The Water Cooler Show of 2022: Reacher Season One

 

In 2022, this show became a "water cooler" show. I'm talking about Prime's Reacher. I don't think I've had many people close to me to check this show out. Well, here are my thoughts on season one just in time before season two begins this week!

Reacher is about a former US military policeman who gets mistakenly arrested for murder. But after he gets released, he teams up with the police detective and an officer to investigate, which turns into a vast conspiracy.

 At the same time, the story has some bite to it, with it being a small-town conspiracy thriller. It's the action scenes and comeback lines that steal the series. Not to mention Alan Ritchson shines as this new version of the title character, Jack Reacher, but Willa Fitzgerald and Malcolm Goodwin are good and have this trio of perfect chemistry that I can't get enough.

Even though season two is in a different place with different characters, I can't wait to see what they have in season two. 

I give it a 9/10

What did you think of season one? Are you excited for season two? Leave a comment below!

You can catch Reacher on Amazon Prime.

Never Doubt a Man like Joe: Joe Pickett

 

Okay, so one of the most exciting shows to watch this summer was Paramount+'s Joe Pickett. I started off watching the first season while the second season was still airing on the streaming service, but I got through all two seasons of the series, and I hope there will be more. 

The series follows Joe Pickett, the new Wyoming-based game warden, and his family, who live in a small town near Yellowstone National Park. It's a mix of police drama with Western that's in line with other shows like Dark Water and Yellowstone. 

It's the characters in this series that stand out, like Pickett and his wife, Marybeth (played by Michael Dorman and Julianna Guill), who deal with the mystery of crimes, conspiracy, and even family drama. 

What makes me love this show the most is its family drama dynamics that both carry on from the first season into the second season. And yes, at times, it had pulled my heartstrings. Not to mention the mysteries and supernatural-like stories that come into the series, I give it a 9.5/10, and I highly recommend checking out this series on Paramount+.

Update: as of October, Paramout+ announced that the series had been canceled. 

Have you watched Joe Pickett? What did you think of the series? Is it sad that the series isn't continuing? Leave a comment below!

You can watch all two seasons on Paramount+.

My Summer Binge Watch 2023, Part 1

 

With the fall season underway, I thought I would start with my summer of binge-watch. Check it out!

This Is Us: Quick Recap and Final Thoughts Before Series Finale

We're just hours away from the end of an era when the series finale of This Is Us airs. While I haven't been writing a recap/review of the episodes this season, I thought this would be the perfect time to write a quick recap and final thoughts. Here we go!

Life Sentence Pilot Preview

This Wednesday marks the series premiere of Lucy Hale's new series "Life Sentence." Here's a preview of the "Pilot" episode.

When Stella (Hale), a young woman who has spent the last eight years of living like she was dying, finds out that her cancer has been cured. She is suddenly forced to face the long-tern consequences of the "live in the moment" decisions she made, which includes marrying a total stranger. But she also finds out that her"perfect family" isn't so perfect after all and everyone in her life hid their problems from her.

Stella is shocked to learn that her parents, Peter (Dylan Wash) and Ida (Gillian Vigman), have fallen out of love, her sister, Elizabeth (Brooke Lyons), gave up her own dreams to start a family with her husband Diego (Carlos PenaVega) to take care of her, and her often overlooked brother Aiden (Jayosn Blair), who's pushing 30 and still lives above the garage, sells Adrenal to soccer moms and uses Stella's cancer to guilt them into sleeping with him.

Meanwhile, Stella's husband Wes (Elliot Knight), begins to worry that he can't continue to pretend to be her perfect husband for the rest of his life. With a real future suddenly in front of her, Stella's cinematic life snaps into reality, and instead of living like she was dying, she will have to learn to live like she's living, and help her family and friends to do the same. 

You can catch the series premiere of Life Sentence Wednesday, March 7 at 9/8c on The CW.

This Is Us "Still There" /"Brothers"

This Is Us just keeps getting better and better.

"Still There"

"Still There" is another amazing episode that shows really good character growth. Randall and Deja connect with what they have, which is anxiety and invites her to what helps him the best to deal with that running. Also standing up for her was a real moment for Deja to see how much Randall cares for her.

Meanwhile, after having knee surgery, Kevin continues on using pain meds, leading up for the character for a spiral. And Kate finds out that she's pregnant. Also we get to see how Rebecca stands up to her mother, calling her a racist and coming to terms on how right Rebecca is about Randall.

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

"Brothers"

With the announcement of Kate's pregnancy from Kate and Toby. Kevin drinks and tries to get more refiles of his pain meds. But with his involvement of Sophie's auction, it don't go well and makes a huge mess between them.

But the storyline has to be when Jack takes Kevin and Randall out camping and learning about his father dying at the same time. Jack may not want to say goodbye to him, but Rebecca made the effort to meet along with Kate as well. But later we see Jack looking at a photo of him along with others in the army. But it turns out that in Jack's childhood, we get to learn a shocking news that Jack has a brother, who makes an appearance when Jack awaits their father at a bar drinking.

"Brothers" is another great accomplishment episode that showed emotions, mostly into the fatherhood. It did struck a personal note for me to say the least. Milo's performance was amazing as he has always shown, along with Hartley and Brown's performance as well. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.


You can catch This Is Us Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

A Freight Train of Emotions: The Blacklist "Ian Garvey (No. 13)" Fall Finale

The fall finale of The Blacklist wasn't at any point a disappointment as it delivered a finale that will have everyone talking about through the hiatus.

With Tom Keen no where to be found, Liz is worried after trying to call him a lot. They soon pick up clues to where Tom has been around from the motel to the gas station. Liz thinks that Tom is trying to kind Nick's killer.

While Liz is searching for Tom, Tom, who happened to open the flood gates of trouble, is being held by Ina Garvery in the woods. Ian tries to make Tom talk about the suitcase but won't speak of it, not even when both Pete and his girlfriend's dead bodies in the wood clipper. Ian makes Tom call Red and telling where to meet, unaware that he and Dembe are a couple of minutes away but plays to their plan.

With Ian gone to meet with Red, Tom escapes along with the suitcase and runs into the woods, guns a blazing. As it looked like things were coming to an end, Tom runs into a car that has Red and Dembe and gets in even after getting shot in the back. The three rushed off.

Now with Tom being with Red, you know there's going to be some father-in-law/son-in-law bonding time happening here. As they find shelter for the moment, Tom and Red talk about not only the suitcase but the whole reason why Tom got the job to look after Liz and we see flashbacks of Tom getting the information about Liz and only interact but never to fall in love. Well, love is a powerful thing.

Soon Ian and his men get to the house that Red, Tom and Dembe are at, the three hide til when Tom's blood drips down from the vent. Red and tom get out but not without leaving a bit of a warm getaway package for Ian, burning their vehicles. As they stopped at the gas station, Tom asked again about what's in the suitcase, Red talks about how he heard about him and Liz getting married (the first time) and talked about how mad he was but know how Tom makes her happy.

After their talk, Tom makes a getaway with the bones and DNA results. He gets to the Union Station and looks at the results with an expression that quickly makes him call Liz to tell her to meet him at home alone (having the babysitter take Agnus somewhere safe). Red gets word about Liz gone MIA and gets word that the last call came from the train station. He makes a call to Tom at the station and tells him that he doesn't have to do this, but Tom won't stop.

As Liz gets home, she's with worried and excitement but that goes away when she sees him tied up and beaten. That's where Ian and his group surround them. Liz of course, punches Ian in the face. Ian makes Tom pay for what he had done, by stabbing him in the stomach. And again when he asked Tom to call Red but wouldn't. Liz gets punched and falls to the floor where she suffers a severe head injury. There Ian lets his guys clean the place up and to kill both Tom and Liz while playing "Southern Cross" playing in the background. But Tom grabs the knife that was left from Ian and free himself and goes after the guys and then Red and Demeb get there with their guns going off blazing. And when Red gets to Tom, he doesn't kill him, but kills the other guy behind him on the floor.

With Tom and Liz severely injured, Red and Dembe rush them to the hospital with the help of Cooper and the FBI escorting them there. Just before they get to the hospital, Tom and Liz try to tell one another to stay alive and make sure that Agnus remembers her. As the rush in the ER, both in the same room, Liz is put on a tube and gets her head drilled of fear of a brain bleed while they try to get Tom's heart going and fixing up his wounds, but in the end....Tom dies.

We jump to with Red reading off a lovely verse from the bible and gets shocked when Liz wakes up. She asked how long she's been under and Red informs her that it's been 10 months and the next question was about Tom and he tells her that he'd died. And we see Tom's body in the morgue with Cooper as witness being put in the cooler in spite that he is really gone.   

This episode was a freight train of emotions and such memorable moments that it still as I'm writing this had me choking up. I had a feeling Tom was going die, he did open the flood gates to trouble, but did it for the all the right reasons, love and the truth for Liz. I thought that performance between Spader and Eggold was solid and special watching these two in their character moments of the past and present. Even Jonny Coyne's performance of Ian Garvey was thrilling as well. Boone's Liz carries a lot of the emotional scenes through part of the episode til it was between Liz and Tom at the end. The writing was so strong, the directing captured so many great moments from the character's prospective. Even the song choices were should I say memorable and yet very emotional as well.

As for what will happen in the second half of the season, I think Liz is going to probably have a tough time getting back to business. Hell, I can't wait to see how Ian is going to use the bones and DNA results against Red. I do think and I'm saying that I think that maybe those bones are those of Liz's mother.

Overall, I give this episode a 9.5/10.

You can catch The Blacklist when it returns Wednesday, January 3rd at 8/7c on NBC.

Holy Ships!! Stranger Things Season 2, "Chapter 5: Dig Dug"/"Chapter 6: The Spy"

Chapter 5: Dig Dug

There was so much going on in this episode that I almost did what Will did at the end of the episode was happen to be a jaw dropping moment.

Where to begin? Let's start with Dustin as he tries to figure out how to get Dart out of the house. He does it by leaving a trail of food for it that leads to the basement. It was working until it saw and sense Dustin and so he went for Plan B attack it and knock it in the basement. Oh by the way, he was wearing a pretty cool outfit that remembered be of The Mighty Ducks.

Lucas tries to fix his relationship with Max and after his father for advice, he tells her the truth about last year. She didn't believe him at first but with a very convincing look she seems to believe him. Trouble is that her so called brother saw her with him again and isn't too pleased. This guy really freaks me out.

Eleven finally goes to see her mother and tries to reconnect with her after seeing the lights in the house go off and on like what Will did in the Upside Down. Doing her bit once again, she saw what her mother went through to find her after she was born from a diffcult labor, Papa stealing her and making her mother think that she was dead, to seeing her getting a gun and finding her. And to even seeing how she got to be in the condition she is in now. And understands that the words she says all the time is what she remembers the most from certain time.

As Joyce and Mike help with Will, Will sees that Hooper is in trouble after he is in under ground with the vines and such. Even he got sprayed and coughed up stuff that I think that he might go through what Will has been going through. With time running out, Joyce gets Bob to help and after trying to get the brainy dude thinking they drove and found Hopper's car.

There Joyce and Bob go under and searching for Hopper. They finally come to him as he is tied down with vines around his neck and body. They cut it all off and with some creepy but cool scene shots, he's free. That is until the DOE dudes come in and get them out. As soon as they start burning off the vines, Will starts to have a seizure like moment and screams his head off like he's been burned.

This episode was so good. The performance from everyone was so good and the writing was as well. I didn't really think too much on the Nancy/Johnathan story as it just was a bit light out of the others in this episode. I'm think that maybe that Hopper is infected like Will is? He coughed up stuff after that mutant planet sprayed him with crap. Overall, I give this episode a 8.5/10.

Chapter 6: The Spy

HOLY SHIPS!!!!! Revenge is best served deadly I guess. 

With the doctors and nurses searching of what is wrong with Will, saying that he is bruned without any burnmarks on him. That all first scene of the episode was so intense and even scary for me watching Schnapp's performance. As Owen's team of doctors perform test of Will, it turns out that he has a vrius and Will is the host, that helps connect to a human and not only see what the creatures are doing but also be known as what Mike calls Will "The Spy." 

Thinking that Will is helping Owen and the team. A team goes down and searches to burned down the rest of the place until Dart and gang comes along, after trying to attack Dustin, Lucas, Max and Steve at the junkyard, and attacks the team that's underground where Hopper was trapped. Not only does these creatures killed but are moving towards the DOE by the end of the episode. 

Meanwhile, Dusitn and Steve try to get Dart to come to them after seeing that it had escaped Dustin's basement. Lucas and Max catches up and meets them at the junkyard to prepare for Dart to come, but as it turns out Dart wasn't alone and turned into one hell of a montage to Tremors. 

This episode was a real thrill. From the begnning to the end, I really was tied to my seat. With what was going on between Will and Dustin and the gang, I really did fine the Nancy and Johanhan story in this episode to be the calm before the thrills. You know sixe episodes in and I know I haven't said much about Paul Reiser's performance so far but I just have to say that he's amazing in this role. He can surely balance the comedy and drama as it does remind me of his performance in Aliens. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch Season Two of Stranger Things available on Netflix now and Season One too along on Blu-ray and DVD.

Deep Family Secret: Blindspot "If Beth"

Jane gets a family history while the FBI dealing with an art assassin and a secret for Weller that will have you stun.

Jane gets a little information of why Sandstorm is doing what they're doing. Roman shows her to Canada to show her what they're fighting for. Now this might nt be a lot to understand but when Sheppard confronts Jane about her family and what they suffered from and to what Jane and Roman brought to her makes perfect sense that they're gonna after the Government.

Meanwhile, Patterson finds a hidden code in the honeycomb tattoo on Jane's hand. It gave a number and a name. It lead to a man that goes with a code name shadocat. After capturing and leaving shadocat out cold thanks to Reade's issue, the team navigates into an assassin about to hit an art gala.

The team goes undercover, each member takes on each level of floors. When Patterson went downstairs, she gets attack from the assassin but Weller gets there in time to save Patterson and chase the assassin but looses her.

Jane confronts her and battles with another great fight scene that Blindspot has given. But after almost kicking her butt, she pulls out flash bombs and knocks out Jane.  The team searches to find who this assassin ad find where she was going to hit next. That's where they caught her and questioned her. Shocking enough she admits she's a CIA agent, but there are no files to prove that.

She opens up and tells Weller and Jane everything and soon we get from job to asking to save her child from her father. That was something, Weller and the gang catches up where the father and her daughter are at and the father starts shooting at them.

After taking down the father, all of the sudden the daughter takes shots at the FBI too, until Jane talks to her, calms her down and takes her to her mother. The two reunite and things look peaceful.

Reade is still struggling with the Coach Jones case. It's now reflecting his job when he injured two suspects. Zapata is the only one concern for his safety.

Weller and Nas seem to get along in this episode. After the case, they both have a scotch and soon after Nas shows Weller why Sandstorm is using him from the start by showing a clip of the graduating the academy that Sandstorm has been watching Weller from the beginning. How weird is that?

This was an amazing episode!!! We got to see Weller and Nas grow closer as co leaders of the team. The writing was good, the performance from the cast was great again.

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10

You can catch Blindspot Wednesday nights at 8/7c on NBC.

High Emotions: Chicago PD "All Cylinders Firing"

I'm just going to say it... give Amy Morton the performer of the week!!!

This episode took the character Platt into a situation that we've never seen in the four seasons of CPD. When Platt gets attacked from an unknown person, Hank and the team goes far and wide to search for the person.

The team looks into those that had threaten Platt. There were things that even the Intelligence Unit didn't know she was doing, like being a security guard at a local liquor store. But it was that they didn't know that she came from a rich father, who had some business go under and still make a lot of money.

When Platt woke up, she gets the news that her father was also attack and died. That look from Platt gave to Erin was a look that has stuck into my memory. And yet she tells Erin and the gang that she doesn't know anyone that would want to attack her or her father, but it's Trudy, as she tells them no, she had that funny look.

When the Intelligence gets a good lead, Burgess tells Platt about a car. Platt knows who it was and leaves Chicago Med and goes after the man, McGregor, who had a hand in one of her father's businesses.

Platt catches him and gets him to cuff him. She takes him into a basement and beats him a few times but soon Voight comes in and tries to get her to tell him about the situation so he can help. I had a feeling that Voight would be coming to help her pulling another go after lead to the others.

From scenes of Hank and Platt in the basement to the final scene of Platt and Mouch at Med, it was literally the best 10 minutes of television I've seen so far. Emotions were set high at the beginning of the episode and emotions were overwhelming at the end. As I said at the beginning of this piece, "give Amy Morton the award for Performer of the Week.

Overall, I give this episode a 10/10.

You can catch Chicago P.D. Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.