Chicago PD "Call It Macaroni" review

After a cliffhanger in the season one finale that led to Jin being found murdered, the question remains: who did it? Was it Voight's fault? The second season of the hit TV cop drama is back as they kicked it off with a bang.

Voight is questioned by the higher power of the Chicago Police Department and asked if he was there at the time of Jin's murder.

Voight isn't too pleased about what's happening, and as her heads back to the house, he gets questioned by his unit. He does blow up a bit from all the questions and asks for any updates.

Later, Antonio gets an inside source that there is going to be an exchange of a piece of evidence for money. When the gang goes undercover, Ruzek enters as the insider and the others follow; the unit gets ambushed, and a shootout begins.

As the squad returns to the house, Al informs the group that the guy involved in the exchange was the man who had killed a girl years ago, and that the evidence that was to hold him had disappeared, and without that evidence, the guy is a free man. And it upsets Al.

Meanwhile,  Halstead gets a package sent to him six weeks ago and finds out it came from Jin. It was a hard drive that had information. He talked to Erin about it and found out that it had some intelligence of Commander Perry, and it turns out that Jin wasn't going beyond Voight's back after all.

Deciding to give or not to give to Voight, he does, and Voight takes it and tries to make a deal with Perry, but Perry turns things around and threatens Voight if he turns him in that, he'll turn him, tone beyond his squad's back.

We see that Burgess is getting a new partner; after we saw last time, her partner was a big someone with experience but not in tip-top shape. She's introduced to Roman, who doesn't quite like to work with female partners because of his history of falling in love with one.

As Antonio speaks to his source again, they got one of the guys who's part of the exchange for over $200,000. And so they set up a sting, with only one member knowing. As the squad awaits the arrival of the guy Al wants to put back in jail, they set up and see them coming. As the group gave the others the money and then gave them the evidence, they started shooting.

The squad goes in, and the mod guy and his gang leave, riding off. They're stopped, and the guy's brother steps out. As Halstead and Erin come out, the brother grabs his gun, and Halstead shoots down the brother, and he's dead.

Later, Voight gets a visitor, who turns out to be Jin's mother, who wants to tell him that he always wanted to be a police officer and that at the academy, he was mistreated. Adding that, since he joined Voight's team, he felt more of a team than before. Voight is later called back by the head CPD people and asks for his shield and gun, but he then wants to talk to the chief and discuss what Jin is doing.

Later on, some of the gang are at Molly's talking to the new member of Firehouse 51, the one who replaced the late Leslie Shay. He gets an inside source saying that there's a hit on Halstead after killing the brother of the guys they were after. Al gets to Molly's and tells Halstead about the bounty on him.

As the episode ends, Voight is seen in the storage room, moving a shelf where a vault is shown, opening it up, putting the hard drive in there, and grabbing about $10,000 for Jin's father to clear his gambling debt.

The season of Chicago PD has started with a bang. It seems that the squad is still intact after Jin passing, not like what happened over on Chicago Fire. It seems Voight does have some heart in him, but also that he still isn't telling the truth about him being this dirty cop to get the bad gangs in jail.

Burgess and Ruzek are more robust in relationship. She still hopes that she will make the intelligence squad.

You can catch new episodes of "Chicago PD" on Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC

The Mysteries of Laura "The Mystery of the Dead Date" review

As an online date had gone wrong for one person, it's up to Laura to figure out who killed the romance and also how to deal with her own now ex-husband as her new boss.

The story starts out as we come to a maid coming into a room, dancing, about to clean. She gets a startling reaction when she sees a woman who is hung by a silk curtain.

Then cut to Laura eating a pretzel and spots an elder person being robbed by two guys. She engaged  and speaks to them, one being a bit cocky tell her to mind her own business and calling her a soccer mom. That's where she dropped her pretzel and teased one of them.

Robber's never learn right?

And then we see Laura pick up her pretzel, a kid tells her that it's disgusting and she tells him that there's a five second rule that was more than just a five second rule, say 25 seconds. Anyone would have done the same thing if it was that good of a pretzel.

When Laura get's the call about the victim, the only clue is the victim's underwear and a horrible smell of cologne. Billy and her head to the business where the victim got the pair of underwear.

Laura runs into a problem with the worker, due to the fact that Laura isn't wearing their kind of style wearing. Until she calls out to everyone in the store telling that she had tried on a lot of clothes and she has a bit of a rash. That was one of many that was funny.

Laura finally get the cashier's attention.

That got the lady's attention and helped her find who the victim was.

On the other side of things, Laura comes back to the office seeing about everyone checking her ex-husband, Jake's ass out as he puts a up a poster. She doesn't know how this is going to work, thinking that it'll go bad while he thinks it's going to workout great.

Jake seems to be wanting to be everyone's friend and buys cronuts and a cappuccino machine and wants to have some guy time with Billy. He might have been hoping to get some tips of getting back together.

As the investigation is still going, Laura meets with the ex-husband of the victim; he got confused of the new because he thought it was his current wife that had died not his ex. Apparently he doesn't care at all about her.

Laura meets the suspect and his wing-man.

Laura finds that the victim had an apartment and see that she had a child and promises her that she will do everything to solve her mother's murder.

Everything points to a website where the victim was trying to find love. So, Laura goes undercover, filling out a profile and signed up with up to 12 dates. As she dress up as a detective meets a female James Bond, she meets a bunch of weird, freaky guys until one guy spills his drink on her. The man, named Mic gave her a card but also was rude to her, until another guy stepped in and told him to leave.

She comes to find out that this was the guy that was suppose to be with the victim but she turned him down. Which lead to that guy who spilled the drink on Laura that turns out to be the guy's wing-man. There was also another clue that it was the wing-man, due to the fact of the strong cologne smell.

So she calls him and sets a date with him, having both Billy, Meredith and Jake as her backup. Laura plays with the guy and they go to his apartment. As soon as he starts playing with Laura, she goes in and then when she sees his scares decides not to go and that's where he slaps her to the group.

It got to be a real serious dramatic fight as she returns with a punch and kicked him down to the group. Then at the perfect timing that the guys had the power turned off, the lights go out and the guy hit Laura with a metal candle holder. As soon as you think that he was going to bash her hand with it again, backup shows up.

Laura meeting "The Wig-Man"

After a long couple of days, turns down Jake for an invite, she decides to hangout with two other people, her boys as they are in the bedroom watching TV and they are sleeping each by her side.

"Dead Date" seems to be a lot of fun and yet had some dramatic sides like the fight scene. You sometimes tend to forget that this is a drama at times with it also being a comedy with some funny lines.

The character, Sammi, was just a hilarious as a child who protested her own father's work. Doesn't want to get paid but as soon as she was release she was hoping for some money for the bus. But it turns out that we might see her again soon as Laura gave her her card for some babysitting.

The episode was more of how Laura had the balance between her job and facing the fact that her ex-husband is now her boss. Which has made it very funny, with their dialogue.

You can catch new episodes of "The Mysteries of Laura" Wednesday night at 8/7c on NBC.

Always and Forever: Chicago Fire "Always" review

(Warning: Stop reading if you haven't watched the episode, there are spoilers.) 

When we last saw the gang from House 51, they had thrown a wedding for their Captain, and as soon as the party was underway, a call about a fire in a warehouse building. That's where everyone went in except for the Captain. 

There seems to be a problem. Quietness sets in, and suddenly, the top building explodes. Boden yells for Casey and Severide to respond, but nothing happens, and everything goes dark until Tuesday night when we find out who will live and who will die.

The premiere of Season Three of the hit NBC series "Chicago Fire" picked up where we left off. Severide wakes up from the mess and ensures that everyone on his and Casey's teams is all right. 

We see that Mills is injured with a leg injury, and they call the Captain to Shay and Dawson. But it was at that moment that Casey and Severide heard that Dawson and Shay were in the building at the time of the explosion. 

They searched for them and came to an emotional Dawson performing CPR on an unresponsive Shay Severide. Casey tried to help Dawson, but he didn't want to stop. They try to do as much as they can, but no response. Leslie Shay has died.

As we cut to Severide and Dawson looking at each other while Shay is carried away, we come to one of many flashbacks of Shay's first day at House 51, meeting Dawson and the gang.

The second was when she met with Severide, and we found out how they became roommates. The third was as both Shay and Dawson went into the building to help a victim, we came to what had happened to Shay and how she died of a head injury. Some of the rest were just of both Dawson and Severide's good times that they have had.

Months after the incident, we come to a depressing firehouse 51; everyone returns to doing their best. Mills is back, and Dawson came in late after her appointment.

Dawson is having a difficult time when trying to find a replacement. Also, we see that she isn't quite herself, and then we meet Shay's replacement, Sylvia Brett, who looks like Shay. If that wouldn't be enough on her plate as it is. 

Severide hasn't been back since Shay's death, and House 66 is pissing off Casey and the team for their remarks about Dawson joining their team. 

Casey looks for Severide and finds him at his logo cabin. Casey explains that the only thing that matters is the lives they save and that he should represent death. 

Severide thinks and later comes back to House 51.

Dawson goes to her appointment with the firehouse chaplain, who she's been seeing for the last five weeks and has not spoken yet. That is until she finally talks and tells him that she blames herself for the death of Shay.

Near the end, we see Casey helping Severide pack up Shay's things for her family. Severide comes to a recording of a promise they made on the first days as roommates: that they "always" kept a guarantee that they would not bring work home and stay as friends. 

This series shows that no character is safe; this is what it is in the real world. This episode proves that not even our favorite character can last forever. It packed so many emotions that it's hard to wrap my head around. This could be one of the saddest episodes of the series so far. 

"Always" seems a game-changer for Beveride and Dawson in the series. We'll see how this season plans out. Overall, I give the season premiere a 9/10.

You can catch "Chicago Fire" on Tuesday nights at 10/9c on NBC. 

The Blacklist "Lord Baltimore" review

When we last saw "The Blacklist," we discovered who Berlin was and that a war was still coming. As the new season kicked off last night, we learn about more questions than there are answers, but we are left with a pretty amount of one hour of drama to take.


The show picks up a few months after seeing the season finale—Red Needs, who is hunting him down from the man known as Berlin. The name "Lord Baltimore" comes and gets Liz and the newly run FBI on the chase to find him.





Mostly everyone on the FBI staff is still shaken up by the loss of Agent Malik and that Harold Cooper is recovering from his injuries from the finale and may not return to work. Even Ressler is somewhat tight-lipped about the events, as an FBI psychologist wanted to talk to him.



We Find that "Baltimore" has been scheming a person named Rowan. Keen and Ressler investigate it and learn she has a twin sister she thinks is still alive. Well, busy is a loose word to use for someone like her.

Meanwhile, we see Red and Dembe going back to their hotel when, all of a sudden, a helicopter comes in a somewhat fashionable "Godfather" moment where guns are firing, and another group of people kidnaps Red.

Red is soon released and finds out that Berlin isn't after him but someone, a woman. When Red sees a list of people and profiles, he comes to someone important to him, someone from his past: Naomi, his ex-wife



Keen convinces Naomi to come with her for her protection. She does not want to, even if her life is in danger. But then we find out who is "Lord Baltimore" when he turns out to be a she with a dissociative identity disorder, too.

Naomi is kidnapped and brought to Berlin. Berlin seems to have a plan for her to get Red like he did with Berlin.

Near the end, we see that Keen is moving on with her life after Tom, Kessler is somewhat in denial that he isn't okay, and we see that Red gets a package with a phone that turns out to be Berlin with a message for him that gives a look to Red's face unlike any other.

This season starts strong, as if it picks up from last season. We learn what Berlin is doing to Red. But still, who is Naomi? We know she's Red's ex-wife, but who does that make it to Liz? Her mother? Her Aunt? Her cousin? She does mention that she had a daughter.

Even in next week's episode, the showdown will continue as both Berlin and Red will meet for the first time in, as they say, 20 years. I know that I won't want to miss that greeting.

You can catch "The Blacklist" airs Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

ER: 20 Years Later.

It was on this date, September 19th, that television would change for the better of medical genre, It was on this date that the world become so addicted to the series "ER" that it paid the way to other great medical shows we see today. 

I think we might know the whole story of "ER" and how it was created. It was written as a film script by the late author Michael Crichton, who wrote Jurassic Park, about his experience as a medical student in an urban emergency hospital. No one picked it up.

It would take 20 years later, that the idea to make it a film was in the works but then got delayed again when director Steven Spielberg and Crichton took a break and Crichton had told him about this book he was working on, which was "Jurassic Park" and soon became the biggest box office hit in 1993. 

This series got shopped around twice to one network, which did pick it up at the second time around, which was NBC. At that time NBC had it's "Must-See-TV" era going and when they read and saw the pilot they didn't know what to think of it at all, too graphic, intensest, a lot of stories in one hour and the question will the audience get it. 

Apparently so, the pilot was a two hour movie, which premiered on Monday night against Monday Night Football, which the show did really well and then soon put it on the historical Thursday night where both "Hill Street Blues" and "LA Law" held that spot. Thursday night came and it beat out it's rival over at CBS "Chicago Hope," which critics gave high praise about it and predicting that it will be out ER in ratings. 

I guess they were wrong. 

This show got recognized quick and with these unknown actors at the time, which become big stars now. Noah Wyle, Juilianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards, Sherry Stringfeld, Eriq La Salle and one actor by the name of George Clooney. They got their big break.

The series was a major hit. In fact, it grew to be the #1 new drama but also the #2 series of the season behind "Seinfeld." The shoe literally grew audience higher than "American Idol," "The Big Bang Theory," and "NCIS."   And in fact that network television will never see those kinds of ratings again unless it's a sporting event.

This is the series that changed the format of what medical shows are today. Telling stories about the cases, the characters of both the patients and doctors and most of everything relied on the writing, which made the show a huge it. That and the fact the Clooney was literally the best damn looking child doctor in the history of television.

The show lasted for 15 years and still made Thursday night Must See TV til the end of it's run. The show kept true to the medicine. A lot of real doctors and nurses could not watch it because they would say it resembles of their job too much.

If I had to sum up 10 episodes that define ER it would have to be in this order:

"On The Beach" episode

10. Kisangani, season 9, episode 22
9. Time of Death, Season 11, episode 6
8. All In the Family, Season 6, episode 14
7. And In The End, Season 15, episode 22
6. Blizzard, Season 1, episode 10
5. Hell and high Water, Season 2, episode 7
4.Take These Broken Wings, Season 2, episode 21
3. Pilot, Season 1, episode 1
2.On The Beach, Season 8, episode 21
1. Love's Labor Lost, Season 1, episode 19

If you watched these episodes, these episodes define what "ER" was and is in it's own way legendary.

It help influenced other medical dramas like "House" and "Royal Pains" not to mention "The Night Shift."

Personally this is my all time favorite series. No other show will top this series in my opinion. I grew up watching it since I was a little kid. At that time, it was my grandma, mom and I that watched it together. It kind of stopped around the time my brothers came into the picture but that's okay we did watch it separate homes. And when the series ended it was still as what it use to be, my grandma, my mom and me watched it while my brothers were with my grandfather. And oh yeah, it was the series finale, there were tears coming and going that night.


Amazing that "ER" premiered 20 years ago. Time does fly by so fast. In a couple of days it will be "Friends" anniversary too.

"ER" gave us so much. It gave us inspiration to be doctors and nurses, it gave us the drama and entertainment that we have never seen before and made us tune in week after week after week. It really did shape the way we watch television along with "Hill Street Blues."

There's no way to sum up the series. It was just simply a legendary series all on it own.
Happy 20th Anniversary ER!!!!

The Mysteries of Laura "Pilot" review

Photo by Hulu.com

Laura Diamond is not your typical NYPD Detective. She loves to catch criminals and solve mysteries but also has to deal with a stressful family with a soon-to-be ex-husband and devilish twin boys who would want to make you glad you’re working. This is the concept of the new NBC series “The Mysteries of Laura.”

Based on the same show in Spain, the series centers around Laura Diamond, played by Debra Messing, who is not your typical detective or mother, but she’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done no matter what or how she does it. She’s a bit like Columbo meets Jessica Fletcher, but without writing a novel, add the attitude and an oversized eating habit.

The series is a dramedy, meaning there’s an equal amount of comedy and drama. And for an actress like Messing, she can balance both of those genres.

The pilot aired on NBC. Wednesday night after America’s Got Talent finale and re-aired again on Thursday. The storyline of the pilot is of Laurthatis called to investigate a threat to a high businessman who then turns out to be murdered and the stress of finding her twin sons in preschool after being kicked out.

There were scenes in the hilarious pilot. One was when Laura was heading to investigate the threat, and on her way there, she was singing “The Warrior” by Patty Smyth in the car. 

Another was where she was and was going to rent out a swimsuit, but it cost way too much—and made a come meant that she could get the same dress at Target for less than it cost. As was done, she took it off while wearing a button shirt from the suspect and told the lady that she kept the tag on the suit so she didn't have to pay the total price.

A scene showed her soft side after the interview about getting her boys into another school, and the boys didn't behave too well. So, the interview was done, but her husband stuck his neck out for the first time. WWE Seesaw told her she was the best mother, which didn't make a difference.

Photo by NBC

Later, we see Laura putting the kids to bed and hear them tell her they think she’s a great mom and love her. Then the music “All of Me” by John Legend played, making the scene happy but sad.

“The Mysteries of Laura” is a well-balanced mystery crime dramedy with a good, from Josh Lucas to Janina Gavankar to even the twin boys. It has some of that classic The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Murder She Wrote if you like to watch mystery crime shows.

Messing’s character, Laura, is similar to her well-known character from Will & Grace of Grace Adler. She can’t sing (but who can? We love to sing in the car), and the foot fetish is another. But it doesn't seem to be a big problem for this series. 

You can catch new episodes of “The Mysteries of Laura” on Wednesdays, starting September 23^rd, at 10/9 central, on NBC. The show is in the lineup of other cop dramas before “Law & Order: SVU” and “Chicago P.D.” which the network is calling that night “Women Crush Wednesday for its strong female characters on each show.

The Mod Squad: It's a Cool, Good film.

What do you get when you have three teenage delinquents who have been chosen to do undercover cop work instead of serving jail time? You get “The Mod Squad.” This 1999 film based on the hit television series from the late 60s to early 70s with the same name has these teens taking on the crime world of the 90s.

The story starts with one of the members, Julie (played by Claire Danes), running into the nightclub, warning everyone of the cops. No one believes him, but when the diddido comes, everyone runs in fear and fun. Then another group member, Pete (played by Giovanni Ribisi,) who was dancing with a lady, sees an older, overweight cop and runs off. Then there’s Lincoln (played by Omar Epps) watching everyone, looking for someone they are looking for until the cop starts chasing him. He got stopped for looking at one cop, telling someone to get out. All three get arrested and brought back to the LAPD station.

The film has a bit of multiple complications, starting with what I just said about how we meet our central characters. Then, as we moved on, we met the detective responsible for these three to work for the LAPD, as some other detectives and officers didn’t like it. Finally, we see after twice of undercover business at a bar, one due to Pete’s mess up with someone and the other being that they had the guy.

This film story has more than one falling action,n but if I had to pick one, everything fell when Captain Adam Greer (played by Dennis Farina) was shot and killed. The main characters were shocked and had to leave when they saw him dead in the alley.  After that event, both characters went to their respective Most. Pete and Lincoln went on their own, and Julie was alone in a depressed state, including her ex-boyfriend Billy (played by Josh Brolin).  

   This falling action has been carried on for a good while until we see some resolution begin to form when Pete starts to figure things out that the cop that he thought was good was naughty. As the gang gets back together and meets at the beach, they form a plan and get some evidence. Lincoln pretends to be someone’s boy toy while Julie and Pete do a stakeout at an abandoned warehouse. As things start moving, cops run in. Everyone was in the warehouse, and that’s when Julie and Pete came in crashing in, stopping and stalling for the other cops to get there, which they did and arrested the two kids until Pete used a tape recorder to claim their innocence and that these other cops were the reason Greer died. And as soon as that event was over, they decided to rejoin and continue to be The Mod Squad.  

            
This film had a dark setting, with lighting being one of the reasons. The lighting in rooms was dim, with fluorescent lighting being used. It shows it had a dark environment. For example, when the gang was brought back to the station, they were in a room with just enough light to see what was in the room with a bit of darkness. Also, even though the original storyline was based in the late ’60s to early ’70s, it seems to be found in Los Angeles and 1999.

            
I find the characters engaging in this movie, mainly the three members of the Squad. 

Julie had this good girl with a sweet side and was an alcoholic. She's the character that will sweet talk to you. 

Pete, who’s not bright at times, crashes Lincoln’s car almost every time he drives it and just acts like a total moron, but he does prove to be the man in the end. 

And there’s Lincoln, who has a sarcastic side and wants to get the job done. These characters know they are doing something good; they may be young and arrogant, but they have some trouble sides.

The music in this film is fantastic. The names of songs from artists playing in the movie and on the soundtrack. Names like Busta Rhymes, Everlast, Alana Davis, and Curtis Mayfield. One of my favorites was played in the film in the opening scene when Julie was running, and the song was “Goin’ Crazy” by SX10. That made the film great to start with because it got me hooked. Also, I loved the song “Can’t Find My Way Home” by Alana Davis; this one was a pop type of song I love and is a close second to the version by Alison Krauss. 

Left: the cast of the television version. Right: the cast of the movie version.

I enjoyed the film “The Mod Squad.” It's a late 90’s dark side of a teen cop drama for only grown-up teens. It might sometimes use some natural language in the film, showing its real side. I don’t see how film critics and other people don’t like this film and why it bombed in theaters. It was a well-entertained and excellent drama with a good storyline, setting, and characters.