has to be innocent because she has to stick it to Conner. Literally, her motivation is the same motivation as every 14-year-old girl that cuts all her hair off, dyes it that Goth black, and starts writing love letters to serial killers because its cool and counter-culture. She rebels because that is all that she can do. To simplify, her character comes off as too cynical to lead a show. This would be fine if she had a commitment to: justice, peace, doing good, or anything other than calling attention to herself about doing precisely what those who love her don’t want her to do. Watching this show is like watching the worst game ever of that annoying sibling saying, “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you,” or having to watch that Ariana Grande donut-licking video on repeat for an hour each week. It’s grating, and instead of feeling uplifted because they’re doing something truly noble—similar to the early days of Scandal which balanced out Olivia’s white-hatting with her diabolical affair with the president—one is left to feel half-empty with a malaise of, “Yay, they solved another case.” This is a show without grip. It doesn’t even have the overly try-hard sentiment that Notorious does, as at least that show is trying to be salacious and watercooler-worthy. This simply has Hayes running around trying her best to be provocative in order to needle Conner and her mother. Sadly, I don’t feel it works that well.

Should you be watching? Eh! Admittedly, I’ll probably continue to watch because I do like the cast and the process by which they reveal these cases is intriguing, but with this filling the timeslot vacated by Castle and not having enough comedic flair to satiate that itch, nor provocative enough to engender that Must-See feeling, I can’t give a recommendation to watch it. Sad, because I really wanted this to be really good. Conviction airs on ABC Mondays at 10pm.

What do you think? Have you seen Conviction? If not, do you think you’ll tune in after reading this review/recap? If so, what part of the show do you like the most? Do you think I’m being too rough on the show, or do you see its flaws, too? What do you think will happen now that Hayes’ secret is out? And what character do you find most interesting outside of Hayes? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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 fought the law and the... law won. I fought the law and the... law won. But it’s cool, though, because I called for a rematch. Best of three.”

P.S. I love how this show is basically a legal re-wipe to make sure that the justice system has properly cleaned up its own crap. Oh yes, I think I like that sign-off, though I’m not sure it works on every one of my posts. Hmph! I’ll keep thinking of a good sign-off until next time.

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Quick! Hide The Crucifixes! You Know What She Did With Them Last Time #TheExorcist #NBC #3weekroundup

Quick! Hide The Crucifixes! You Know What She Did With Them Last Time #TheExorcist #FOX #3weekroundup
All pictures courtesy of FOX

Today, on this calm and crazy today, I bring you another three-week roundup review of one of this fall’s brand new (sorta new?) shows. Being as how it’s Halloween season, everybody seems to be getting into the spooky spirit, at least FOX is. While AMC has their zombies ready to start popping and locking, American Horror Story is all kinds of strange (my theory on what is happening coming soon, hopefully), Scream Queens doing its strange thing and even Marvel getting into the spirit with the devilish dealmaker himself Ghost Rider burning up the small screen, FOX has decided to go full-steam ahead and hit us with a small-screen adaptation of the famous novel and film of the same name The Exorcist (ooh, I can hear the creepy music as you read). But will this new(ish) show have you seeing halos and Virgin Marys in pieces of toast, or will you be puking up pea-green vomit at how bad it is? Let’s find out together.

Angela Rance and Father TomasFOX’s The Exorcist follows the spooky adventures of a family and the two priests they encounter due in-part to their daughter being possessed by some strange demonic spirit. Father Tomas Ortega (played by Alfonso Herrera, a relative newcomer to English-speaking American TV) is a rising star of a priest in a once-struggling Chicago parish (don’t know what side, but it is obviously the white side as most of his parishioners are white or Hispanic). Though I would hardly call him a “true believer” he does have a certain level of authenticity that allows him to work the crowd and get people interested in listening to the call of God. Where once the congregation of the church was few and far between, now it is simply few, in large part thanks to his teaching. He’s young enough and handsome enough to engender confidence and halfway strike me as a politician. He also stands on the cusp of greatness or something special without knowing it. A regular guy, we get the feeling that his priesthood is fairly new (I’d say within the last eight years). I say this because he still has a woman with whom he, uh... talks to. Though it doesn’t outright say that he’s broken his priesthood vow of celibacy, the show does show us just how close he is to this woman who he once fell in love with in his youth before things got messy, she got married and he joined the priesthood. Yeah, you know a man is heartbroken when you don’t get together and he either goes off to war, takes a vow of celibacy, or does the unthinkable (speaking of, I think my own vow needs to be updated). How intense is this secret sex-less love affair? They hand-write letters to each other. I have a journal/book full of love letters that I wrote and that was only to one girl ever! So... yeah. His sister, whose son he babysits every so often tells him that he needs to get a new hold on life and do something other than think about this woman. And that’s when some of his parishioners come to him for help.

The matriarch of the Rance family, Angela Rance is played by the always lovely Geena Davis, who looks virtually the same from her 80s days, but with a fuller face and slightly older. Rocking conservative mom chic (think Bre from Desperate Housewives), she is very concerned that her oldest daughter has something very wrong with her, possibly demonic. But she can’t say for sure. See, she suspects her eldest, Kat (played by Brianne Howey) of something dubious because of the girl’s past. She recently was involved with a lot of experimentation including drugs and Wiccan culture, and possibly devil worship according to Angela; in fact, she recently returned from one of those stints that dignified families dare not talk about and maybe even lie about to keep from having people frown and look down upon them for.

As she worries about her eldest, Kat, Angela’s youngest daughter Casey is near perfect or at least closer to normal than anyone else in the family. She plays field hockey, likes boys, attends mass with her parents, gets good grades, and even knows how to make her down-in-the-dumps sister laugh. She is trying to keep it all together as her family is still suffering through a great trauma having to do with the patriarch of the Rance family, Henry (played by Alan Ruck; Spin City, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). About a year or so ago, he was out with his wife and just forgot who she was and where they were. He has some mental deficiency (dementia, Alzheimer’s). Now, he’s a shell of himself as he appears more childish than adult, forgetting even the smallest things like putting on his hat to go outside in the cold of the fall/winter. Yet, he seems open to outside influences (think the little girl from Poltergeist or the little boy from the Shining).

And then the voices start. Angela hears strange noises in her house like voices in the walls, chairs move on their own at night, her daughter stalks her bedroom in complete darkness during the day. The daughter is said to have been in a car crash where one of her best friends (a Wiccan) died but there’s far more to the story than that, and Angela suspects the girl’s “depression” is anything but. She goes to tell Father Tomas and finds doubt at the expression of her claims. However, Tomas is not quick to forget of her complaint. When a raven flies straight into his office window while he speaks with Angela, he starts to suspect that there is more to this situation than he’d like to believe. See, he’s been having these dreams...

Through the dreams, we meet our second priest, Father Marcus Keane. The man who opens the show, Father Marcus (played by Ben Daniels) subs in as the older, wiser, more experienced exorcist. In the first scene in which we are introduced to him by name, he shows how much of a bad boy priest he is in that he is stationed somewhere in South America (looks like Brazil or Colombia) and is confronted by another Vatican priest sent to remove him from a current exorcism that’s taken too long. But as is revealed, he thinks he can save the young boy before the boy is taken. Refusing to leave, he holds a gun to the other priest’s head, and I nearly lost my sh*$. Holy Charles Foley where did he get that gun, what sorta punishment is he gonna be in after this, and how can he be so determined to not be removed that he’d pull a gun on a dude? Is this what Jesus would do? Good God, this priest is really ‘bout that life. We switch back and forth between his latest exorcism of that same boy, and Father Tomas back in Chicago (though this will not be the format of the show ala Lost-style).

Father Tomas visits the Rance house after Angela invites him. He talks to the eldest girl to see if she really is just depressed, but can’t determine if there’s more there. However, after dinner, something strange happens when Henry Rance says something coherent but completely paranormal. He mentions Father Marcus by name and tells Tomas where to find him in Chicago.

As it turns out, the dream/nightmare Tomas had wasn’t actually a nightmare but was him ghosting into the past, months prior when Marcus performed that exorcism on the boy. The demon too powerful for the boy and for Marcus to control, he lost him as the demon snapped the boy’s neck. That incident wound Marcus up here, at St. Aquinas, somewhat of an American school/nursing home for wayward priests. A mix between jail and mental lockup, Tomas visits Marcus here to find that he is really just a mentally scarred priest who sees horrendous visions and is trying to escape the torment of losing souls to the devil’s charge. Tomas is put off by the man and Marcus doesn’t find Tomas as prepared and pure as he should be to even speak on the subject of possession. Tomas doesn’t seem to truly believe in possession but knows that he was in the room that night Marcus failed at his last exorcism. Both men offended, Tomas leaves and goes back to tell the family that they are probably not going through a possession. But upon going up to the family’s attic after strange noises, he is confronted by a body-malformed Casey (the younger daughter) with eyes wild and voice devil-deep as she moves in a strange marionette-like dance through the air and across the floor, her limbs incongruously patterned toward actual movement. She starts to attack him when Angela comes up and turns on the light to have the girl reset back into near-perfect Casey. Though she tries covering well, her mother switches her suspicion to her youngest daughter now, even though she didn’t see what Father Tomas saw.

Episode two starts with another brief flashback into the early childhood of Father Marcus. Orphaned at a young age, he was sold to the church (yeah, Catholic church buying young boys, because... you know, that’s cool and not suspicious). As a young child, still only 12, 13-years-old, he performs his first solo exorcism, a story he later shares with Tomas after leaving (breaking out?) of the bad priest center.

Father Marcus meets CaseyMeanwhile, Angela finally sees her youngest daughter sitting at a table up late at night talking to herself or rather having a demon talk through her. A man, the demon speaks in an aged, sickly voice like in the original movie. She finally looks over to her mother and that’s when the woman grows scared. She calls on Tomas again to do something. but he has his own problems.

Tomas is dealing not only with problems from the higher-up priests in his diocese but he also has to deal with the sudden appearance of Marcus after the man originally rejected his ask of help on dealing with the family. Marcus wants to spend some time in the parish meeting the family and seeing if there is a reason for the sudden possession outside of the home. With the help of another crazy man who came to church one day, Marcus deduces that there is not one but possibly many demons in the girl and that the one she speaks to regularly is the leader of some kind of demon uprising. There’s a serious concentration of demons in her area and he makes it his mission to find out why. He also informs Tomas that if the young priest really wants to participate in the exorcism, then he needs to cleanse himself of that love affair as the demon will call out anything it can to use against him in the process.

As it turns out, Tomas and his non-woman woman live close enough for her to visit him when he calls. They sit and talk, and she touches briefly on her unhappy marriage and he tells her that they have to stop, but still can’t pull the trigger to actually stop. She wants more letters and he doesn’t say no.

Casey on the left, Kat on the right
Throughout the whole of the episode, we see glimpses of some young black boy roaming the city on his bike. At first, this seems like a cut scene to fill time, but it proves itself more at the end of the show when we see a league of men come into the boy’s home and slaughter his family, stealing nothing but their organs. His ears covered in Beats by Dre, he doesn’t hear the murders before the killers get him, too. Upon their departure, we see that the league of men truly is a league as there are more flooding out of the brownstones on either side of the street, each equipped with their own cooler full of organs, and finally piling into one van.Finally, we see the young girl’s demon, a man dressed in a modest suit, balding, creepy-uncle-looking old man who listens to her. She leans her head on his invisible shoulder as they talk like sweethearts on the porch and the high schooler is seen by her father acting strangely.

Episode three reveals some of the blander mysteries surrounding the family, specifically what really happened to Kate’s friend and what happened to Mr. Rance to make him the way he is. As it turns out, Henry doesn’t have some mental disease that suddenly came on while he and his wife were out, but was actually on a construction site... or maybe not, now that I think about it. In any case, he was somewhere that had scaffolding that fell down upon him cracking his head like a coconut. Ever since he’s been very... not right. However, this episode surprisingly shows him as the most lucid and caring he’s appeared since first we as viewers were introduced to him on the show. He goes to visit Father Tomas alone one day to talk about Casey. After seeing his daughter lean her head upon the invisible shoulder of the demon at the end of the second episode, even he knows that something is drastically wrong with his youngest born. Mind you, he didn’t even know about his wife’s carried-out plan to poison the girl with holy water and definitely didn’t see her vomit green ooze nor yank from her throat a long, live centipede-thingy.

His oldest, on the other hand, didn’t actually have a drug problem or devil-worshipping problem as was eluded to in the first episode. In fact, the story about her and her friend getting into a car crash is not only true but proves character-revealing for her. Kat was in a dance troupe before the accident. In that dance troupe, she had a best friend who wanted to be more than best friends—all-female dance troupe, by the way. Kat was very much so down with that and we saw a little bit of them flirting with each other in the car. Unfortunately, as Kat’s would-be girlfriend asked Kat (the driver) to turn and look her in the eye—probably for one of those daring Fast and Furious kisses—Kat looked back to the road and saw a plain-suited man standing in the middle of the street. The man looked mysteriously similar to the demon who is following and living within Casey. For right now, we’ll just call him The Salesman.

Casey and the Salesman
To reverse it a little back to Kat, she and this girl were in love which is why she has been so mopey and depressed. The strange thing, however, is the way in which Angela is acting. It seems the whole family knew Kat and this girl had a deeper connection than just friends, which would lead you to believe that they’d understand her melancholy after losing her. What then comes into question is how Angela feels about that. Though it is not said, I’m wondering if Angela disapproved of her budding lesbian relationship. Again, the show has made it rather clear that the Rance’s aren’t a family full of true believers. Angela herself says that she more likes the idea of God rather than actually takes it seriously, even though she does plenty of church work to help the parish. But that, along with the fact that she was genuinely concerned about her daughter’s possible Wiccan conversion, and that she leaped to the possibility of demonic possession so quickly makes me think she has more belief in the evil than the good, and that she’s committed to keeping up appearances. Whether she judges her daughter’s sexuality or not I’m sure will either play out in a natural course or not be mentioned at all as the show complicates more.

After learning in the previous episode that the pope will be visiting Chicago in the coming weeks, we get to see a meeting of the planning committee for his trip that consists of local priests and archbishops. There, we not only see Father Tomas voicing his opinion about both his parish and a bad part of the city where one woman who is in charge of these arrangements insists the Pope not visit, but we also see the other black priest who Father Marcus pulled a gun on in episode one... in South America somewhere. Apparently, this guy travels internationally all the time and gets put on the craziest swing of cases: first dealing with an exorcism, then dealing with the planning of the Pope’s trip to America, and then seeing to it that Father Marcus receives his walking papers. Oh yes, after the gun stunt over a year ago, the black priest went to his superiors and told on Father Marcus. That, coupled with the fact that the boy died in the exorcism, and Marcus’ more recent breakout from St. Aquinas, have all led to Marcus being excommunicated from the church. Yeah, crazy. The strange thing is that the black priest guy only realizes that something strange is going on when he visits Chicago and sees a man self-immolate on the street before the planning committee. The guy erupts into flames with a bible in his hand and no gas or accelerant around or on him. Strange.

Before the excommunication, Marcus and Tomas search Casey’s room for evidence of her possession. She has stolen things that she claims were given to her by The Salesman. When they invite her to Tomas’ office, Marcus interrogates her to try capturing the possession on camera so they could get proper permission from the Vatican. Marcus gets her to talk and then turn into The Salesman who reminds him of the other demon he tried dispelling from the boy. Tomas doesn’t seem nearly as freaked as he should be here as he sees the girl’s eyes go fully black, her voice change into a man’s, and things levitate, rattle and fall all over the room. Almost like he’s seen this before or something (yes, he saw this in a dream but still). But I digress. Marcus now knows that it is as he thought, something huge is going on because the demons are communicating with each other, telling info and relaying messages across time and human-barrier lines. That slaughter we saw taking place at the end of the second episode Marcus believes took place because the human minions of these demons are gathering all the project supplies they need to create bodies for a slew of demons. Yeah, it is about to get hell-a complicated. And none of that even touches on the guy that Casey beat the crap out of on the bus/train or that awkwardly long, disgusting young-girl-with-old-man kiss. Ewww!

Pa and Ma Rance
What’s my grade? So far, I give it a B-. OK, this is a toughy because I enjoy the show but I’m not sure what it is, but it feels like something is missing here. I’m leaning towards the acting on this, though, the only real problem I have with the acting stems from one person, Father Tomas. In the earliest minutes of the premiere, he looks like someone who might have some charisma, be the fun in the show, but he’s really not that. He’s also not Father Karras from the film—a hard-nosed, streetwise punk who goes into his first exorcism with wild abandon only to realize that this is all real and serious. He’s almost a non-factor of a character here. He doesn’t have the fervor and heated anger that one might expect when the church tells them no on something they know is right. He isn’t so wide-eyed that we as the audience can identify with his wonderment about the things happening before him (again, his reaction in the room to Casey when she spoke was so lackluster; I get that she had already attacked him in the attic, but come on). And worse still, he doesn’t seem driven by anything and isn’t written in a way that makes his lack of conviction interesting or exploratory. Shameless plug, when I started outlining season two of my episodic novella series The Writer, I had a distinct problem: I had no motivation for why the titular character would continue down the path he started on in the first season. He was a mess on the inside, even if it didn’t show that on the outside. So his actions and even thoughts had to ring true to that malaise of existence he felt. He did stuff for no particular purpose because he was still so raw from the events of the first season. But that was purposeful meandering so the character could return to what was thrust upon him in the first season.

In Father Tomas’ case, the lukewarm taste of his character seems accidental. As said, he doesn’t strike me as a true believer, one willing to die for the church and his beliefs. He also doesn’t feel too committed to the parish, though he sticks up for the people when the planning woman frowns upon the badder parts of the city. When that earns him a $100,000 check to help out his own parish, he isn’t thrilled about that. And outside of those few nightmares/ghosting sessions in which he saw Marcus’ last exorcism, he really doesn’t seem enamored with the call of the spirits guiding him to help this family. He’s just there as a non-omniscient narrator, placed in certain rooms at certain times to move the story forward. As has been too common of a refrain this new fall TV season, his character feels as if it could be cut out of the story and you’d lose nothing.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think Father Marcus is the best thing about the show. He’s emotional, broken, seeking purpose again, a true believer, a burdened slave to his calling. In the world in which even some of the supposedly most devout Christians turn to science long before turning to God for their answers, he is the only refreshing one to have seen science’s limits and fully give himself over to the realms of the spiritual. And he’s also right... a lot. His character is so fascinating because he is a rebel for his belief in a society, a system which is built solely on belief. I often go for plot-driven shows more than character-driven because character-driven shows often become more formulaic, quicker, but here I am enamored by this guy. Though we haven’t seen it yet, I think that if we get a scene in which he plays off of Geena Davis’ Angela and Hannah’s Casey, we could really have something amazing. The show is filmed well enough. The first episode reminded me of film quality but the second and third regressed slightly to TV quality. Strangely, I think this show would be a huge cult hit if it came on on another day (try Thursday or Monday) or it had Bryan Fuller (the same guy who did Hannibal) as its showrunner. It has this atmosphere that screams that it wants to go creepier, but it hasn’t quite got there yet. It is gory enough, though, and will get worse, so if you are squeamish, this might not be for you.

Should you be watching? Sure. Pay heed to the last sentence of the previous paragraph and know that this show looks like its only going to focus on the one case of Casey and whatever demons that come with/from that, so it moves slowly. But I think that this will be a half-season pickup (only 10-13 episodes) so they should be able to hold the tension long enough for you to not lose interest. But I will warn that fans of AHS: Roanoke Nightmare or Scream Queens might be a little disappointed, simply because there’s not much mystery here as is in those shows. Things are pretty straightforward and the questions you might have on one episode are quickly answered in the next. Don’t expect a big, mind-blowing twist. The Exorcist airs Fridays at 9pm on FOX, right after Hell’s Kitchen.

What do you think? Have you seen The Exorcist? If not, do you think you’ll tune in? If you have, what has been the scariest part for you so far? Do you like where the show is going? How long do you think the demons have been targeting the Rance family. Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "The power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you! The power of...”

P.S. Have you all seen these hilarious church signs? I remember walking by one just after PokemonGo came out and it said something about how we should come in to catch... the Holy Ghost. It’s strange though because so many of them are Pokestops. That makes me wonder if my dear Christianity teamed up with the PokemonGo creators to drum-up business or if they are subtly trying to say that the modern church has more monsters in it than anything else. Hmmm? Something to think about, right?

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T-R-Trying To F-I-Find The W-O-Words #Speechless #ABC #3weekroundup

T-R-Trying To F-I-Find The W-O-Words #Speechless #ABC #3weekroundup


All pictures courtesy of ABC

Three weeks have turned into four, which means it’s time for another three-week roundup review/recap. That was a mouthful for sure, but hardly anything in comparison to what ABC has going on in their new one-cam comedy Speechless. But what does this handicapable-friendly family comedy have to offer? And will it give you something to talk about or will you be left without a word to spare? Boy, the cliches are mounting, so let’s get into this dang review before I die a little more inside.

ABC’s Speechless (#Speechless) is a half-hour sitcom centering around a white nuclear family of five with one twist: their eldest son is confined to a wheelchair and can’t speak for himself. Let me take this opportunity to point out right now that when I viewed the commercials to make my original preview prognosis, I cited how the commercial didn’t touch upon what illness the boy had, but said it looked like MS or something similar to Stephen Hawking’s debilitating disease. After having watched the first three episodes I can now confirm that I still have no idea what the heck this boy has. Maybe I’m not paying attention as well as I usually do when watching these shows, but I don’t remember them mentioning it not once during the pilot, or the other two episodes, what his ailment actually is. Maybe this is not a comedy but a mystery in disguise. Maybe at the end of this season or at the end of the series, he’s going to get up from that chair, tell everybody to kiss it and walk off Keyser Soze-style. I don’t know, but the mystery is killing me.

The Dimeo Family; Aide on the Far Right
But I digress. Our protagonists are the Dimeo family. We have Mama Dimeo or Maya (played by the as-of-late hitting on all cylinders Minnie Driver who actually looks better to me now than she did 20 years ago). Overbearing, family-driving, highly opinionated matriarch, she supplies the majority of the comedy of the show. Yes, she plays right into the same uptight-mom-trying-to-be-cool stereotype that we see on... most ABC family sitcoms and would probably be good frenemies with studio mate Frankie Heck of The Middle (moved to Tuesdays because this show is its doppelganger), but since it has worked as a formula for the last decade, it’s not about to halt anytime soon (maybe in five years). Make no cakes about it, she is the star of this show. She is what this show hinges on mostly, though, if I’m going with the door metaphor/reference, then she is the top hinge of a two-hinged door. The show could still close but it would be really weird with only one hinge, you know? I’ll get to the bottom hinge but probably much later... if I don’t lose track of this metaphor and forget about it. Moving on.

Next, we have papa Dimeo or Jimmy, played by John Ross Bowie. He plays the role of the overshadowed husband to a T and cracks wise when and where he can. A perfect match in strangeness with Maya, the two as a pair look like a very strange couple together. I would say that with the mother’s neurotic nature dominating the show, he provides a subtle but unique balance to it, even though he still somehow manages to play the cliched oaf of a husband that has been prevalent back since Dick Van Dyke tripped over that ottoman. His love of other people’s garbage, as shown in the third episode, I’m sure will be the subject of many laughs (some forced).

From Left to Right: Dylan, Ray, JJNext, we have the middle child Ray Dimeo played by Mason Cook. Brushing aside the fact that he has the name of a 43-year-old 260lb plumber from Hoboken, New Jersey that has enough plumber’s crack for days, he actually stands out as one of the crucial pillars of the show. Though he is not a door hinge as we already established that metaphor (I’m slightly regretting that now), he is a far bigger part of the show than I originally anticipated he’d be. While I thought the show would center around his eldest brother, the show actually seems to center more around him and his school experience as influenced by his brother and the backwards-bending his parents have to do to give his brother a normal life; in fact, the first episode heavily focused on him as the family moved from their old place to another new place because of the better school system. But before we plot-dive, let’s introduce the last few characters.

We have Dylan Dimeo (played by Kyla Kenedy) who is the youngest and the only girl of the family. My initial thoughts of her leaned toward calling her a Tomboy, but I don’t think the writers have fully committed to that path for her yet. She dresses like a non-Tomboy, which makes me think she is Tomboy Lite. So far, her main plot-points have centered around sports twice and learning “the Dimeo way” from her father once. So, she doesn’t seem to spend a lot of time with her mother, but there’s plenty of time in the season for that to develop.

Finally, we have JJ Dimeo, our star character and the reason for the show. Played by Micah Fowler, JJ is the handicapped eldest sibling of the Dimeo clan. As previously stated, he can’t walk, talk, or write and was previously placed in a special needs classroom at his most recent school. He is always seen with a red laser pointer wrapped over his ear like a cool wireless phone earpiece—dang it, I’m forgetting the word. What do you call those things? Hmph? The things you put in your ear and then when you’re talking on the phone but someone walks past you on the opposite side of where you have the piece, they either think you’re talking to them or that you’re crazy? What the heck are they called? This is gonna bug me for a while. Anyway... JJ uses that laser to point at a word board his mother drew up for him a while back. That is the only way he can communicate with everyone. But when his mother discovers that a school a few districts over from where they currently live will provide him with a speaking aide, she abruptly moves the family for his benefit. For the first time ever he’ll have someone speaking for him and this is where we pick up our story. It should be important to note here that Micah Fowler the actor is actually handicapped, but is not nonverbal. He can both speak and see better than his character.

Episode one covers the move as not really being much of a move. They get in the van one day and get out the very same day a few blocks over in a decent neighborhood but in the crappiest house being sold on the block. Jimmy lives by the expression “buy the worst house in a nice neighborhood.” It works as it has no deck (huge hole of nothin’ back there), a cell tower painted to be a tree (great reception) and has a door that constantly falls off the hinges as it leads into the kitchen (in no way a reference to our metaphor). Apparently, it also has no upstairs, though I could have sworn that I saw the architectural makings for stairs. More akin to a rundown witch’s hovel, it’s home! Naturally, Ray hates it. He wanted to stay in their last home (not that it was much better) and be near his friends and the school he had been going to. To be fair to his mom (her idea) this was close to the sixth time they moved within a few years, all to give JJ a better school system. Unfortunately, in focusing on JJ so heavily she’s forgotten that her other two children would like to have a normal childhood, too. Completely ignoring the question of who the heck has that kinda money to move from place to place like that with a family of five even if they’re renting, we find ourselves split between understanding the mom and Ray’s side on this issue. Being the child that he is, and the dad that Jimmy is, the two make a deal to try their best to dissuade Maya from wanting to stay in that house, hoping she’ll find something wrong with the school (she always does) so they get to go back to their old home where Ray has his friends, and Jimmy won’t ever have to deal with packing all their crap and moving it. Yeah, Jimmy’s lazy like that.

The plan seems right on track when the first downer they see is the aide that JJ is given. A woman who looks on the cusp of grandma-dom, she has a very high, chipmunk-squeaky, annoying voice that grates at JJ. Not only does he not like her voice, but she is too goody-two-shoes for him as she won’t tell one of his new teachers and his class to eat a bag of d—uh... uh... I’m not gonna say that on the blog either. Be creative, you can figure it out. That, coupled with the fact that his new class gave him a standing ovation and wanted him to run for class president without even knowing him, pisses him off more than anything. He already doesn’t like the school.

JJ is NOT Garbage
To add to that, when his entire family goes to his first day (did I not mention that all of the kids are in high school. It feels like one of them should be in middle school or that they should all be aged down to make the show last longer, but whatevs), Maya loses it when she is greeted by the principal, Dr. Miller (played by Marin Hinkle) who tells her that the only wheelchair ramp they have is in the back of the school... and is actually a garbage ramp... used exclusively for garbage before JJ arrives. “Is my son garbage?” Maya might have used trash, but you get the gist. Back here, in the embarrassing sneak-in garbage entrance of the school is where they meet the gardener/janitor Kenneth, played by Cedric Yarbrough. And here we have our second door hinge. Ha! You thought I forgot about that metaphor, didn’t ya?

Individually, he is a meh! character, along with JJ, but together they are the yin to Maya’s Yang. Though they don’t make the show, they make the show run smoother, less creaky. But I’m jumping ahead of myself.Kenneth works for the school already and is the cool, outspoken black guy (probably the only one in the little town as he says) and really doesn’t give much of a damn about stuff outside of doing his job well. Still, he maintains a cheery disposition and can combat the crazy that is Maya. When she stands out at the front entrance of the school with a petition to make the school build a front ramp, he flat-out calls her crazy, setting the stage for the tension they’ll have throughout the series. He finds the boy kinda cool but doesn’t do much with that until later in the episode.

Kenneth and the Principal
Dylan adjusts to the school accordingly, finding that the sports programs there (they just built a two million dollar track) are decent but have one huge problem: they tell everyone they’re doing great regardless of if they actually are. Super competitive, she can’t stand it, and needs to have her superior athletic skills recognized; she’s a track star.

Meanwhile, the school that Ray was supposed to hate has turned out to be cooler than he anticipated when he finds out that not only do they have an astronomy room but that they have an astronomy club too, which is run (and only has one member) by a cute little Asian girl. Immediate puppy love makes him eager to stay. Not only that, but she invites him out to the carnival near the school that night. Something he really wants to do, his mom shuts him down when they argue about how much they argue and about how much he really wants to give the school a try for a change. But it is still no, which means they’ll move again if they have to and he’ll lose the girl. So, he sneaks out to go to the fair/carnival thing.

Father Dimeo talks to mama and convinces her that she should allow all of her children to have a regular life, so she goes to his room to apologize only to realize that he isn’t there and is at the circus/fair/carnival thing. So the entire family somehow, for some reason ends up going to the family day/circus/fair/carnival thing to look for Ray. There, Ray learns that the girl he likes has an older jock boyfriend, Kenneth meets JJ in the van and helps him to help his brother by announcing that he’ll run for class president (this gives Ray enough time to escape a punishing beating from the jock), and Maya finds and apologizes to her second son. Two deals are struck: they will stay, and cool black guy will be JJ’s new aide.

Episode two focuses on the new aide biz as Kenneth has to get the hang of the whole voice for the voiceless thing. His focus is to make sure that the boy has an authentic high school experience while also feeling heard. The problem is that he has no idea what he’s doing and JJ lives on a fairly strict timeline for his life. He has physical therapy, doctor appointments, etc. It’s actually all a bit suffocating and it’s a wonder how his parents ever got to work in the first place. In fact, I have no idea what it is they do for work, maybe nothing as we come to realize that Jimmy hates having to do any work or cleaning of nearly any kind. Since they’ve made their decision to stay at the new school and the new house, they have to meet their neighbors at some point and Jimmy dreads it. His goal is to make them realize that he and his family are nothing but idiots. His theory, as taught to his daughter who wants desperately to learn, is that people group their neighbors into a few groupings: good neighbors (those borrow-a-cup-of-sugar types), jerk neighbors, and idiot neighbors. Jerk neighbors, as he teaches, are the ones that prank their neighbors with orders of a dozen pizzas like his daughter errantly does. Idiot neighbors are the kind of people who act as if they don’t know any better and maybe they don’t: they leave their garbage cans out too long or don’t mow the lawn when it gets overgrown and weedy. Side note: I’m actually sort of an idiot neighbor as I do both of those things but with good reasons I care not to mention here. But when he nearly lets another neighbor from around the corner take the blame and scolding for the pizza prank that his daughter pulled, they both decide to learn a lesson and go to the good neighbor who they pranked and confess their sins.


At school, Kenneth and JJ are adjusting just fine to each other when JJ expresses how he is very interested in girls. After a quick lost-and-found makeover, Kenneth introduces him to the cheerleading squad where he has a good time looking at the young girls. Realizing how creepy this is for him to be doing as a grown man, Kenneth steps away for a while but accidentally leaves his phone. JJ knocks it to a place unseen, causing him to miss an important call from Maya about the boy’s physical therapy. She chastises him after this one mistake (admittedly, he did leave the boy behind earlier in the day when first he started off to school) and goes to the principal to get him switched off of her son (this program is paid for by the school). Good news: the principal already can’t approve him as the new aide because he hasn’t undergone the weeks of training required by the school board. Maya is overjoyed by this news until she hears the connection between her son and Kenneth while they’re in the bathroom together. Hmph? Creepy sounding. To clarify, JJ can’t use the bathroom himself so Kenneth has to carry him to the restroom throughout the day. Kenneth keeps his job, Dylan and her dad learn a lesson and Ray learns that he has a petite funny walk that really gets into his head. This actually brought up bad memories for me as I was teased my entire childhood for having a funny, effeminate duck walk. True story. This is just another reason that works against him when trying to get closer to his Asian boo... with the boyfriend.

Episode three explores how possessive the family is in different ways. With the new house now their home, they have to rush out and clear all their junk from the old house before being locked-out at a certain time (I guess they were renting). Here, we learn that they are disgusting pack-rats who not only hold on to much of their own garbage but go around and steal other people’s garbage. Admittedly, I’ve also done that but only for my garden. I took an old pool tarp to cover my compost pile in the winter. They, however, take it to the next level, taking things like used fish tanks to use as TV stands, bags of garbage, furniture, lamps and etc. Jimmy loves this stuff and it is the family way set by him. Their house is a sty until he has to explain to Ray why it is that way and why he doesn’t feel embarrassed about it. When your son is told that he’ll live a very limited life and won’t be able to do nearly anything he might want to, everything else doesn’t become that big of a concern. It’s heartwarming and sweet and is made even better when he and Ray learn a lesson about stealing and shame when they steal the stuff out on someone’s tree lawn that turned out to be the things a girl was taking out to pack into her car for college dorm life. Even worse, the girl was the big sister of one of the good friend’s of Ray’s crush, and she was there to hear him apologize for stealing her stuff he thought was garbage and muddle through why he’d be stealing her garbage. Dad realizes how the boy felt and decides to clean up the family home so that Ray can actually invite girls and other people to his house now.

As Ray learns a lesson, Dylan struggles to figure out why she does sports so hard. Kenneth poses his psychoanalysis on why she likes to run, hitting her with the existential proposal that she only does it because she is subconsciously overcompensating for her brother who can’t run or perform any physical activity. Therefore, she is his legs. From then on, she wonders if she runs for her brother or does it just because it’s fun. She even poses this same conundrum to the rest of the track girls’ team who find that they, too, only run for reasons other than it being fun.


While Dylan explores the cosmos for answers, JJ makes cool high school friends that invite him to a bonfire that is not handicap-accessible as you have to turn into an American Ninja Warrior or Bear Grylls to get to the place that’s past some cliff or something—Kenneth knows all the details, revealing how too much into high school life he is. When JJ feels excluded Maya jumps to the rescue, but like Superman saving Metropolis at the end of Man of Steel, she botches it royally and gets the bonfire canceled for everyone. Instead, the cool bonfire is replaced with a terrible gymnasium replica with a fake fire and non-bonfire-roasted S’mores. His cool friends then blame him because they don’t want him to feel like he’s being treated unfairly because he’s different. But in the end JJ tells his mom that he secretly wanted her to intervene, and they devise a plan where he gets his friends back when a rival high school football team gets the blame for tying him to one of the field goal posts, even though Maya did that herself. Though things have changed for the better, everything is still the same so long as the family has each other.

What’s my grade? I give it a B. I liked it. I think that it goes well with the rest of the ABC comedies both on Tuesday and Wednesday... and Friday, for that matter. It is partially groundbreaking just because of the JJ character showing para-positive (is that a word? Seems like it should be, right? I’m still thinking loosely about the Paralympics) roles, and his relationship with Kenneth is novel, which breaks up the otherwise run-of-the-mill sitcom family. Take away Jake or even make him able to talk himself as opposed to Kenneth and you have another Malcolm in the Middle or The Middle or Stuck in the Middle or anything else middle-related. But this is good. Minnie Driver is definitely still on fire and extremely comfortable with the role of over-bearing mother after coming off of NBC’s now defunct About A Boy, another sitcom which I also enjoyed but others didn’t. This, I think has a chance of sticking around as ABC has a track record of good family comedy and has loaded up with 10 comedies across three days. However, I don’t think this is a Modern Family-level comedy, if you enjoy that. The one problem I have is the same problem I have with most comedies these days and that is that it is not extremely laugh-out-loud funny. Granted, I’m still the kind of person that enjoys a good laugh-track comedy like those on CBS (unfortunately I could never get into any of them as I never caught any of them from their series premiere), so maybe that partially effects my judgment here, but I also find that the comedy is more smirk-inducing than belly-laugh inspiring. And sometimes Kenneth is too exaggerated, so much so that he feels like a character within a character, but it still works at times, and doesn’t work at other. I think the show is good overall.

Should you be watching? Yes. Again, family comedy is a hard racket, and with ABC being pretty much the only network offering up a ton of it (CBS has more mature-skewing comedy series and NBC really has only two comedies, both of which can be for the family but don’t fit that particular mold), your best bet is on ABC. And if you’re looking for something new and different, then this show is definitely for you to at least checkout. Also, with Modern Family and Blackish showing upper-middle class, this show is more lower-middle class or even lower class which is a change in speed and relatable for a different crowd. Speechless airs on Wednesdays at 8:30pm on ABC.

What do you think? Have you seen Speechless? If not, do you think you’ll check it out now? If you have, what is your favorite part of the show? Are you excited that they are showing more para-positive individuals on TV? How do you like the family dynamic? And do you think Maya will ever not be overbearing? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "Sure, you’ve got a disability, but that ain’t neva meant you wuhdn’t good enough ta be my son.”‘Paaaaaa!’
P.S. Now what movie is that from? You know? Can you guess it? Ha, you know you’re stumped. I’ll think of a better sign-off next time.

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Why Not Just Pick The Perfect Jury? #Bull #CBS #3weekroundup

Why Not Just Pick The Perfect Jury? #Bull #CBS #3weekroundup


All pictures courtesy of CBS

Boy, has this new crop of TV shows this season been disappointing. Oh! Did I write that out loud? Sorry. I meant to think it, type it, then delete it in my edit, but it just slipped out. You know you agree with me. But what about this new show from CBS. Is it certified fresh or is it already a rotting corpse ready to be buried by the cancellation bear in his last few weeks before hibernating? Let’s read about it together.
CBS’ new show Bull stars Michael Weatherly as Dr. Jason Bull, a trial jury consultant who helps the defendant and their lawyer team build a successful jury that will return the proper verdict, whether that be guilty or not guilty (in most cases since it is for the defendants, it is a not guilty). Before I dive into this review/recap you have to know right up front that this series is actually based loosely on the early career of Dr. Phil McGraw—yeah, that Dr. Phil Mcgraw. the Dr. Phil that has his own talk show, Dr. Phil McGraw. Apparently, in his earlier career, he founded what he labeled CSI, short for Courtroom Sciences, Inc. There, he did precisely what the show does, putting his psychology degrees into effect to better predict the behavior of people. We good with the background? Yeah? OK, let’s get back to the show.
Dr. Jason Bull or just Bull for short runs his own office where he, as a psychologist tries to read, understand and predict the behavior of people, specifically jurors. What he wants is to understand what will make a juror vote someone not guilty. To do that, he has to understand their background: their likes and dislikes, how they live their life, what they hold most important, what kind of family and friends they have, what music is on their iTunes most played list, etc. Every detail you can think of is uniquely important because every detail of one person can sway or dissuade another juror. Let’s hop into the first case for better understanding.
Left to Right: Marissa, Bull, BennyJoining Bull in his pursuit of the best jury is his second-in-command Marissa Morgan (played by Geneva Carr. You probably don’t know her by name but I’m sure you’ve seen her face once or twice). She helps to bring to his attention a case centered around a dead young Asian woman and the rich preppy punchface that is being accused of her murder. Working at Trial Analysis Corporation or TAC, she leads the young high school/college-aged boy’s father to Bull’s main operating floor to introduce him and his fleet of high-powered attorneys to Bull’s decision matrix. Here, we pretty much meet the rest of the team in a quick round-em-up near the very beginning of the show. We have Benny Colon (played by Freddy Rodriguez) who is an ex-city prosecutor who now helps to try the cases in Bull’s mock court (bear with me as we are getting to the explanation for that); Danny James (played by Jaime Lee Kirchner) who really doesn’t seem to have one specific job or area of expertise but does a little of whatever Bull and Marissa tell her to do; Cable McCrory (played by Dorothy Walcott who some might recognize from Showtime’s The Knick) who plays the lesbian hacker; and Chunk Palmer (played by Chris Jackson) who plays the gay stylist/cleanup guy. Do they need a stylist? Just wait for it.
Though he is a consultant, something stated in much of the advertisements and on the show more than a few times, Dr. Bull doesn’t think of it that way. He prefers to see his job as trial science as explained by Marissa in the opening act. All of the information I mentioned before that he is trying to compile on all of the potential jurors is scientifically manipulated, analyzed, studied and experimented with to give the best conclusion. To piggy-back on that, what he does is use a very complex and complicated algorithm to understand how people think and are affected by everything they hear in the courtroom. With the first case about the rich white kid killing the young Asian girl, we get a glimpse at this jury matrix. The father and his lawyers walk into Benny trying the case in front of a mock jury as it will be presented to the real jurors by the rich boy’s defense team. Each juror, out of what looked like anywhere from 18 to 24 is hooked up to a hand sensor and monitored with their own individual camera. The hand reader monitors all kinds of biological cues our bodies give out to alert a trained professional to how we are reacting to something. Through some of this information, coupled with the backgrounds of the jurors, Bull will build what he thinks is the most perfect jury to get this boy a not guilty verdict.
The Algorithm/Jury Prediction Matrix at Work
One of the taglines: No trial starts at zero. Based on the opening statement delivered by Benny (actually written by the real lawyer who will be trying the case for the rich boy), Bull surmised they’d only get three not guilty verdicts and was right. See, before each trial begins Bull and his team do a thorough background check of every person within the potential jury pool and put together their own list of the traits they want long before the lawyers even ask the questions at jury selection; in fact, he and his team will often write the questions for the lawyers to ask because the questions help Bull to prove his logarithm-extrapolated theory. For instance, he knows that one juror will vote not guilty for the boy because he is a current frat boy and actually wants to be the rich boy himself; another juror is a rebel without a cause and sees the goth-dipped rich boy as a rebel, too; another, still, is an older white woman who lets her upper-middle class bias shelter the boy, or in other words, he’s just too pampered to have killed someone. These things are great facts for when the real jury gets selected. Here’s when my title line comes into play.
After selecting a jury based on their pre-trial algorithm, Bull and his team go out and search the city for an identical mock trial jury. Assumingly these people are paid for their service as they, too, will be whisked away to spend all day sitting in the back of the courtroom to listen to the testimony and how it all plays out. Each person of the mock trial is chosen as a direct doppelganger of someone in the real jury. So, a woman who lost her son to “the legal system” is both on the real trial jury and the mock trial jury. Naturally, the old-school lawyer pushes back on the process as he wouldn’t be as powerful and high-priced as he is if he hadn’t tried tons of cases before and won more than he lost. Bull tells the man that not only will his method work, but that he needs to ditch the other lawyers save for one disheveled woman in the back, and he also bugs the man’s watch to make sure he is hearing all of what he thinks he needs to know.
Bull and Chunk with the kidThe boy is going in front of a very conservative judge but looks very lead-singer-of-Green-Day-ish, and hardly concerned with going to jail. The story goes like this: the Asian girl was killed by being thrown overboard of a party yacht during the boy’s party with a bunch of school friends. This was after the boy slept with the girl. It is theorized that he got a bit forceful when she didn’t want to sleep with him a second time, so he threw her off the boat before returning to the party. Mind you, he had only just met the girl about a week prior to the yachting excursion with all of the people. It was a crowded yacht and the girl had been having fun until she wound up dead. Also, it is revealed that the very reason she even got invited to the party and knew the boy was because she was also a drug dealer on the side. She had two phones, a main phone, which she used to talk to her mother on a daily basis and another phone they suspect she used as her dealer phone. There’s also a third person involved, the boy’s really close friend and pseudo-girlfriend. We’re talkin’ Cory and Topanga here: she’s a rich girl, he’s a rich boy, they grew up together, they were destined to end up with each other—at least that’s what she and her parents thought.
They try to throw you off with the drugs thing, briefly suggesting that this may have been some kind of drug deal gone wrong or that she was high or something silly, but that is inconsequential to the case. But when they learn from her mother (on the stand) that the girl told her everything and even revealed that the boy wanted to have anal sex with her, that is when things start to change and I immediately knew that he wasn’t the person who killed her because I had already guessed partially what happened. Anyway, even though plenty of people have anal sex according to multiple scientific sexual surveys done in the last few years, the very comment sends gasps through the court and makes him look like a twisted pervert. So, to undo this image, he needs to change his... well, image. The gay stylist guy plays into the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy stereotype and turns the boy from rich punk rocker to sweet barbershop quartet neighbor from Mr. Roger’s neighborhood. Though they don’t originally plan on putting him on the stand, he has to look innocent.
Someone they do question is the pseudo-girlfriend. After finding bondage photos linked to the boy, they question him on it but he says they aren’t actually sexual, something the gay stylist guy brought up as a theory. The pictures are more artistic than sexual for the boy. But they are of the pseudo-girlfriend who presents some very jealous tendencies on the stand. Before putting her on the stand they speak with her parents where her mother does much of the talking, making the husband into a pathetic simp. She, like any disapproving, rich, overbearing mother, is highly disappointed that the boy would even halfway choose some Asian girl over her daughter who idolizes him for whatever reason. They briefly think that it is the girl who killed the Asian and the jury certainly reacts in kind when the girl loses it on the stand. But not even her testimony can budge one Stonewall of a woman who Bull believes is driving the mind of the jury. If they get her to believe the boy is innocent, they can win the entire jury. She happens to be the woman with the son in the system, and she still doesn’t budge even after they put the boy on the stand. Though she is leaning toward him being not guilty after he confesses that he is actually gay and was sleeping with a lover at the time (he doesn’t reveal the lover. I completely knew the boy was gay from the very beginning of the case).
The only way they finally get her to change her vote to not guilty, as evidenced to multiple testings of the closing statement against the mock jury, is to switch the lead lawyer off the closing and have it be delivered by the downtrodden woman lawyer who comes off as less arrogant and more truthful to her than the pompous suit of a man. The trial jury, just like in the mock jury, comes back with a not guilty verdict after the woman closes and all is right in the world. The woman on the jury who Bull found the hardest to crack encounters him on the street and she tells him to not spend his life trying to figure people out because it’ll just lead to a sadder life. But he can’t stop because he was hurt at some point in his own life and does this to not only control people but mask his own pain. A more recent pain came from his divorce from Benny’s sister. Not focused on that, he doesn’t just want to mold the jury but actually wants justice, too. Through body language and observation, he realizes that the person who the boy was sleeping with was actually the father of the pseudo-girlfriend. Moreover, the mother knew and killed the girl for that very reason: because she couldn’t kill her husband and knew that the Asian girl knew the boy was gay, which would completely mess up her daughter’s chance of marrying him and keeping money with money—rich people problems. She might not have been linked to all of it had she not stolen the dead girl’s necklace before tossing her overboard.
Left to Right: Chunk, Bull, DannyEpisode two deals with a very familiar plotline recently in the movies with both films like Flight starring Denzel Washington and Sully starring Tom Hanks touching on the subject. Here, an airplane crashes killing everyone on board but the pilot. Surprise, surprise, the pilot is a woman who comes under scrutiny along with the airline after the devastating tragedy. Bull seeks to prove that she wasn’t acting recklessly when the plane crashed and that it wasn’t due to pilot era. The plane had to fly through a storm and very bad turbulence before coming down in a forest a few miles away from a proper landing strip. Here, Bull is working against a few biases: she blacked out which means she has no recollection of what happened and some people think she may have been drinking (as in Flight); her co-pilot’s wife knew that her husband was having an affair and suspects it was the pilot and the co-pilot getting it on; she is a woman and Bull senses a blatant gender bias in the case. Through using his initial mock jury, he was able to get an easy not guilty verdict the first time, but only when people believed he was the pilot rather than a woman. If they can get the jury to see that she was a military pilot, had logged just as many hours as any qualified man and that she was more than capable of flying and landing the plane, then they can get her off. None of that really works to sway the jury. What really gets them is when at the end, they reveal to the jury that they are biased against the woman based solely on a picture of a few kids standing up to a bully. People are to choose which color shirt is standing up to a bully on a soccer field. When it is revealed that the girl is the defender and no one chose her, then people’s minds change. Bull also takes the pilot to a flight simulator to help her reclaim her memory. The simulator reveals that she made the right call and pulled the plane away from catastrophe by not landing it in a nearby neighborhood which could have killed dozens more.
Episode three’s case develops from a popular true crime blog releasing new facts in the murder of a college student a few years back. Taking the case pro-bono, Bull and his team have to defend a young woman charged with murdering a college superstar athlete by shooting him. This comes only after some of her DNA from a few strands of hair are found on his jacket and the true crime blog unearths a previously unfound anonymous rape report that she filed against him while in college. Her side of the story is that there was a party going on and he happened to ask her if he could use her bathroom in her dorm or place or whatever, and the next thing she knew, she was being raped. The blog, run by a young woman, believes that she probably lied about the rape and that when this false charge was not taken seriously, she sought revenge. Bull, however, believes something far different.
This time, the case focuses less on the jury and more on the blogger and the accused woman. While one juror is a staunch believer and follower of the crime blogger, they focus on figuring out who actually could have killed the boy, while manipulating the blogger to give up all of the information she found during her research. The blogger puts up a white-hat fight against the police and serves a few days in jail just to keep her integrity, street cred, and freedom of journalistic speech intact and not have to turn over her research to the courts. Bull sees right through this and knows that she’s only doing this to gain publicity and appear as a martyr for the cause. He figures out that she knows more to the narrative than what she lets on. When he makes a deal with her to turn over the research, she gets out of jail and is immediately pushed off the roof of her own apartment building. The accused girl also takes flack for that murder until it is proved that she was in her apartment during the time of the blogger’s death.
As it turns out, the girl who was raped didn’t kill the guy at all (she wanted to keep him alive so he could serve jail time) but the man, along with the rest of his highly successful sports team, was on steroids. When he threatened to white knight and turn the entire team in (a noble pursuit for a rapist), one of his teammates and his coach colluded to kill him. Justice was served in the murders though not in the rape.

What is my grade? I will give it a B-. Yes, with the lack of detail and written inflection in some of the above paragraphs one might think I didn’t like the show. The show is decent and it is a fairly new and unique concept, and having it be based on a real-life person in Dr. Phil is also interesting, I just don’t think this show is for me. It is exceptionally average and right in line with a CSI or NCIS—that crowd of shows. If you like those, I’m half-certain you will enjoy this, especially since Michael Weatherly hails from one of those shows. It would have been a C but I ranked it two points higher based solely off the novelty of the concept. Again, there’s nothing quite like it on TV. The only problem I really see here are the cases. The cases are bland so far and the psychology is not as in-depth as I’d like for it to be. Also, referring back to the title of this post, one of the people who was interested in seeing this show originally asked the same question: why not just pick the perfect jury? Why have a need for the mock jury? While it is explained, it also does seem half-unnecessary if you’re picking people that are already supposed to think the person is not guilty. Take away the scenes in which they are actually picking the jury and it can feel like any other law show on TV. But as said before, the concept is so strong on its own, and the acting is decent enough that I can see it thriving on the CBS network.
Should you be watching? Again, if you like any of the other CBS shows I mentioned: CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS, hell, even JAG from back in the day, chances are you’ll like this. Every once in a while, a show will be greenlit on a network and I will watch it and think that if it was on any other network, it probably wouldn’t work. This is that show. This plays highly into CBS’ brand. It is straightforward, no mess, no fuss. You can skip a few weeks and come back having missed nothing which is nice for a lot of people. Bull airs on CBS Tuesdays at 9pm.
What do you think? Have you seen Bull? If you haven’t, do you think you’ll check it out? If you have, what do you like most about it? Was I too hard on it? Is it your new favorite show? And what pain do you think Bull is hiding from? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "Hey, you ever went cow-tipping?”‘Hell no! I don’t tip cows mainly because they make terrible waiters and waitresses.”

P.S. Admittedly, that probably can go into my Hall of Shame for one of my worst sign-offs since starting this blog, but you know what...? I’m OK with that. I’ll think of something better next time.  
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Dude, Like We Are Who We Are, So Being Who We’ve Been Before Is Always Who We’ll Be. #ThisIsUs #NBC #3weekroundup

Dude, Like We Are Who We Are, So Being Who We’ve Been Before Is Always Who We’ll Be. #ThisIsUs #NBC #3weekroundup


All pictures courtesy of NBC
So NBC wanna tug at my heartstrings, huh? Hmph! Yeah, I don’t know about that. But since three episodes of their latest family drama have passed, then I will take a crack at reviewing it in our latest three-week roundup. So, how does the NBC drama fair? Well, I don’t know but you’re definitely gonna get my thoughts on it.

NBC’s This Is Us had a rather dubious start in my mind as none of the commercials really swept me away, not to mention they didn’t necessarily reveal too much about the plot or what the show is really about. In reality, the show is really about nothing but family. Essentially they wanted to make a drama without the usual principles of said dramas driving the plot: families fighting over business/power (ex. Dynasty, Empire, Brothers and Sisters), people fighting for ideals (you can include stuff like Game of Thrones, Westworld, The Americans), people fighting toward a particular goal (ex. Lost), crime, medical, law and sci-fi. This, however, is more similar to Parenthood, Gilmore Girls, or even 7th Heaven—not about a particular subject or story but about the people. It is wholly about the characters, which, while it can be good, is very rare and harder to sell. Just bear in mind that the show depends heavily on you liking, identifying or sympathizing with the characters. If you can’t do that, chances are you probably won’t like the show. Yes, I said that already without digging into the show at all. Should this be at the beginning of the review? Hell no! What the heck am I doin’? Let’s get to the dang review.

Episode one opens with the journey of a freshly married couple of white people (race is important. Bear with me) who we meet on the father’s birthday. Madly in love with his wife and looking forward to his birthday surprise, he awaits his wife to dance for him in her lingerie and we get our first surprise. She comes around the corner two seconds after her belly does and shuffles her pregnant body in as sexy of a way as possible. No normal pregnancy, she’s having triplets and, surprise, surprise, her water breaks and they rush to the hospital. As it turns out, their regular doctor is out sick. They meet their substitute doctor who makes small chit-chat and starts in on the hours-long process of having babies. Their sub doc is a man they’ve never met who extols words of wisdom throughout the process as the wife gives birth. Our wife here is played by once-singer (does she still sing at all) Mandy Moore. Our husband is played by Milo Ventimiglia. As we get going with their story, we suddenly switch to...

A fat white woman waking up on her 36th birthday. That fat comment isn’t body-shaming, it is prefacing the main plot of her storyline. Kate (Chrissy Metz) is a woman who has struggled with her weight her entire life. She looks at least about 300+ pounds and has an addiction to food. As said, she awakens on her birthday to find an entire cake in her refrigerator. Unfortunately, she is so close to the bottom of her food addiction and obesity problem that she has to Post-it all of her food with notes about staying away from it until her party later that night. Yes, she’s got big problems, all of them stemming from just how big she is.

We switch to yet another character and the idea finally sets in that this will be one of those shows that jumps around a lot between the characters, seemingly telling a bunch of different stories. This time we are privy to the private bedroom exploits of Kevin (played by Justin Hartley). Kevin lives in LA and is a top actor on a notable sitcom entitled Manny. When first we see him he is having an existential crisis after completing a threesome the prior night. The girls still there and dancing for him, he considers his future as the Manny (man-nanny for those who may be getting confused). Why is he having this crisis suddenly? * Shoulder Shrug * We don’t know just yet.

Finally, we switch to another guy, a black guy, Randall (played by recent Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown of American Crime Story: People v. OJ Simpson) who lives in New York with a wife and two young daughters at home. At work when we meet him, his office is celebrating not only something great he recently accomplished, but also his birthday. In this place he lives, he works, he has made a real true home, but something looks off with his character as if he is missing something. The episode goes on telling each story in snippets, as they all try to show something in each act or between commercial breaks. From here on, I will tell each story individually all the way through until everything comes together in the final paragraph for episode one as this is how the writers structured the show.

The younger guy is Randall. 
Starting with Kate, we see her go through the woes of being overweight in a society that frowns upon people even inconveniently stocked with a few pounds, let alone ridicules the grossly overweight. Not blind to her problem, she goes to some sort of anonymous-style group meeting for people with body dysmorphia (I say body dysmorphia rather than a weight problem because there is one woman in there that really isn’t fat, but sees herself that way). While there, one of the fat, balding guys (think taller Homer Simpson) makes a joke about food and she is one of the few that laugh. This man, Toby (Chris Sullivan), immediately finds her attractive and moves in for the kill. She rejects him, saying she can’t have any “fat friends,” as in gentlemen callers of the portly variety at the moment. He then makes a joke that, “I guess I’ll just have to lose the weight, then,” and it cracks her up. No one has ever offered that for her: for him to lose weight and still accept her for who she is rather than telling her that it is she who needs to change. Therefore, she needs to keep him around for a while. They even go out on a date and all he can think about is getting laid because it has been quite a while, but she doesn’t want to get too involved because it’s her birthday and she’s got other stuff to do like mope about how fat she is.

Meanwhile, Kevin is having one of the worst days in his career. While at the studio filming his multi-cam sitcom in front of a live audience, he loses his commitment to the job and flips out. He doesn’t look the type (maybe that’s why they cast Justin) but he is the kind of person who wants to be taken seriously as a thespian. It rather irks him that he isn’t doing something with more depth, like Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams. And when the show creator/director/writer tells him that he must do one particular scene that exploits his good looks as opposed to a heartwarming scene as originally written, he can’t take it anymore. In a huff, he quits the show and leaves the set. Destined for infamy, he doesn’t escape the set without one of the audience members using their phone against the rules and recording him to a Youtube account. He’s been freaking out because he’s having his birthday and realizes that he’s achieved virtually nothing with his career, even though he has a show.

Back in New York, Randall has been having a great day but as said before, something is missing. We found out what that is when he pulls up to a tiny tenement of an apartment building and buzzes the door. Someone from the apartment comes down to greet him. An old, thin black man who has seen much better days comes down to answer the door. Randall gives the man the rundown, telling him his name, then telling the man that he is his son who he left at a fire station many years ago and that he has finally found his bio-father after so many years. He doesn’t really want nor need anything from him, but just came to rub it in his face how good he has done for himself in life, how he was adopted and how he never really needed the man. The man then invites him in where they talk some more about why he came there. Randall at first wants to say screw you old man, but then ends up inviting him to see his children (the man’s grandchildren). The man, William (played by Ron Cephas Jones), gets to meet his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren, two young girls. Randall tells his wife who the man really is, but he tells the children that William is simply a friend from work. His emotions run so high that he forgets time and has the man stay until it is late. Only then does William tell his son that he actually has stage 4 cancer and only has a few more months to live, a year at the most. Kindness bubbling in his heart, Randall invites William, this man who is his father but he barely knows, to stay at his house for the night... or maybe longer, like, until he dies. William doesn’t want to be rude, especially not on Randall’s birthday, so he stays.

Rebecca (Mandy Moore) with baby Randall
Finally back to the couple having triplets. The first one comes out, a boy, but unfortunately, the child dies shortly after arriving. The father Jack (again, Milo) struggles to tell the mother Rebecca (Mandy Moore) but knows that so long as they push forward only good things will happen. He and the doctor talk about how when the doctor was young and before his recently deceased wife passed, they were also pregnant with multiple babies. Twins, they also lost one of the babies. They made it through slowly and together, but they made it through. Finally, with the other two babies out safe and sound, Jack stands at the viewing window to look at his children: a beautiful baby boy and girl. But as he’s looking, he sees another guy standing next to him worried and sighing as he doesn’t know what the future holds for this one baby. As it turns out, the man is a firefighter who found a baby left at the firehouse and brought him here. He then offers the father a smoke in the hospital and that’s when we get hit with the surprise. Surprise, they’re all related! Turns out it is the late 1970s, early 80s, Jack and Rebecca see the third baby, a black baby that they adopt and name Randall.

What we see of the other three adults: Randall, Kevin, and Kate, are their children all grown up and living their lives. Kate and Kevin actually being twins both live in LA and celebrate/weep through their birthday on the floor of her bathroom, while their brother across the country turns out the lights and lies down next to his wife. The funny thing is that while all of this should have been obvious to me halfway through, I was so unprepared for any kind of mysterious twist that I didn’t see the obvious one until it was revealed at the end. Yes, the show is structured in a way to where the writers want constantly to hit you with a new surprise each episode, revealing another slice of their lives and how things have changed through the years.

Episode two sets the expectations of the time frames. While Kevin, Kate and Randall (listed in order of what their parents consider their birth order, though Randall is probably the oldest) all have a timeline that is concurrent and in current day, the timeline with their parents Jack and Rebecca will follow an unorthodox scatterplot throughout the season. Whereas last episode they were just giving birth to the twins and adopting their third little black baby, this episode zooms forward until they are already going to school and old enough to pick on each other. This time we see the picture of a normal middle-class family struggling to make it from day to day. Jack and Rebecca have marital problems stemming from Jack’s lacking parental presence. Though it is implied that it is just his marriage that he is struggling with, there could be something else going on that will be revealed in a later episode. He stops to have drinks with one of his good work buddies Miguel (played by Jon Huertas fresh from Castle fame) who tells him how lucky he is to have such a wonderful woman as his wife and how he should treat her right because some people aren’t that lucky; Miguel is not that lucky.

While Jack is dealing with the wedding and family blues, Rebecca is helping her two sons get along because Kevin doesn’t stick up for his black brother Randall when kids tease him at school. A white family with one black child sticks out today, so imagine the 80s and 90s. Eventually, they sorta start getting along but Kevin is still not as committed to his brother as he should be. Rebecca and Jack talk about their lack of parenting prowess and she tells him that he needs to be there or not be there, but don’t be half-in, half out. He agrees and makes the commitment to be better.

Meanwhile, back in our time, Kate goes out on another date with her fat guy who has already lost hella weight after working out with her for, like, a week. She has lost nothing and is a little jealous, but it is OK because they are committed to helping each other. They go to a Hollywood party that her brother is forced to go to by his agent, and they dance the night away like no one is watching.

Speaking of Kevin, he has no idea what to do with his life now. Not only is he a laughing stock due to his freak-out video going viral, he also is told by his agent that he is contractually obligated for at least two more years of his TV show. Don’t do it, and he gets sued by the network. In any case, he can’t do other TV or film projects because of the contract, so he has to suck it up and go kiss the network president’s butt to either let him back on the show or graciously let him out of his contract. The president, surprisingly, doesn’t let him out of his contract. From there, Kevin decides that he’s going to move all the way across the country to New York to do theater. And Kate is all like, what?

Finally getting a call from his brother and sister after not receiving or making one himself on their shared birthday in the first episode, Randall is called by his brother and we learn that their relationship is still one of complexity and frailty. Randall is dealing with the relationship with his bio dad who is confronted by his wife on whether he really is sick. The man, a past druggie (whole reason why he gave up his son), reveals that he is off the drugs but takes his son’s money to take a bus all the way from NY back to Philly each day to feed his cat, the only thing he really has. He doesn’t want to overstay his welcome. Kevin makes arrangements with some oncologists to see if he can’t get the man healed up. He schedules an appointment. That day, as he is about to take the man to the doctor’s in a few hours, he gets a surprise knock on the door. It is his mother, a well-makeup-ed Mandy Moore, along with her husband. No, not Jack. She’s now married to Miguel, Jack’s old work friend. “Surprise! Got you again, viewer!”

Jack and Miguel 
Episode three starts with Rebecca and Miguel coming in to be greeted by Randall’s family. He tells her immediately that he found his bio dad after years of searching. Actually, she didn’t really know he had been searching, after his initial look when he was younger. She demands to meet him and goes up to the room where he’s staying (Randall’s youngest daughter’s room) to shake his hand. As soon as Randall introduces them, she asks that her son leave the two of them alone for a while and that is when we get the surprise at the beginning of the episode this time around. As it turns out, they met before a long time ago.

In what I found very akin to the opening of UP but with an even sadder twist, we see William’s ballad as a young man. He gets on the bus and rides, assumingly to and from work or home or something. On the bus, he sees a very nice young black woman. Next, he’s getting on the bus and sharing a seat with her. Next, they are coming on the bus together. His nickname Shakespeare, he writes beautiful poetry in a journal he always carries around with him. Next, we see the two of them getting on the bus strung out, the writing in his journal devolved from Founding Father’s cursive to neanderthal scribbles, drugs frying his mind. The next we see is of the two with the woman pregnant, both half passed out as they ride the line. And finally, we see him holding a motherless baby in his arms as he rides past a fire station.

As it turns out, back with Jack and Rebecca, just after the babies were born, they decided to name all of the children K names—never mind the fact that naming their three children, one black, K K K would’ve definitely got some looks, Rebecca doesn’t feel right about Randall. The other two spent time in her, but Randall is foreign to her and won’t nurse on her. Trouble bonding, as they leave the hospital she sees William looking out for his child from across the street. She takes a few days to track him through the city and finally finds him in the same place Randall finds him years later. He gives her a book of poetry by some guy named something-Randall and they make a deal that he’ll stay away forever.

Back in current time, Randall is fighting to save his life even though the doctors are only giving back bad news. He is set to tell his children who the man is and starts asking questions about his bio mother.Meanwhile, Kevin is still in freak-out mode and gets his sister Kate to deal with everything for their move; Kate is his personal assistant. While he makes the decision to move, she didn’t want to do that. Instead, she is still involved with her fat boyfriend who hears her singing one day and thinks she should do it professionally. Side note: While I haven’t researched her that much, I think the actress playing Kate might have come off Broadway but I’m not sure. OK, back to the story. She says no and doesn’t think any more about it, until he picks her up in a limo as her chauffeur and drives her to her first gig he setup. The first gig Toby has set up for her: An old folks home where his aunt lives. He tells her how she shouldn’t be intimidated because most of the people there are either going to die in a week or have dementia and won’t know what the heck happened in less than an hour—hyperbole, obviously. He cues a CD of the instrumental of her favorite song and she does it. It starts out shaky but she gets her rhythm halfway through and we cut to these two big people trying to have sex in what looks like a closet—nothing in the room is strong enough to support them, OK, and you know that it smells like a nursing home in there so how this is ever going to work is beyond me.

Unfortunately, Kate gets a call from Kevin who is locked in his own closet hiding from an ex-girlfriend booty call who he just told he is moving across the country. Not happy, the woman is throwing stuff, causing Kevin to call for rescue by his little sister. Kate tells Toby that her twin brother will always come first and she rushes off before they have sex. She saves Kevin who tells her that she shouldn’t have left her guy and he realizes that he is impeding her process of maturing as a solo person, as well as his own growth. He decides to go to NY alone and she goes to get her man. We end this episode without a huge shock as we already got one earlier in the episode and all is moving forward.

What’s my grade? I give it a B+. This has more than a few flaws to it that I feel I should point out to you as a viewer. First, I think the most interesting story arc of the four has to be Randall’s. In the third episode, it is revealed that he was renamed from Kyle to Randall based on his bio father’s favorite poet, something his mother decided to do. I think that maybe it is because he has a story that can make an entire series all by itself, it sticks out to me. In fact, you could, at this point, do away with the other two and just follow him and his parents and the series would not only not lack in substance but might be slightly better. Again, here, I think that this show, with so many varying stories that can stand on their own, might suffer from the same condition that Pitch does: you can remove huge chunks and “crucial” aspects of the show and have the show remain nearly the same in plot and quality.

With the black guy’s story being the most compelling, the second would have to be his parents in that they are the ones that have supplied us with the plot twists the most. Looking into the past and figuring out how the family got to where they are, what’s changed and why it’s changed is like a slowly unfurling papyrus scroll, each week showing us something new and a slightly novel twist. While I have my doubts about the all-over time-jumps (could get confusing or annoying for some viewers), I do enjoy the little twists that come in each episode. My only concern there is that I wonder for how long they can keep that up and if that was a genuinely crucial part of why people enjoyed the show so much on its premiere.

The two middling, half-unnecessary story lines to me are actually of the twins Kate and Kevin. This, in no way, is about their race or dismissing their stories because they’re the white people. No, this is about the way the stories have been written, as well as the below-board circumstances surrounding the actors. OK, to start, Kevin’s storyline is practically non-existent. Yes, he wants to make a career change, but until he actually moves to NY and maybe breaks away from his sister’s shadow, the majority of what he’s done can be cut out of the show and summed up in one expository speech to his siblings and mom about what happened: I freaked out on my birthday, quit my successful TV show job against contract, and now I’m moving to NY to pursue Broadway. OK. There’s been no meat there maybe because there’s been no one outside of his family for him to latch on to. Kate has Toby who introduces us to her story. Randall has his family, his wife, and his bio dad to play off of consistently. Even their parents have each other, not to mention the doctor and Jack’s work-friend to play off of. Who does Kevin have? We got a brief scene with his agent played by Katey Sagal and that was it. He has no secondary anchor character, which opens him up to dying on that flight to NY and never being heard from again. He could literally walk upstairs like so many kids from 90s sitcoms, disappear from the show, and I wouldn’t bat an eye.

The biggest concern (yes, that was a weight joke) is not about Kevin as I’m sure they’ll staple his story to someone in NY, but for Kate. Here is where things get tricky because this is a problem that is off set but effects everything onset. See, my problem with her story is that she’s fat and that’s it. I know they’re going to play the singer angle and try to get her a recording contract and all of that in the future, but the fact that her story hinges on her weight, makes me question how far this can stretch. “What do you mean, Michael?” you ask. Well, the only true progression of her story I can see over a long haul would be for her to actually lose weight. Like, I’m wondering if it is in her contract that she does actually have to lose weight. Think of it this way, she literally started the show with labeling her food and talking about how big she is. Even if she falls in love and gets her singing contract, she still would have to lose weight for a proper emotional payoff to the viewer. This is screenwriting 101. Some will say, but what about if she just learns to accept who she is instead—and this has been the talk surrounding the show about plus-sized people learning to love their body. Eh! I tell you why that would only half-work: she has already admitted that she has a serious problem with not only who she is but with other struggles like overeating and health. This is more than a “I don’t see myself as...” but is a real problem. If she only accepts the problem and never whiffs at fixing it, it won’t be cathartic for the countless viewers who are also on the never-ending American diet. Also, and this will definitely sound like fat-shaming but as someone who has been over 260lbs in my life I really don’t care if you’re offended, but she is not simply plus-sized like, say, Ashley Graham. She’s just fat like Gabby Sidibe (and even Sidibe has lost quite a bit of weight recently). I say this because, 1) unlike real plus-sized women, she has no actual shape because the fat has swallowed it, 2) she looks at least over 250, which is unhealthy in anybody (I thought I was OK at my 267 until the pain in my back radiated out through the rest of my bone structure), and 3) when you are that big it really isn’t that difficult to lose 15lbs over the course of a year with a little determination. You want to shame me for fat-shaming, go right ahead.

Back to the show, if you have her never losing any weight, what you’ll have is a constant back and forth of how every slight and diss is about her weight, even though she has supposedly accepted her own body. Even if that disappears, the viewer will constantly have her line about how it will always be about the weight for her (can’t believe they wrote that for the character) in the back of their minds, year in and year out. This would then still be about the weight but about how everyone else/society sees the weight as opposed to the internal view which we started with, something that actually becomes more tedious than uplifting because then the viewer whether they are dealing with their own weight issues or not, can look at Kate and say, “Well, you didn’t even really try to lose the weight, so why should I feel sorry for you?” Or empathize for that matter. She has to be shown trying to do her best, and if she can’t do that, then her story already has limited payoff.

Should you be watching? With all my complaints lobbied, I will say that yes you should be watching this. This Is Us is a heartwarming family drama that has already been picked up for a full season at NBC (no worry of it being canceled) and should supply a few laughs mixed in with the awws, tears, and a few mouth-opening twists that make you say “oooo!” Though I can’t fully say that it is a family show to be enjoyed by all ages (I’d give it a 10-year-old age limit as it has talked about hard drugs and sex often), I will say that it is for a crowd that enjoyed shows like Parenthood or Gilmore Girls. This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays, currently at 9pm (though it started out airing at 10pm, so check your local listing).

What do you think? Have you seen This Is Us? If not, do you think you’ll check it out now? If you have, what is your favorite part? Do you think I’m being too tough/critical of Kate’s story, or too dismissive of Kevin’s? What would you like to see the show explore further? And what do you think happened to Jack in modern-day? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, what you’re saying is, is that if I’m me and you’re you and we know that New Mexico is somewhere within this general vicinity, then us, as in we, are here?”“Uh... uh... sure. Let’s go with that. ”

P.S. That is a wordy, verbose sign-off, not to mention complicated in its simplicity, almost like the show. Hm? I’ll think of a better sign-off next time.

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How Do I Invent Something Original? Can I Invent Something Original? #MacGuyver #CBS #3weekroundup

How Do I Invent Something Original? Can I Invent Something Original? #MacGuyver #CBS #3weekroundup
All pictures courtesy of CBS

Here we are with yet another three-week roundup review of a new show. Boy, am I slow this year. Yes, I know, many of these shows have already shown their fourth episode by now, but I’ve been really busy with other stuff, so bare with me. On deck this time around: MacGuyver. Wait, is it the mid-80s again? Are you serious? Come the frick on! When will it stoooooooppp!--eh-hmm (clears throat). Excuse my freak-out. Does this new MacGuyver live up and, dare I say it, surpass the reputation of the old one, or has it failed to cobble together the right amount of magic? Let’s find out together.
CBS’ new version of MacGuyver stars Lucas Till (X-Men post-First Class editions) as our titular character Angus MacGuyver, more commonly referred to by the abbreviated first three letters of his last name. Mac is a young but brilliant secret agent working in the US government in some clandestine organization called the DES or Department of External Services—not Nintendo repair. I totally expected it to be Nintendo repair, what with it having been an 80s show, to begin with. Anyway, the parameters and mission statement of said arm of the government is never fully made clear which gives them sort of a carte blanche jurisdiction to do whatever kind of missions they see fit. Not really CIA, not really FBI, they work across borders but try to stay in places that speak English. Mac is the main agent but is surrounded by a team led by his boss Patricia Thornton (played by Sandrina Holt) who used to be one of the baddest, bestest, secretest agents around and has now pseudo-retired for a bureaucratic job away from the action (mostly). Why? Don’t know. Haven’t delved into her background yet which is fine, as the series does have 20-something episodes to build character. Still, she seems rather unnecessary and from the few episodes I did see of the original, I can’t remember if she was around or not.
Mac’s best bud in the field is Jack Dalton, ex-military muscle-man who has no problem being the fist to Mac’s brain. Played by George Eads of CSI fame, he supplies much of the comic relief that isn’t situational, adding in clingy one-liners that remind both Mac and the audience of just how sticky of a situation they currently are in. Being a military man, he is also heavy into guns, which I do remember MacGuyver being fairly against, though I can’t remember why. I also vaguely remember Jack being more of a father-figure and boss to Mac rather than here where he plays closer to an older brother or cool uncle type. He’s a total pull-my-finger kind of guy, but I digress.
Left to Right: Patricia, MacGuyver, Jack 
The team rounds out with Nikki Carpenter (played by Tracy Spiridakos of Revolution fame; OK, maybe not of Revolution fame seeing as how it felt like I was the only person watching that show, but suffice it to say that she’s a very pretty face that has been in other stuff) who works the computers for them and is also Mac’s girlfriend. Stopping here for a moment, let’s tread back to the original MacGuyver again and be reminded of the one thing that I can solidly remember about the program and that is that Mac, for the most part, worked alone. This is what made MacGuyver, MacGuyver. He’d get himself into an impossible situation, do some insane science/engineering and get himself out with a few pieces of duct tape, a paperclip and some wiring to somehow make something explode. Yes, every show seems to go for the team concept today, which I think is heavily influenced by what Gen Xers and Baby Boomers believe to be how Millennials think (don’t say that some Millennial greenlit this. No way that happened. Most are still getting coffee and running errands for execs): more team-oriented toward goals and diversity-inclusive. However, adding extra pieces to the pie doesn’t always work and can ruin a good cake. Take for instance that metaphor I just used. I started with pieces, went to pie, then cake—I’m so ready for the holiday season, and uh... what was I...? Oh right, MacGuyer. Sorry, started thinking about sweet potato pie.
In the first act of the first episode, we see all four of our heroes out on a mission at some rich guy’s house. Intel tells them that the guy has a stolen, secret bio-weapon stashed somewhere in his house, and they need to retrieve it before another bad group retrieves it, the man sells it to the bad group, and/or the guy decides to use it himself. An elegant mansion party, black-tie affair, Mac and his boss Patricia attend the inside. I don’t really know why his boss is there other than the writers felt they needed to introduce her in a semi-cool way in the opening minutes. She doesn’t really help with the extraction, so... yeah. Anyway, from the van Nikki monitors the computers, the cameras, the blueprints of the house—whatever she can to help them. She is also keeping an eye on Jack who is stationed outside at a boat dock—the guy is close to a rich bond villain—that could serve as their getaway spot in the near future, or it could also serve as a spot for him to do nothing but get caught by a guard and show his awesome ass-kickery skills by taking the guard down. Again, since he is not dressed in proper attire, he helps little in the actual extraction.
Meanwhile, back inside, Mac wanders around the party for a while as Nikki runs a radiation test which reveals exactly where the bio-weapon is. As expected, intel says it is in a study locked behind a huge thumbprint-secured vault. Using his quick thinking, Mac manages to find the owner of the house and print him with a little soot. When he gets to the vault, he sees that it is actually a full handprint scanner. He takes some filings from the plaster on the nearest wall, sprinkles it on the scanner, covers his hand with his shirt sleeves and presses gently on the handprint pad. The filings fill in the missing finger grooves and mimic the owner’s hand, opening the vault. The virus/pathogen gotten, he is immediately confronted by guards who know of his thieving due to Jack’s disarming of the guard down at the dock. Now he has to book it out of there.
He ends up on the dock where he and Jack hop into a boat. Unfortunately, the guards shoot the fuel tank. The boat doesn’t blow but they are running out of fuel and won’t get away. So, instead, Mac drives the boat in a circle, tells Jack to jump, and uses the boat as a ramming bat to take out the guard’s boat. He and Jack swim back to shore where awaits them the van with Nikki. Only thing is that Nikki has some company: the guys originally there to get the virus. They shoot Nikki in the chest and she blasts off the dock and sinks dead into the water. They also shoot Mac but he doesn’t die, even though his heart is broken. The other people manage to escape with the virus and Jack is left alive, but everything is forever changed.
A few months later, Mac is back in Los Angeles living with his best buddy off-the-field played by Justin Hires. A wannabe filmmaker, he brings a few laughs as he is constantly trying to get a b-movie horror/sci-fi film made. The end of Mac’s recovery, he reports back to work at the behest of his boss and learns of recent movement of the bio-weapon/virus/pathogen after months of silence. The intel comes from some guy whose computer equipment they stole. Unfortunately, to get the rest of the info and data dumps, they need a really good hacker who can data-dive. Enters the real fourth part of the team Riley Davis (played by Tristan Mays). Here is where I half-rolled my eyes as, apparently, Jack has had a previous relationship with this young girl (he slept with her mother). Listen, this has nothing to do with age nor race, really, but just the fact that they had some sort of tenuous relationship was actually rather unnecessary. I get it, it is supposed to show a previous relationship and put some contention between the two of them, but I sometimes get annoyed when too many shows feel like a family affair. All the characters knew each other and have this deep history before the show started and yadda, yadda, yadda. Sometimes I want a group of people thrown together and trying to figure stuff out, figure out how to be good while learning each other's quirks and whatnot, rather than developed chemistry off-screen. Most times it works, but here... Well, the jury is still out for me.

Jack introduces Riley to Mac and Patricia. One drawback: She currently sits in jail for hacking into a system to help someone ala Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’s Skye/Daisy. She agrees to help them in return for early parole. They give her the computer, which their original tech treats like a delicate flower, and she smashes it. She then gets the computer chip, puts it into a different PC and rips the info straight from the drive as if it was nothing. This hack gives them a face of the guy who shot Nikki. They use facial recognition and cellular tracking technology to track his location where the buyers are going to make the exchange: California, a hotel. They go to the hotel where Mac mixes some ammonia, aluminum, and some acid to make a smoke bomb that sets off the fire alarm to drain the hotel of its guests. As everyone is leaving, Mac sees not only the guy they’ve been chasing but—prepare for your jaw to drop—Nikki, alive and well.
And the chase is on.
He runs after her through an alley. She manages to escape, but the guy that had shot her and Mac the night of her supposed death chases after Mac only to be felled by Mac’s ingenuity to use a stair-drop fire escape as a weapon to knock the man unconscious. Jack punches him awake for interrogation on the go. As it turns out, Nikki was the mastermind behind the whole thing. She was about that action the entire time. Fake death, 5 million dollars in a bank account across seas, and, with the exception of the feelings she had for MacGuyver, nearly everything else in her life was faked. She tries escaping to a private airport where Mac and the crew end up. Even though their boss tries to ground all the flights, there is still one taking off before the order gets through.
When they see Nikki’s plane taking off, Jack stops the van far from the plane—a terrible writing/directing cliché to get MacGuyver to have to run the entirety of the rest of the way to make his jump onto the landing gear of the plane more spectacular. Mac brings down the plane by cutting the wires for the landing gear, making it unable to pull up into the plane. They get on the plane, confront Nikki who tells him that he was always the hero, not her, and he immediately knows that she already sold the virus.
The guy she sold the virus to planned to release the virus in California the whole time, which is why she was trying to get out of the country as quickly as possible. They track the guy’s truck that Mac has to rappel down into from a helicopter to try undoing the dispersion device. Some wire cutting interlaced between some hand-to-hand combat leaves the bomb ticking away while Mac struggles to survive. Too late to undo the bomb, he pulls out a paperclip and pries the virus container from its holder. He then takes some of the ties on the top of the cloth-covered back of the truck, and uses it as a paragliding chute to catch wind and lift him safely off the truck, the reason: he doesn’t want to jump because that would shatter the virus cartridge. My one problem was that when he landed with the makeshift parachute, that landing was just as rough as if he had jumped in my opinion.
The day saved, the team goes back to Mac’s place where Patricia informs them that the sabotage and treachery done by Nikki exposed the DES clandestine operations, so they have to shut down and move everything to a new site. Also, they’re getting a new name as a team that they get to pick. Mac picks Phoenix, and thus the new secret agent organization is born, still with just as nondescript of a purpose as before. Tacked on at the end is the fact that Nikki escaped police custody and is now on the run.

Episode two sees yet more connection with Jack’s (not Mac’s) past and it almost had me thinking that they really wanted to make a spin-off show focusing on Jack rather than this reboot. This time, they are concerned with rescuing a former colleague and heavy love interest of Jack from back in the day. A former military woman and current agent herself, the lady is in Venezuela working undercover to bring down an illegal weapons cartel. She was caught (or at least suspected of being caught) stealing a ledger of all of the cartel’s illegal dealings which would give the CIA enough info to bring down the entire network. Unfortunately, she has now been disavowed making Phoenix her only hope of survival.
They go there and must track her through a series of bar brawls, intimidated old contacts, and computer hacks. They chase down a lead who introduces them to a black-site hospital building where they are holding the woman. Mac devises a plan to sneak in through an old morgue elevator that will take him all the way down to the morgue/dungeon where they are keeping the agent. It works, but they are still caught when lights come back on after he has his team shut off the power. In this episode, he not only makes an at-home arc welder from a car battery and some jumper cables but makes some night-vision goggles from some computer chips and other stuff (you see where this review is going?). They escape in time for Jack to throw out his one-liner after driving through a wall: "Anyone call for an Uber," and have him make serious googly eyes the whole time as he reminisces so hard he almost crashes the car. She can’t leave yet because she knows that if she does, the gang leader will just disappear and never be caught. So, they go to his stronghold, chase him through the forest as he rides his bike, and catch him, bringing him to justice. Justice served, Jack looks to rekindle with the saved agent when he learns that she is engaged and happy. Poor Jack.
Meanwhile, Riley and Mac’s friend are bonding as she uses him as her fake boyfriend to appear before her parole officer. Mac struggles with Nikki’s disappearance as he goes back to her apartment constantly to look for clues he was previously too love-blinded to see. He finally finds one in a fake electrical socket where she has hidden a possibly fake (or real) ID.
Episode three starts with Mac and Jack running through a burning building looking for an exit. A result of MacGuyver setting a fire to create a distraction, he finally discovers a way out when he grabs two body bags conveniently lying on the floor, wraps himself and Jack in them, and uses two fire extinguishers to puff them full of air to use as airbags as they jump from the building and hit the ground. Saved, they go to their next mission where they are once again dealing with an international cartel. This time in a country where they aren’t supposed to even be, they must extract a young punk millionaire who has been funneling money for the gangs. A glorified accountant, the guy is described by Jack as having “a punchface, a face just begging to be punched.” Truer words... At first, they sneak into the guy’s house just looking for evidence on the cartel’s activities, but when he awakes and is made a target by the very people he works for, they figure that he will be a great key witness to any case they build. The guy gets shot and blood fills his lungs forcing MacGuyver to have to drain them of blood by using a hose connected to the windshield wipers, creating a powerful enough suction that would normally spray the windows with washer fluid, instead spraying them with the guy’s plasma. They also fake his death by giving him a cocktail of drugs meant to make him appear dead for an hour, long enough for someone to call the EMTs and for them to revive him. There’s another chase in which Mac makes another smoke-bomb that fogs the entire road and puts every other driver in danger, not just the gang that follows them.

They manage to revive him, get him out of the country safely to testify and... yeah. He flirts with their boss, they tell him he no longer has any money, and Jack is seen sitting in the cemetery talking to his dad’s grave. Jack reminds Mac that Nikki isn’t the only complicated heartbreak he has, but that Mac also hasn’t spoken to his dad in a while. Mac finally takes to writing his old man a letter. All the shell-corps are brought down by the FBI and everything is good. If you’re thinking my third episode review is lacking, you’re probably right. It goes straight-line with the actual quality of the show.
What is my grade? I give it a C-. It partially reminds me why I don’t often watch CBS shows. To understand why I gave it that grade, we must first look at the original show (which we already did), and then must look at some of the more recent shows that go off the same premise of a secret agent guy doing cool stuff with a huge wealth of knowledge and limited everything else. MacGuyver was originally an everyman's genius superagent, more Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt meets Get Smart’s Maxwell Smart than James Bond. The allure came from how this mulleted man could get out of nearly any situation with his wits and a few household items. He was a genius out of his time. Now, as I have said before and will say again, the TV is populated with too many geniuses. I cannot express that enough. In a TV age in which some of the highest rated shows are filled with regular people doing regular stuff (exception goes to Breaking Bad, but everything else Game of Thrones, People v. OJ, The Walking Dead, etc.), crime TV shows still bombard us with the same hero archetypes we’ve seen for years. You are either a socially awkward genius or everyman genius. Socially awkward: Scorpion, Sherlock Holmes. Everyman: Brian on Limitless, MacGuyver, etc. This is not to say that we need blander characters like on FOX’s Lethal Weapon, but rather we need people more interesting not because of their intelligence. In a world where that is the starting point, MacGuyver fails to hook on something bigger.
That was the comparison of the old concept to the new show and how the concept has aged. Now, to bring some of those same new shows from the previous year back to light, when looking at other procedurals we’ve seen since the start of the 2015 Fall TV season, things like Minority Report, Second Chance and Blindspot have all hit us not only with much more novel ideas on the twist of cops chasing baddies and geniuses solving crimes, but have been more engaging in each of their mysteries—both weekly and over-arching seasonal. Take the comparison of two CBS shows: the defunct Limitless and now MacGuyver. In Limitless we see a regular guy who takes a drug and suddenly becomes super-smart. The problem with this is that if he stops taking the drug it will kill him and also return his life to the crap hole it was. But he doesn’t control the drug and is slave to not only the FBI who supplies him with NZT but uses him as their own lab experiment to figure out why he can survive the side effects without dying, a secret he is keeping as he is given another drug to counteract the NZT’s effects. It is extremely complicated and gets more intricate as the series goes on, yet, still manages to have humor and fun in the show while playing heavy into the everyman genius stereotype. Brian is your current millennial kid, or you when you were younger: a bit of a slacker, maybe, but not rock bottom. He just doesn’t know what to do with his life. While this wasn’t my favorite show, and I did point out that one of the problems I thought might arise with it is that it tacitly sent a positive message of illicit drug use, as well as the humor could be downright juvenile (I actually enjoyed it. Sigh!), I thought this series had a chance at being renewed.
They Don't Look Too Happy Reading My Review
When compared to MacGuyver, Limitless was smarter, edgier, and more current. Aside from the glossy young sheen on the actors, MacGuyver already feels dated. My mother tuned in for this to see if she would like it as much as she did the original and she commented that she thought they were trying too hard simply after seeing the opening. After having watched three episodes, I agree. I’ve tried too hard plenty of times in my own writing. Frankly, the blog is a satire on that. But this show feels like Wonder bread to the palate. There’s nothing memorable about it; even some of the fancy tricks he does to create something (a big draw of the original and what made me want to watch this) didn’t wow me. It feels more like the producers had an idea for a show, wrote it, tried to sell it then realized that it wouldn’t sell unless they slapped a known name brand on it. Take MacGuyver off the title, and I wouldn’t know this show from Adam.
Should you be watching? No. I don’t think fans of the original will like this and I’m not sure it will win many new fans that tune in for anything other than to stare at Lucas Till or Tristin Mays; I can’t even see people tuning in weekly to figure out the mystery behind Nikki, who she is and to where she disappeared. You might watch it and, after an hour, feel like you haven’t watched anything. Sorry. MacGuyver airs on CBS Fridays at 8pm.
What do you think? Have you seen the new MacGuyver? If not, do you think you’ll tune in for the secret agent’s adventures? If you have, do you like it? Have I been too rough on this freshman show or does it have too many flaws to forgive? And when do you think Nikki will pop back up? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "OK, if I use this sewing needle, this double-sided tape and this black permanent marker I can--”‘Wait! Time out! Where the hell did you get all that and why you got it in yo pocket? You just carry that shiznit around?’“Kmart! They were having a mystery Halloween bag sale. And yes, I do carry it around in my pocket.”
P.S. I’m not trying to nitpick here but we have come into the age of minute details. Even the most “let-it-go” viewer like me will ask on occasion where the hell this stuff is coming from and why is it always conveniently placed where MacGuyver has easy access to it. Not a great sign-off. I’ll think of something better next time.
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Failing Through Time! This Ain’t No Back To The Future #Timeless #NBC #3weekroundup

Failing Through Time! This Ain’t No Back To The Future #Timeless #NBC #3weekroundup


All pictures courtesy of NBC 

Another untimely three-week roundup review for everybody out there coming your way. With the craziness of the Presidential debates finally come to an end and baseball season nearly over (GO Tribe!), we’ve finally come to a point in time where we can resume our regular season without constant interruptions... until the holidays kick into full gear, that is. But until that time happens, we have the business of taking care of the fun times currently being had by viewers of the new shows. One of the late entries to the debate-effected season, Timeless has come to save us from Ashton Kutcher’s butterfly effect and get us on the right track back to historical sanity. But does it live up to its lofty time expectations or is Timeless a ticking time bomb of suck? I know you’re dying to know, so let’s zoom into the review.

NBC’s Timeless is the network’s latest attempt to bring good sci-fi back to the masses and off of the basic cable channels that house such good ideas not so goodly executed. A simple but high-concept show, Timeless begins with the explosion of the Hindenburg as we know and remember it from history. A few minutes spent in the past to set the scene for the show and before we know it we are back into the present time and meeting our wrangling of characters. Our lead consists of a group of three, led (semi-led) by historian and college professor Lucy Preston (played by Abigail Spencer of Mad Men and Suits fame). The daughter of a noted historian (her mother), she works in the same college and in the same history department as her mother not only once did but helped to build into what it currently is. When she finds out that she is not getting the job as the department head, she is more than peeved as she thinks it is hers halfway by birthright, not to mention her stellar teaching credentials. She goes home where we learn that not only does she and her sister still live with her mother but that they do that for good reason: their mother is deathly ill and they stay to take care of her. Her younger sister is doing her best to play caretaker to their mother while Lucy is the breadwinner of the household. They are at home when Lucy receives a visit from some random government guy. What does this visit concern? Time, of course. 

Across the way, we meet one of our second main characters in Rufus Carlin (played by Malcolm Barrett). Rufus is one of the many scientists that works for a rich tech billionaire named Connor Mason (Paterson Joseph, recently of NBC’s You, Me and the Apocalypse) who has built a very curious machine that looks like an eye. We watch Rufus pine over Jiya (played by Claudia Doumit) who is also a computer nerd/coworker, and we also see Rufus talking to his boss on the project whose name I will mention later when he becomes more important. Without much explanation, we see a vehicle full of men roll up to the top secret Mason facility, hop out, and proceed to take over the building. Armed and jumpsuit-attired, they intimidate and threaten everyone in the room and yank Rufus’ boss away as their prisoner. They approach the strange-looking-eye machine, get in and proceed to frickin’ disappear in front of everyone, and you’re left wondering what the heck just happened.
And we’re back to historian Lucy. The government comes and gets her, brings her to the facility and locks her in a room with our third big character, soldier Wyatt Logan (played by Matt Lanter of the new 90210). A bit drunk and out of sorts, they try making small talk but he knows about as much as she does when it comes to reasons on why they were brought there. They get a quick rundown on what is happening and why they are there by a woman who is supposedly a government official.

The man that came in and did the whole hijacking thing with his crew is named Garcia Flynn (played by ER veteran Goran Visnjic), an ex-NSA asset previously stationed in eastern Europe. The "ex" is because he was accused of killing his wife and child about a year or so prior to his theft of the machine. What is the machine? You’ve guessed it by now: a time machine. "Apparently, Mason decided to secretly build a time machine and not tell the government about it until it got stolen" (my favorite line of the premiere episode).

Left to Right: Lucy, Conner Mason, Wyatt the soldier
The reason why Mason invented the machine that he gives is ridiculous: he didn’t count on this happening. In other words, he’s never seen not a single movie on time travel and about how going back in time, good intentions or not, can mess everything up if the traveler interacts in any way with any thing. With literally about two minutes of more explanation on how Garcia Flynn took the time machine back to the date the Hindenburg was set to explode into a fireball of death, Mason, and the government agent lady convince Lucy to go back in time to stop the guy because she is a historian and what greater rush could she get than to save history; Rufus to go because they will not only need a black guy to look out-of-place everywhere he goes, but they will need a pilot and he is the only one who knows the craft as well as the kidnapped guy; and the soldier to go because he’s a soldier, they might need someone to do dirty work in hunting this Garcia guy down and what better does he have to do? Seriously. Two minutes is not an exaggeration there. For reasons I still don’t understand, even though they have a time machine and know to what time he went, they don’t know where he went, Lucy just assumes that he went to the Hindenburg because she recognizes the date. Because of this, for whatever reason, they have to follow right after him immediately or risk losing him in time or having the timeline changing as they speak. Uh... OK.

Left to Right: Rufus, Wyatt, Lucy
They throw on some 1930s appropriate garb (as close as they could get it) and take off into the past in a backup time machine that Mason had built as the first prototype. Mama always said if you're gonna build one time machine, build two time machines. And here I point out how I actually think it is kind of cool that the two machines are eyes that travel back into history; they can see history unfolding before them. I see you, producers, trying to be poetic. The time and place correct, they stop to watch as the Hindenburg passes overhead, still a few hours away from making its fateful landing a couple towns over. Their mission: find Garcia and stop him from doing whatever he is there to do that will ruin history.

Into town they go where they meet up with a reporter who is one of many covering the landing of the majestic airship. The lady’s name familiar to her, Lucy recognizes that the woman is supposed to die in the Hindenburg crash, crushed beneath the metal framing of the blimp. Here we have our first quandary and get to know a little about soldier Wyatt. Wyatt is a widower whose wife died a while back under mysterious circumstances. Now, he’s a bit of a lush but manages. What’s important, however, is that his late wife looked just like the reporter woman. He feels compelled to save her and in some twisted way save his wife. When they follow her out to the landing field, he keeps his eye on her, even yanking her back from the brood of reporters gathered too closely to where the blimp was supposed to come down. The problem: it lands safely.

Lucy tells them that the ship was supposed to have its anchoring ropes (similar to a boat's docking rope) drag on the wet ground, completing the circuit of the current in the ship and thusly turning the electricity building up and flowing through the metal bones of the blimp into an all-consuming fire which would result in the lost souls of over 30 people both on and off-board. But what Garcia did was blend in with the grounds crew of the Hindenburg and instruct them to spool the rope around their arms as the anchoring tethers fell from the skies, thusly keeping the rope dry and everything in good condition.

What Was Supposed To HappenBut why? At first, Lucy can’t figure it out. Wyatt runs off and shoots a guy who he believed was working with Garcia. Rufus meanders about like a lost child in a department store as he knows his blackness is a problem in the 30s. Finally, they are arrested for shooting the guy and all end up in jail where they keep the negro separated from the whites (wouldn’t dare sully his white compatriots with his negroness) but right across from them. There, Lucy remembers that the returning flight of the Hindenburg was to feature all sorts of dignitaries, including a president and many prominent businessmen who would be instrumental in rebuilding the world after WWII in a few short years. Garcia didn’t spare the lives of those people out of the kindness of his heart, but because he wanted to kill the future US as we know it by killing some more important people.

After managing to escape the jail, we do a very strange time-space warp in which I could have sworn that the jail was somehow on the Hindenburg because they get to the blimp extremely quickly, find the reporter woman to tell her to get off the ship, only to find that they are already up in the air, and I’m like, “Whaaaaat?” Wouldn’t they have known that the blimp had suddenly taken off even if they were locked up on the actual Hindenburg? And if they were jailed on the blimp, uh... why? Why would the ship have a jail in the first place? Many questions, but I digress.

When they tell the reporter that there is a bomb on the ship placed there by Garcia, she helps them find it only to have their search interrupted by some musclemen working for Flynn to stop them. While Lucy and Rufus go to the captain’s deck to see if they can’t get the man to land again, Wyatt fights to disarm the bomb. As he and the reporter try escaping the guard guy, the man foolishly fires off a gun in the cabin of the Hindenburg, sending the bullet ricocheting and piercing through the thin blimp walls, causing a fire and bringing the thing down anyway. Not as many people dead, the main three manage to survive with the reporter. And then they are confronted by Garcia amidst the chaos.

Garcia talks directly with Lucy about what he is doing and intimates that he is doing this for a greater cause, is trying to save America, is doing this to stop a specific thing, and that she will eventually help him. How does he know this? Because she told him something personally, which she finds insane because she’s never met the guy. As he is trying to make his getaway, Wyatt sees him and tries shooting him. Garcia fires back, accidentally killing the reporter lady. Though her official death certificate lists cause of death as a gunshot wound, she still manages to die near the Hindenburg as originally expected.

Their time in... time done for now, the crew of three get back to modern-day times where they know that they’ve screwed up and just hope that they haven’t f-ed up too bad. Instead of the Hindenburg blowing up as it arrived due to electricity buildup, now it was brought down by a terrorist group that mysteriously disappeared and was never seen again. Not as many people died in the crash and the only people that know the original history are Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus as everyone else knows that they sent them after Mason but think that the changes made to the timeline were always how time unfolded. Thinking that maybe they didn’t change nearly as much as they thought they would have (the world is still intact. That’s a plus, right?), they each go back home until the government calls them again because they can identify when Garcia uses the machine. But upon Lucy’s return home she finds that not only is her mother not bedridden, spryly prancing around the kitchen, but her sister is gone, as in never existed. Oh, and she’s engaged, but not wearing her ring when before she didn’t even have time to have a boyfriend between taking care of her mother and teaching.

There Is Jiya on the left and Mason on the far right, with government lady in the middle
Episode two follows a little more of the fallout from what they did to the Hindenburg timeline as Lucy tries to understand what is happening. She wants only to know why she doesn’t have a sister anymore, and completely side-saddles the fact that she is engaged now. As she and the team go on another mission, she gets Jiya on the case to figure out where her little sister has disappeared to. It should be noted at this point that one of the rules of time travel the show has set up is that unlike in other time machine movies, in this one, there is a paradoxical reason for not going back to a time and place in which you already existed. Apparently, someone had done it and came back all ripped to shreds and Brundlefly, so hopping in the machine and going back to fix the Hindenburg is not really an option, hence why from the first episode forward everything is in the Hindenburg timeline. The case this week: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the dishonorable coward John Wilkes Boothe.

As the team goes back into time to the day before the fateful night at the playhouse, Wyatt and Rufus get dressed up as civil war soldiers and they start to see the effects not only of their ineffective costumes department but of bringing current-day things with them to the past. They believe it is Garcia’s ambitions to kill not only our 16th president but also General Grant and another man who would be president, all of whom would be in town that night if a train was prevented from leaving the city. The crippling of the train no problem, Garcia finds John Wilkes Boothe and swears to help him in his plan to kill a total of four men that night. They’ve brought automatic future guns with them to make everything easier, this way, he can kill the general and the president in a matter of milliseconds all with one gun before making his crippling leap onto the stage.

As the team searches the city for Boothe, they run into Lincoln’s eldest son in town to celebrate with his parents and show how good of a soldier General Grant has created in his army. Lucy catches his eye and gets invited to the play as his guest, making it the perfect opportunity for her to save General Grant’s life and here we have the conundrum that Wyatt feels again. Just like with the reporter, all three of our team know that they have to let Lincoln die to retain the sanctity of the timeline, but they feel sour at the prospect that they know this man will be shot point-blank in the back of the head, which will send the country down a dark time after just getting out of a dark time. Rufus, in particular, hates this after he made contact with real Black Northern-Blue soldiers and knew that they were moving into the lynching era. The soldiers even call him out in an Old-Tyme Stolen Valor (look it up on Youtube) way before he helps to save one of the four men that Boothe and Garcia targeted that night. Wyatt takes out another assassin actually in the house of one of the men spared by history, leaving it all up to Lucy to save General Grant who sits directly next to Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln in the playhouse balcony. A rather poor attempt, she pours water on him in hopes that he’d leave and not come back but he does.

Just as Lucy is having problems with her historical figures, so is Garcia. He must knock Boothe unconscious and do the murder himself when the washed-up actor refuses to use the modern gun, preferring a knife instead for dramatic effect. Garcia and Lucy wrestle with the gun after she allows him to shoot Lincoln, and he jumps to the stage just like Boothe did, making his escape into the night. Not only did history change again in the Lincoln timeline, but Boothe was later arrested and his fellow conspirators were never found. Though this doesn’t seem to have any real effect on the modern-day, Lucy is confronted once again with something Garcia told her in the first episode. He mentioned a name of something, which sounds like a secret organization. As it turns out we see that not only does Mason and Rufus know about this secret organization, but Mason has tasked Rufus with recording everything he can of Wyatt and Lucy while on missions together. Why? It has something to do with this Garcia secret.

Finally, worst of all, Lucy gets home to Jiya’s research on her family history and learns that her mother and father from the original pre-Hindenburg timeline never met in this current Hindenburg timeline. In fact, he married a woman that survived from the Hindenburg’s maiden voyage. Her mother never married. How, then, does Lucy still exist if her parents never met? Because her father wasn’t really her father and her mother had been lying to her her entire life. Dun Dun Dunnnnn! I really enjoyed that twist, honestly. That, coupled with her finally meeting her husband-to-be were the late-show highlights. It should also be noted here that because of the way the show works, their first voyage back into time that changed things is the dominant timeline, meaning that while surely Boothe not shooting Lincoln had some effect on all post-1865 history, because they did a time-jump from an already sullied Hindenburg timeline that event will stay as it was changed by them. The Lincoln changes, though minor, will simply add too the changes already created. Therefore, the Hindenburg timeline is the dominating time and the Lincoln timeline is the secondary time within the first mistake. This means that every time they go back and legitimately change a major event, a new timeline within the already established timelines is created. Follow me? Yeah, it can get confusing.

Episode three sees the team going to the hoppin’ big band/crooner era of the early 1960s. Not a specifically important date in history, they end up following Garcia to Las Vegas, Nevada, or as it was called in that time Atomic City. Though JFK is there enjoying a mistress and a show, he is not necessarily the target. He has visited the city to partake in a concert by old blue eyes himself, and the dean of brown liquor, along with the rest of the Rat Pack. The target is really Kennedy’s mistress. A very famous woman in the underground world of powerful men, she knows and sleeps with everyone from the Prez to gangsters to high-ranking generals, and they all want her sugar as much as they can get it. This, of course, is pre-Marilyn Monroe days.

Garcia takes a few pictures of her and JFK kissing on each other in a hotel room as an atom bomb goes off in the background. See, about 60 miles outside of the city, the government is in the midst of testing its myriad of nuclear weapons, sending tons of radiation into the sky, the residual effects of which wouldn’t be known for decades. And that is the get. While Wyatt continues to mope about his dead wife who we now know died in 2012, they have a mission to figure out why Garcia wants the mistress and doesn’t want to kill any of the powerful men gathered in the city. Wyatt makes a pit stop to send his wife a carrier message way in the future a la Doc Brown sending Marty a message in Back To The Future II. Then they go chasing after the mistress.

Meanwhile, as they go after the mistress, Rufus sees his old boss and kidnap victim Anthony. He finds him unguarded in a Vegas bar and realizes that the man isn’t a prisoner at all, but is actually helping Garcia in his plan, whatever that plan is. He does let slip one thing that Rufus at first mistakes as a woman’s name. As it turns out, it isn’t a name of a person but the description of a thing, specifically the plutonium core of an atom bomb. Garcia and Anthony want to use the mistress’ ample clout with powerful men to get onto the US military base where all the atom bombs are being stored in Nevada and steal the plutonium in one bomb.The group realizes this a second too late and catch Garcia and Anthony escaping with the core. Rufus talks to Anthony and thinks that he has convinced the man to do the right thing and give him the core, but gets tricked as Garcia and his people make their escape. Luckily, they left the mistress alive and didn’t change history that much, but the bad news is that Garcia now has one of the biggest, main tools to create an atom bomb. Instead of taking it onto the time machine where he doesn’t know how it’ll react to the warping of time, he makes Anthony bury it in the desert so they can come and dig it up near 60 years later in modern-day time.
Here, it should be noted that while episode one produced the alternate timeline and episode two produced a secondary branch in that alternate timeline, episode three does not necessarily produce an alternate timeline of its own. Why? Because, unlike in Hindenburg and Lincoln, little, if anything, is changed in Atomic City. No one is killed and even the plutonium stolen isn't taken through time but buried in its current time. They didn't even steal the actual warhead, and only damaged some property. The mistress continued in her beguiling ways and everything stayed the same. This establishes a very important rule here that time isn't as sensitive to the butterfly effect. So tweaking a few minor things won't change a big thing. Having the Hindenburg exploded at night instead of the morning and not kill the same people is a big thing. So is having Boothe be found knocked out in an alley during Lincoln's murder, but still have him cop to the plan.

The Eye Of History; Not The Prototype
What’s my grade? I give it a B-. This was one of my most-anticipated shows of the new season as I love the concept and hope to see more good sci-fi on network TV. But for a show about time travel, it seems that Timeless never has enough time to dwell on one thing too long. The first episode felt like it could have benefitted from a two-hour or hour and a half-long premiere as it moved a little too fast for me. I get that the concept is simple and would be posed simply to the team before they are a team, but I would need a little more convincing than a two-minute chat about jumping into a time machine before I actually jumped into a time machine. There was not only very little convincing, but very little doubt on behalf of Wyatt and Lucy—you can understand why Rufus wouldn’t have as much doubt. But thinking about it, Rufus seems to have the most doubt about going on the mission because he doesn’t think he’s qualified. Wyatt and Lucy had no moment of, “OK, you think you built a time machine? You’re absolutely crazy,” they just accepted it at face value and left that night, within half an hour. Not giving it the proper time made it feel less...noble, less daring.

Also, I don’t understand why they have to jump immediately after Garcia has jumped. I get that it is partially the only way they can make the show a weekly case-by-case format, but they have a time machine. They shouldn’t have to rush to get into the machine ill-prepared for what they’ll encounter and badly dressed. Each time they go, they get an hour tops to figure out where they need to go and why. It almost feels like they’re reading out of a history textbook instead of being proactive and going slightly before history happens. They are always one step behind him, rather than time-jumping a day earlier and figuring out where his machine might land and capturing him then.


The speed and pace at which the show flows is also too fast for any real character development. It zooms forward so quickly that the mission is started, botched and over before you really know what’s happened and before the characters are able to make a real impression. Abigail Spencer’s face is pretty much frozen in the same vapid, half-shocked expression all the time and there is little charm there between her and Wyatt (Rufus is OK as a character but they didn't explore that crush on Jiya hardly at all. Each episode feels neutered of its potential greatness. And worst of all is the way in which it is shot. With the exception of the time machine actually disappearing and re-appearing, much of the show’s budget is spent on costume and set design, but even that is far from stellar. Sadly, it feels and looks very much like something that came off of the Syfy channel, which is exactly where I see it ending up if it is canceled by NBC. I would predict a four or five season series on Syfy that would do fairly well. It is hard to see NBC keeping it unless it is getting some amazing ratings.

But on the plus side, I do like the cases they’ve done so far, and I also enjoy the many strands of mystery left to dangle: why is Garcia really doing this, who is Lucy’s real father, will Wyatt ever get his wife back, and what kind of spying is Rufus really doing? Also, the fact that they screwed up the first mission and can't simply go back to fix it is intriguing to me, because now it has set the rules that they can do whatever they want with the historical events, and watch the outcome of their missteps. If they somehow always got it right, rather than slightly off, it wouldn't be as compelling. How they deal with the new timelines will most likely be where much of the character development comes from, as evidenced by Lucy's touching moment with her fiance where she expresses that she needs space alone from him. Even though it ticks me off that she hardly gave the relationship any chance (she must have found something great about him in that timeline), I and other viewers I'm sure felt the ice around my heart gradually warm when he accepted her request so easily. For a second you could see a twinkle in her eye where things start to click in her brain: "So this is why I love you." I'd like to see Rufus' life outside of work, too, but that might take some time.

Should you be watching? Not sure, leaning towards no. I hate doing that because I really want this show to continue so I can get some answers to my questions, but I know that there are a lot of people who still don’t like sci-fi, and watching a less-than-phenomenal show will not engender new fans to the genre. This time-hopping isn't as complicated as in other movies or shows like Terminator or even Timecop. It's very easy to follow but doesn't hit on all cylinders and may border on being too easy to follow. As far as time travel theorists, I don't think this show would produce as much argumentation on whether this theoretical concept is shown accurately or not. Timeless does not care about going off of other people's past theories. It is perfectly satisfied with doing its own thing and only hopes you'll be along for the ride. Suspend disbelief or don't, but either way, don't complain. Timeless airs on NBC Mondays at 10pm EST.

What do you think? Have you seen Timeless? If not, do you think you’ll check it out? If you have, what is your favorite part? Do you think this should get a full season order? And who do you really think Garcia is? Is he from the future or what? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "Great Scott! Those self-lacing Nikes are gonna cost how much?”

P.S. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about because you totally do. Sad to say but this show just ain't Back To The Future (yes, I had to say that a few times through the review just because October 21st is Back To The Future Day), and just doesn't have the wacky fun that a time-traveling show might sometimes have.

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Newsworthy? Sure. Groundbreaking? No. Notorious? Eh! #Notorious #3weekroundup #ABC

Newsworthy? Sure. Groundbreaking? No. Notorious? Eh! #Notorious #3weekroundup #ABC
All pictures courtesy of ABC 

It’s time for another... ah, you already know if you’re familiar with the blog. Today’s new show up for review of its first three episodes: ABC’s Notorious. A non-Shonda Rhimes show stationed on Thursdays at 9pm in what has been prime Shonda Rhimes real estate for the last decade, does Notorious live up to its name, or is it a far cry from even being memorable? Let’s find out together!
Notorious (#Notorious) stars Piper Perabo as Julia George, a two-first-names powerful news show producer that works at a CNN/Fox News-like channel. She is the mega-hit ten-years-running producer of one of the top-rated news shows on TV in LHL: Louise Herrick Live. Louise Herrick (played by Kate Jennings Grant) is a more liberal Nancy Grace/Megyn Kelly-esque character with fiery red hair and, uh... loose-woman tendencies that would make Amber Rose proud. Though she comes off as a secondary character on the show to Perabo’s Julia, we do get a telling intro to her character as she is sexing up a young black guy the first time we see her; in fact, the show’s first episode starts with Perabo’s Julia George in bed with her boyfriend who is also days away from taking an earned judge’s seat. Very Grey’s Anatomy, they fumble around in the dark in what appears to be a bed until she realizes what time it is and everything lights up. As it turns out, the cushions aren’t a bed but a couch, it’s not night but the middle of the day (she has really good blinds/shades), and we’re not in the comfort of either one of their homes but in her work office... at LHL headquarters near the top floor of the building. This serves to show us just how ridiculous she is as well as shows us how committed to her job she is.
Julia hops off her guy, zips up and grabs her clipboard because she has to put on a show literally in a few minutes. She goes to grab the host of the show and is bombarded on her walk through the halls with all sorts of info on the top stories they’ve decided to cover for the night. Not only is she hit with all of the stories, but she is also approached by her boss—we’re talking the biggest wig, the owner/president type of boss—who introduces her to his son, Ryan Mills. Played by Ryan Guzman, Mills is a 20-something, half-awestruck producer/reporter wannabe who wants nothing more than to work with Julia and Louise (more Julia) and prove himself in his father’s company. While his character at first seems very easy to pin down, his motivations really aren’t known as he sometimes seems like he’s just doing things to shake up the status quo and other times is doing things to impress the ladies. I don’t know how best to describe it, but it doesn’t feel as if he is just there to try to be a producer one day, but he’s also not going about the job as if it was some random summer job given to him by his father. I’m getting off track just talking about him as he is a side character, too, but he does play a big part in the drama.
Back to the main characters, Julia is helped by her right-hand woman Megan Byrd (played by Sepideh Moafi) who always has the latest news behind the news stories. She is the one that people call first with late-breaking tips that she then passes on to her boss. She is a woman who knows how to walk and talk fast and with purpose and does so at the side of Julia nearly every time she is seen. She informs her boss that she just got a call on some hot tea on Oscar Keaton. Oscar Keaton (played by Kevin Zegers) is the shows tech billionaire who, in his youth, founded some crazy social media company and became a sensation overnight along with his partner. The story: his car was recently caught on a traffic cam zooming through the dark LA streets late at night, erratically fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run (pedestrian to car; teenage boy clinging to life). Now, he has barricaded himself in his Palisades mansion. Why is this even juicier than it sounds? Because not only does Julia know the man’s lawyer-on-retainer but he is supposed to be on the show.
Enter Jake Gregorian (played by Rescue Me vet Daniel Sunjata) as our other top lead. A high-powered attorney to the stars of California, he has not only represented the young techie for years but also knows the man’s wife. He and Julia also have a history that runs back some years as they are chummy in the elevator and all the way up to the newsroom, even bothering to throw careless flirty banter between each other as he mentions hearing about her boyfriend’s court confirmation. A romantic relationship between them in the future? Yeah, it is not only possible but highly probable if the show makes it past two seasons. For now, she plays rather dirty as she thrusts him into the guest seat on LHL knowing that he doesn’t know that one of his biggest, richest clients has a warrant out for him and is currently resisting arrest in his house while the police stand outside. Breaking news with a copter-feed and everything, they lead the show with that and catch the man off-guard, forcing him to answer surprise questions about his client when he came to talk about something completely different. When he deflects, turns the narrative to his liking and they cut to break, he and Julia meet up behind closed doors only to laugh and glad-hand each other about the twist they just did.

As it turns out, he did know about his client being seen on the traffic cam and instructed the man to barricade himself in the house when the police came because it would go better with the narrative he was trying to tell. And here is the twist and main crux of the story. This is about how news is made and what makes the news rather than the stories that are newsworthy. With their long-standing friendship, Julia and Jake warp, bend, twist and manipulate the news and stories they hear about in any way they can to tell the story that they want to tell, not necessarily the truth. When Jake came to her earlier in the day with news of his client before Megan even heard about it, he already had his narrative and fake outrage in his back pocket—a Broadway show of hooping, hollering, and Fosse-dancing for everyone else. He gives a simple suggestion that maybe it could have been someone else driving and the seed of doubt is planted before any prosecutor even sniffs at a trial.
Jake then goes to his client Oscar, who tells him that he didn’t kill that boy, he wasn’t even driving the car at the time and that he is clean (he once had an addiction problem with drugs/alcohol); however, he also reveals that he has a little bit of cocaine stored in a compartment in his car that wasn’t his but was confiscated from a friend during an intervention. And then they get news of the boy’s death and he gets charged with manslaughter. We briefly get a look-in at Jake’s law firm run by him and his brother played by J. August Richards, and we get a flavor of the show as it is structured similarly to long-form dramas of late (The Blacklist, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Blindspot) where they have one overarching mystery/case throughout the season (in this case Oscar’s) and one or two smaller weekly cases. This week’s smaller case is about some local city official who came under pressure of a blackmailer who took a picture of him in a racially and ethnically insensitive Halloween outfit years prior. Now that he’s running for a higher office, they want dat money! So, while Jake and his brother, helped by one of their junior associates Ella Benjamin (played by Aimee Teegarden) try to frame Oscar’s case, they have to figure out a way to make this guy’s blackmailer, a bartender at the time, go away.

But first, they must get that cocaine out of Oscar’s car. Circling back around to the Ryan Mills kid, the overeager creeper decides to take initiative and get some more dirt on Oscar Keaton. He finds (read: stalks) Ella who Jake tasked with retrieving the coke from Oscar’s car. An immediate love connection between them, you just know it won’t be long before you see these two young hot bodies pressed against each other and sweating heavily in your nine o’clock hour. He tries to get her to drunk-confess to something about the case but it doesn’t work as she has to leave early. But instead, he gets something better as he follows her to the impound lot and sees her and another guy retrieve the coke. An amateur shutterbug, he takes a picture of her dirty deeds and runs to Julia to brown-nose.
Meanwhile, Megan has bad news for Julia. Apparently, in all the time she’s been working for the powerful producer and Julia’s been with her fiance, Megan never met the guy. Only now does she realize that she actually knows him. Megan used to be a hoe... OK, a high-class “escort.” While Julia’s guy only used her once, he frequented the escort service and still does. How the woman didn’t know this after so long with him, I don’t know, but that’s what we are to believe.
As she is dealing with a personal crisis, Jake is dealing with old feelings come to resurface like the Loch Ness monster. Oscar’s wife Sarah (played by Dilshad Vadsaria previously on the now defunct Second Chance; I liked that show) was previously involved with Jake. We’re talkin’ wearing his oversized clothes and slinking around a small crummy apartment in sweltering summer heat when you got no air conditioning and minimal money, but happy as a clam kinda involvement. The boot-knockery in full effect, he sleeps with her in Oscar’s (his client’s) house while he’s not there. Now THAT is scandalous. But, always the sneaky eye, guess who snaps a pic of them in bed together?
Julia goes to tell off her now ex-boyfriend and tell him that since she has proof he ordered two hookers the week of his confirmation, she will lord that over his head and possibly use it at her leisure—leverage for the rest of his life.
Jake solves the small case of the week by having his team comb through the pictures taken and aging all of the kids at the party. A frat party, they spotted at least one underage girl who the bartender who took the pics also served alcohol. The man currently about to open his own bar and restaurant, they could send that picture to the liquor license board and get him shut down before he ever truly opened. He backs off.But as one problem is solved, another arises when Julia is the first to find out through a cop friend that the first traffic cam picture they have of Oscar’s car is not the only one. They have a much clearer picture taken ten minutes prior, showing Sarah, Oscar’s wife, driving the car and him nowhere in the vehicle. This is something Jake truly doesn’t know. He goes to her and she tells him that she was on some name brand sleep medication that has been known to cause all sorts of strange sleep activities, even sleep driving. He takes that back to Julia who counters that argument with the fact that records show she didn’t get that prescription med until one day after the accident. So, with Jake already molding the defense that Oscar’s best friend and founding company partner actually was driving, and Sarah supposedly on her way to the LHL studio to give an interview on her husband, hell breaks loose when Jake can’t get in touch with Sarah. He then gets a call from Oscar to rush to his house. In a great bit of timing, as Julia is prepared to sub her exes cheating story in place of the now-canceled interview, she gets a picture message the moment that Jake enters Oscar’s house. They see the same thing: Sarah is dead, stabbed on the floor. Jake watches Oscar as he kneels at his wife’s side covered in her blood. Where did the picture come from? You guessed it, Ryan Mills.
That Is Louise On The RightLHL goes live with the breaking story. After, Jake and Julia do a little Castle and Beckett snooping, ending up at a shady guy’s house they know Sarah visited before her death. There, they learn that she had ordered an illegal fake passport, rush order because she wanted to escape the country quick. Why? No idea. The next day Julia gets photos of Jake in bed with Sarah the night before her murder as well as some photos showing bruises and marks that looked like the results of domestic abuse. Funny enough, she has a dinner engagement with Jake to catch up on the slowness of life.
Episode two starts with a mopey Jake sad that his ex-boo thang and current wife of the guy he has to defend not only lied to him but is now dead probably because of those lies. Aside from the fact that he now has to defend his client on the wife’s murder, he also takes on a secondary consulting case of sorts. The case: a young woman has her child go missing. Already national news, the woman doesn’t want to go on TV and doesn’t understand why she needs a lawyer but she comes to him by way of the Missing Children’s help group that contacts him to be an intermediary between her and people clamoring for interviews. Who gets the first interview but good ol’ LHL. An impassioned plea goes out to find her child and call a hotline if you have any info on the missing young toddler. Some guy watching the show calls in immediately and claims that he has not only been dating the woman for the past few weeks but that she doesn’t actually have a child. Awww snap! Homegirl totally lyin’!
On the case, Julia gets Megan to look into this claim while Jake gets his team on it. Collectively they learn: the single but dating mom was very busy with her job and often kept her child at her mothers, the man who called in that she was dating had an online profile where he explicitly said he didn’t want kids, the single mother’s mother did have pictures of the child and toys at her home where the baby supposedly stayed often, both the single mother and the grandmother were getting multiple harassing calls from a prison number.As it turned out, the baby wasn’t missing, lost or stolen, but was being kept by an old church-lady. The single mother was single because the baby’s father was a violent, abusive inmate in jail for having beaten her. Now, as he was on the cusp of procuring parole, he kept calling her to make threats about getting his family back, or at least getting the baby. So, to protect her child, the woman spoke with a woman at her church who knew of an underground organization that could find the child a good home with loving parents, similar to the movie The Tall Man starring Jessica Timberlake, formerly Jessica Biel. If I ruined that movie for you, then too bad. It is a little-known indie pseudo-horror that few people saw anyway. Back to the show, upon the single mother’s confession, Jake informs her that if she confesses to this now, she’ll not only be on the hook for conspiracy and flat-out lying to the police but the church-lady helper will also be on the hook for a bevy of crimes. Jake manages to get her abusive ex a longer sentence that wouldn’t see him released until after the child was old enough to make his own legal decisions about meeting the man. Jake also concocts a story where the child is simply returned unharmed on the steps of a church for whatever reason. The police, too busy with other pressing investigations, don’t look farther into it as child reunites with mother, and all is well.

On the Oscar front, however, not only does Julia finally confront Jake with the pictures she got of him sleeping with Sarah, but she also tries to figure out who took the picture of the dead woman. While Louise hoes it up with Diddy—yes, that Diddy—Julia tries to secure her an interview with Alan, the brother of Sarah the dead woman. Jake, in a twisted show of brilliance, orchestrates a perp walk for Oscar out of his wife’s graveyard funeral, making him look both sympathetic (how dare the police harass that man at his own wife’s funeral) and continues to build the narrative that he actually loved his wife and did not do this! Gillian Flynn and Tanner Bolt would be proud. Semi-proud. So upset with the picture Jake is painting of his ex-brother-in-law, Sarah’s brother finally decides to go on LHL to tell his side of the story. Oh, and we find out that Ryan Mills is the one who sent her the death pic. Again, he is everywhere.
Episode three has the weekly case revolving around a comatose superstar singer named Trinity. A white guy (with the name and the stats, I totally thought he’d be black), he collapsed after a concert and is in critical condition. But as people light vigils and even a lot of the LHL behind-the-scenes workers mourn the potential death, Louise interviews the dead woman’s brother and hits him with some shocking abuse photos that get the hashtag Oscar Is Guilty trending on social media.
That is Ella. She Works For Jake
Julia tries to build a show for the next day and gets a hot tip on a video of a journalist’s beheading, but Louise poo-poos the idea of airing a sanitized version of it. We learn later what I expected from the start of the show: Louise is a slut and acts the way she does because she lost the love of her life. Another reporter in a foreign land, he was decapitated a few days after proposing to her and allowing her to see the beauty and luck in the world. She doesn’t believe in any of that anymore, knows that life is short and runs through men like water through fingers to hide the pain, and it is so cliché that it hurts.
Julia initially agrees not to air the tape but doesn’t know if they’ll get something better. They do. It’s a recording of Trinity, the comatose superstar, sexually assaulting a drugged, passed-out young woman... before he was comatose. Coming from an anonymous source, they go back and forth on whether they can air it, the identity of the girl, etc. They figure out the identity, air the tape with her face initially not in the shots, talk to the girl, and convince her to come onto the show and tell her side. One problem: the conglomerate parent company of the station also owns the recording label on which Trinity is signed. They scuttle his career, the company loses a ton of money. But the guy is a sleaze and because of that, he needs to be brought down as he has done this before.
Ryan Mills. Dude is Major Sketch
The woman actually settles and takes a small 40,000 dollar fee of hush money from the company, but uses that to start a fund to help the singer’s other victims. As it turns out, she was the one who drugged him with the same drug he used on her. She tried to use enough to kill him but could only send him into a coma. Her attempted murder swept under the rug by Jake, he agrees to help her amass these victims. Meanwhile, Ryan continues to be sneaky as he does some detective work on Oscar’s best friend, the same one who helped start the company. Another run-in with Ella, and he has to kiss her so they don’t get arrested. As it turns out Oscar’s best friend sent the envelope full of abuse pictures, which, according to Julia, he did because he wants Oscar’s job.
Robbed of another potentially good headline-grabbing story, Julia does decide to slip in the beheading video, earning the ire of her star, Louise. She gets read to filth for that underhanded move and says she’ll never do it again.
And while all of this is happening, Oscar sits in jail denied bail on the murder charge. He confesses to a digital affair with some blond he never met. As it turns out, the picture of the woman is actually a pornstar’s picture, and she hasn’t been talking to him at all. The twist? Again, it leads back to his greasy childhood friend who has been catfishing him for months. And the plot thickens like a novel by Charles Dickens.
What is my grade? I give it a C+. The biggest problem with this show isn’t actually on the show or having to do with the production, but rather the placement of the show on ABC’s schedule. As much as people flood to other modes and mediums to watch their favorite shows, TV scheduling does still matter. It’s like how in this month of horrors, more people are inclined to want to see something scary. It’s not just because Halloween is coming—though, that plays a big role—but the entirety of the season is ripe to harvest that visceral reaction. You want to be scared because Fall, the changing of leaves, the dying back of the world as we see it, is subconsciously scary. So we want to see scary things because, in a strange catharsis, it becomes like fighting fire with fire. If we scare ourselves deliberately, we won’t find the natural horrors of the world so terrifying.
Here, Notorious has the unfortunate sufferance of landing not only out of season in my opinion but in the wrong timeslot. First, the way in which this show plays out, the flighty lilt of the dialogue for both men and women, the overly playful tone suggests that this actually should be a late spring/summer show to me. I think that if you slid this show right into the same spot in the summer, or if you had this replace ABC’s ill-fated Mistresses on Mondays after the Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad, this could be a fun soapy drama. Hell, I could even see this sandwiched between Mistresses and The Catch in a summer Thursday lineup (sadly, that will never be) and all three shows doing amazing, but putting it in the same slot normally reserved for Scandal is the worst thing they could have done. It simply is not on that same level of deviousness. The sex is not as scintillating, the twists are not as jaw-dropping, and the characters aren’t as immersive as Grey’s and How To Get Away With Murder—the two shows that precede and proceed it, respectively. Sandwiched between those two shows, and knowing that the viewer tuned in to see a show which won’t be back until January magnifies any problems that this show already had. I know that this is probably going to sound really sexist and regressive, but I actually, in some way, blame Kerry Washington for this and the Scandal writers. The decision to delay filming until Kerry had her second baby is the reason we get no Scandal until midseason. This show, I’m sure, was not slated for a September debut, and even if it was, it was supposed to come back on a different night. This has mid-season replacement written all over it. If I’m all the way honest, it feels like it either was supposed to be a mid-season replacement for ABC’s other new show Conviction that airs Mondays after DWTS, or it was supposed to pair with The Catch and have Scandal have a shortened season on the front end similar to how How to Get Away With Murder ends in February a few months short of a full season.
Why? The weekly cases are formulaic and easily figured out if you watch a lot of law shows. Julia’s character is not a strong, driving female presence like Olivia or Annalise, and doesn’t have the bubbly charm that Meredith Grey had in the first few seasons of Grey’s. There’s not an immediate click with the audience like there was for these women. Thinking about it, it reminds me of the short-lived FX show Dirt starring Courtney Cox, in which she played a tabloid editor-in-chief in LA. This was of course after Friends and she tried to go with a harder role to distance herself from that role and stretch her acting skills before returning to comedy in Cougartown. This was also during the days of Nip/Tuck and slightly before people really started taking FX seriously TV-wise. Both shows felt like they were trying to be shocking too much, but failed to live up to a really shocking twist. Even though there's murder and sex and betrayal and all of what the other three successful ABC Thursday night shows have, it tastes Vanilla.
Should you be watching? Maybe. Don’t expect Scandal. This ain’t that. But Perabo and Zegers do turn in some pretty good performances. I wish I can say the same about Daniel as Jake, but something about him rings false. The mystery of why that woman is dead is compelling, but... you know what? Maybe you shouldn’t watch. It’s not that this is a bad show, but it is a bland show. There’s not much you’ll remember from it in, say, two weeks after watching an episode. I really had high hopes for this and, clearly, so did ABC. Maybe it can survive and benefit from a schedule change because right now, I don’t see it catching on.
What do you think? Have you seen Notorious? If not, do you think you’ll tune in after reading my review/recap? If you have, what is your favorite part of the show? Do you think it would do better on a different night? And what do you think Sarah was really getting into that made her want to leave the country? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend . #AhStalkingIf you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Both season 1 and season 2 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 3 coming summer 2017. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary to premiere sometime this winter on Amazon and my blog. 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, "That over there is the Notorious B.I.G.”‘Who’s that other skinny guy dancing around behind him?’“Diddy?”‘Really? So, he can sing?’“God no!”‘Huh! An ironic name like tiny for a big man or King Bey for a woman. Ha! Black people are so fascinating.’

P.S. Seriously why the hell did Diddy come on this show? He had a two-second cameo that implied he’d be sexing up a red-headed white woman Cameron Diaz-style and was out. I swear to goodness, the only reason they had him on was because they knew that tons of people would immediately think Notorious B.I.G. and, by way of association, Diddy. Might as well have him on the show then, huh? The people already expect it. Sigh! SMH. The mind of Hollywood TV creative and marketing executives. I’ll come up with a better sign-off next time.

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