The Mysteries of Laura "The Mystery of the Biker Bar"

It's never easy for a detective or cop to find out that the victim of a murder is someone you closely knew. That's what Laura deals with in this week's episode of "The Mysteries of Laura." 

It was only her day off that Laura gets a phone call from the medical examiner about a murder victim who had her calling card in his pocket.  She heads out there, and finds out that the victim is a close old friend name Jerry Patch, aka St. Jerry. 

Shocking to see him dead, she goes on and tries to find out how it happens. Then comes Jake, who heard it on the scanner about the murder. he confronts her about it and then see two tourist taking a selfie with the dead body behind them. That really upset Laura. I would too, even now with selfies being the thing that people would take on with a dead body behind them. I wouldn't even do that. 

Laura questions Jerry's wife, Ruby, who has been with him for over 30 years. Ruby was in shocked to hear that he was murdered. At the time she was cleaning up the place as she was talking to Laura and Jake. 

Then came to name Crazy Eddie, who Rudy talked about that him and Jerry talked the other night. Of course, the name crazy Eddie is as it sounds. He's crazy and describes that he's being watched by the CIA with drones all over the place. Laura talks to him back at the squad room and tells her about the name "Birdman" who was watching Jerry. 

Laura and Soto interviewed the Birdman, who was just an OCD man who watches everyone from his apartment and takes notes of what's happening at that day and time. When Laura heard of it, she scammed him for it that the Mayor needed it to help with the issues. 

As Laura is back at the office she's reading the book. Jake doesn't think that the answers are in the book, which she proves him wrong and tells him about a lady who was screaming outside that the Birdman had to call the cops for it. 

They interviewed Faith who was a waitress at Jerry's bar, who at the night of her screaming that she was going to kill Jerry that the reason for that was he fired her for stealing. But it wasn't her that stole, it was her boyfriend, who by the way started running off when Laura turned and looked at him. 

Soto ran after him until he got hit in the face with his helmet. Then Laura chases him by hopping on someone else's bike and followed the boyfriend until he got hit by a bus. Yeah, when you see a stop sign up ahead and you are chasing a suspect, you might want to stop and hope a bus would come by. 

As soon as Soto gets to the accident, Laura helps his bad cut by putting a pee pad on his face. That was probably one of the funnest moments of this episode. 

Along with the storyline, of the twins busting Ned, the neighbor, his window with a baseball. 

And the fact Laura has an issue leaving the twins with the new babysitter, who by the way turns out to be very funny and clever too. 

Laura then goes by the book again and finds out about a suit person who was following around Jerry's building. Loyd as they called him, was the guy who was at the wake and turns out that maybe he could have killed him for the rights of the air. Even I thought that Loyd was the one.  

As it turns out that he wasn't the one but give out a clue that Jerry gave him half of the estate of his air but not the one he wanted to get. The other half was under him. And as Laura thought it through, she comes up with that you can't have three halves. It's really impossible. 

Turns out, it was the wife this whole time. Laura didn't even see it, due to the fact that this case was so close to her personally. 

 "The Mystery of the Biker Bar" was as I said in the beginning, it's never easy for a detective or cop to see someone that they knew so close get killed. Sometimes the thing that we don't suspect should be the ones that we need to suspect.

Another funny scene in the episode was when she was trying to put on her biker outfit for Jerry's waking and Laura had a hard time getting her pants on. She had to have her boys help her get in them. She says "size six fits all." She's right, it does it.

I really think that this show is improving from it's pilot. I might be saying this only three episodes out, this show isn't you typical cop drama that we need to have all this tech crap and medical slang just to feel smart. This show has enough of the cop drama that we can follow easy and also enjoy laughing at some of the moments. 

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

Moving Forward: Chicago Fire "Wow Me" review

When we lost Shay, everyone was devastated, both the characters and fans. Now, as we move forward, things are still hard for some of us, but not as much as Severide.

 In this week's episode of "Chicago Fire," the second episode of season three, "Wow Me, "mostly this epi,sode if the title stands, is about how Herrmann wants Mouch and Cruz to devise an idea to make Molly's successful franchise. In the style of the famous Donald Trump, Herrmann wants them to do a task like in "The Apprentice."

When Mouch and Cruz talk, Cruz wants Otis to be a part of it to help. They wanted to discuss it, but Mouch had everything under control until about two days before the pitch day when he was reading and getting ideas from Trump's books.

And that's when Cruz took over and got the idea for Molly's to go mobile, that is, service truck-wise. When Herrmann heard it, he gave his signature sign that he loved it. Molly's is going to be a food and beer truck service.

Wouldn't we all want that? I might not know much about food trucks. Do they service beer and other alcohol?

Meanwhile, the other focus goes to Casey and Dawson. Dawson is waiting for her transfer to be accepted to Firehouse 66; she drops by the house and gives the guys a bulk of beer so they might like her. They don't, with the look from Tom Welch, who gives Dawson and Casey a hard time.

As soon as Dawson thinks of the change that will happen, Casey asks if she needs help with more training up the stairs; as she goes up and to the top of the roof, she sees a small box. Casey comes by the door and then soon asks her to marry him.

With a bit of celebration, I'm saying a bit lightly, during the evening, the following morning, Dawson gets an overwhelming emotional feeling about Shay and that if anything good has happened to her, Shay is the first person she tells her.

But then, she got called up to the boss. She runs into Welch, and as soon as she gets to talk to the boss, he tells her she is no longer accepted at 66 because they found another better candidate. She's upset about it and was told that it was not a gender issue, which is the way Welch has been acting these last few episodes from last season til now.

And now that only leaves with no wedding between Dawson and Casey.

Peter Mils got to see where his father has been over the years without knowing from his mother. His father's family didn't like him dating a black woman, and they had to go their separate ways.

But later on, in their second rescue mission of the episode, two guys are stuck underground at a gas line where they are unresponsive. Severide sends in Mils by going down there upside down and hooking them with a handcuff bracelet so they can be picked up.

As soon as the second is up, Mils is unresponsive and stuck. They get him out and question what happened. Could it be the equipment? Could there be something wrong with Mils? I'm leaning into more of the second question on this one.

But mostly, for our sake, this episode was mainly about Severide and seeing him dealing with the loss of Shay. Yeah, he might be back to work, but he hides his feelings like a tough guy would do and carry on his duty. The only thing that will take him away from it is drinking. He tells Casey that he's been staying with Lindsey (Chicago DP) as he said to her that he was going to be hanging with the guys.

He's dodging everyone. It wasn't until the stunt at Molly's that some of the guys from 51 thought about him physically and mentally as he was drunk and thought that Brett looked like Shay. That seems to be where he went off the deep in.

At the end of the episode, he forgets his dinner date with Lindsey, and she gives him an ultimatum that she knows what it's like to lose a friend. Still, she will only be a friend and not a girlfriend who gets stood up at a restaurant, and that's the point of Severide facing his emotions and talking about it.

In the meantime, during the episode, Boden and his wife are told by the doctor that she needs to be careful during her pregnancy due to her age and that there are risks.

Dawson tries to help  Brett with new apartments because of her location and the fact that they were called to a scene of a junkie getting high just up the street from her place.

This episode still deals with the loss of Shay. For us, the viewers and fans, I think we either rely on Dawson's side of emotion or Severide's side. We see that Severide has finally accepted that his best friend is gone. We sometimes do the same thing he has done when someone that he cared for and loved and has been there since. Who knows when we just shut people out?

There was a lot of humor in this episode due to Molly's franchise idea from the guys. Rule number one: don't take advice from Trump's book unless you understand it completely.

I like Brett, the new member of the team. She's exciting, and I hope we get to know her more. This might be a good time for her and Dawson to have a girl's weekend getaway.

Next week's episode seems to be putting more fire to the flame as both House 51 and 66 have crashed into each other.

You can catch a new episode of "Chicago Fire" on Tuesday nights at 10/9c on NBC

The Blacklist "Monarch Douglas Bank" review

When it comes to "The Blacklist" never assume something that is all ready there. I've been watching since day one and it still gets me to this day with it's storyline. It's "The Blacklist," anything can happen left, right, up or down. So never assume what is there, just get a big picture of it.

Last week, we learned that Berlin wants to get Red back, just as he thinks that Red did to his daughter, to cut up piece by piece of his wife. That Ressler is having trouble dealing with what had happen at the end of the season. And Cooper is back.

The Monarch Douglas Bank is being robbed in Warsaw, Poland, buy robbers, who were in gas suits, didn't want take the money, they took what is known as "The Formula."

Meanwhile, we see Red and his cleanup crew come in and help cleans things up as he killed two or should it comes down to one and had to re shoot one guy because he was still alive. Red's doing this to get answers about where his wife is, he seems to be in rage. Then gets a phone call about a robbery at the Monarch Douglas Bank.

Liz comes in to Red's room with a file of someone they are looking for to protect but can't find. But Red gives her another assignment about the robbery. Noting that even though the robbers didn't take anything like money still means that they took something. Which is one of the best metaphors to use in this episode.

As this was going down, Berlin was trying to get his next piece of Red's wife to send to him. Of course, it turns out to be a tooth. Later on Berlin gets a phone call from the bank which turns out to be the same bank in Poland that just lost "The Formula." Angry about it, the manager had to flew over and talk to him face to face.

Both Liz and a distracted Ressler are heading to Poland to investigate. They met the lead officer, but when Liz and Ressler sees a surveillance camera, they call Aram and get the footage. Seeing that five people walked in and six people came out with the fourth person being a woman.

They track down the robbers when they saw their track in smoke and a jam on the seat that got Red to checkout a local donut shop that he came by in the past. He talks to the owner about the costumers who robbed the bank and of course she

told him. Having Liz and Ressler coming inand rescuing the woman who was trying to escape.

As the meeting with the manager about the bank was perfect distraction for Red's wife to make an escape. She takes a piece of chicken bone and get's the guard angry for throwing her shoe.

But then tell him that she needs to go to the bathroom and as soon she is free she jams that piece of chicken bone in his face. She tries escaping but was fooled and caught by Berlin.

One of many interesting scenes in the episode was when Ressler was talking to the woman who turns out to be known as "The Formula." She can remember anything, down to the last detail. She can remember account numbers. As that was going down Liz and the lead officer talks and all of the sudden a sworn of cops coming up.

With that, this led to a fight between them that made it very funny and very cool. She fights and calling for Ressler but doesn't hear her until she shoots the glass breaking it and yelling. It took like 20 seconds for him to react.

As they were chasing the officer, he gets knocked out by a person who's been following both Liz and Ressler from the beginning. Her name is Samar Navabi.

She was sent to help, thinking that it was Red's idea. They make a run for it getting in a taxi, the Formula is shot but Ressler tries to stop the bleeding by using her tampon.
They're chase by the cops there, no place to go, Red has someone to help distract them and meets them on a train. Red takes "The Formula" away to get her medical attention and to do some unfinished business.

 That would be to take Berlin's money and when Red got the what we assume is his wife's tooth and gave a reaction that he was about to cry. He then later calls and tells Berlin that they should met.

Berlin and Red meet at Coney Island. They talk with each one getting upset. Then he tells Red to call and set up the switch. This was another best scene in the episode, calling it the goosebumps moment of the episode as they finally met and talked.

That's where soon Liz figured it out what Red was doing, she told him that she stopped and switched the routing numbers making Red's deal to Berlin not good. But then, as soon as Red give Berlin the transactions of his money, a success .

Then came his wife who was blind folded, as soon as she walks towards Red there was a moment that those two had, and even if they didn't see each other literally, there was a moment mentally that look like they still had feelings.

At the end, Liz comes to see Red and he tells her that he thinks that she had someone help with the transactions, fooling him about it which he would like to know how that happen.

We later see Red's wife in the car driving back home until she looks back. Seems that she might have feelings for Red again.

As Liz leaves and Red gets a phone call from who turns out to be Samar, who tells him that she is in the FBI. Apparently, Red is sneaking in another person into the FBI for protection. Then he picks up a bottle of Jack and the show goes black.


Who is Samar? What's going to happen to Red and his wife now, even after this emotional event? This episode continuing to arc of Berlin. What was Red going to do when he walked a couple of steps towards Berlin?

Thinking that next week's episode will be something away from the Berlin storyline just a bit as they are on a hunt for a doctor, who is operating on people and stealing their organs.

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

A Look Back: Scapin

EAST PEORIA — Audience at Illinois Central College had an interesting evening that love, fun and laughter.

 On Sept. 27, the ICC Arts and Communication Department Theatre Program presented the latest show “Scapin” at the Performing Arts Center. It’s a story about a servant who is asked for help to take money from their fathers because they are in love; but as soon as he heard that one father talked bad about him, he seeks revenge by playing a practical joke.

 There's the character Scapin, played by Ryan Groves, who has a very comedic side. Groves’ character had a bit of a resemblance of Charlie Chaplin, the iconic actor from the 1920’s.

 The show, at times, broke into the fourth wall, where the characters walk off stage and performed scenes with the audience. During one scene, Scapin asked the director to bring the lights up to talk to the audience and ask them a couple of questions.

 Throughout the show, there were different kinds of lighting. In one scene, Geronte, played by Sam Curry, was running around chasing Octave’s father Argante, played by Ramsey Hendricks, where white lights were flashing and the music was playing loud and fast. This symbolized the speedup to the scene in the story to a classic silent comedy films.

 There were interesting characters throughout the show. One of them, Sylvestre, played by Logan Henderson, played a kind side kick to Scapin when it comes to help scheming others. Both Scapin and Sylvestre had some similarities of the classic comedic duos from Bing Crosby and Bob Hope to Abbott and Costello.

  But the funniest character was in the scene where it happens to be the funniest scene of the show.  As a way to get revenge, Scapin tells Geronte that a couple of foreign officer were coming for him, he gets in a big white bag hoping they wouldn’t find him.

 As soon as Geronte gets in the bag, Scapin has some fun; he acts out different foreign characters from a Spanish officer to a French officer and starts beating him with a loaf of bread. But as soon as Sylvestre came in, he starts acting as a German officer; Geronte’s reaction was frighten and bounced away as fast as he could. Both Scapin and Sylvestre beat Geronte and then pulled two audience members to beat him too.  

 There was a scene or two in the show that didn’t go as plan, but that didn’t stop the actors. One scene where Scapin’s hat was drop on the floor by Argante, the coins bounced on the floor and one coin rolled off stage.

 “Scapin” is a play about seeking revenge on someone to help those that are in need. It’s also about that you can’t buy love but that loves somehow fines away.

The show was simply amazing with a lot of reference of style from the 1920's comedy films an vaudeville acts. The characters were just hilarious with the funnest scene coming from when two audience members beat a character with a loaf of bread.

The Purpose in Life

Street sign of Avenue Q on the stage set.

Ever wonder what it would be like if Sesame Street was for adults? This could possibly be the one and that’s what the audience saw in the latest production at Illinois Central College.

On Sept. 26, the ICC Arts and Communication Department Theatre Program presented “Avenue Q:  The Musical” in the main stage at the Performing Arts Center. Based on the book by Jeff Whitty, the story is about a newly graduated student is on the hunt for what his purpose is in life while meeting his new friends on Avenue Q. 

The characters in the story are puppets,  the actors performing with lot of expression of vocal and facial as they sang and performed. So think of it as Sesame Street plus The Muppets plus Comedy Central and you got a production that will just make you laugh out loud out of your seats. 

“I really thought that this show was simply hilarious,” said Alex Johnson, 45, of East Peoria, of the play. “They had so many funny songs that were catchy.”

 Johnson was mentioning the songs in the show. Since this was a musical, there were many songs that got the audience simply laughing out loud; songs from “Sucks to Be Me,” “If You Were Gay,” “The Internet is For Porn” “The Money Song” and “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist,”

But one song got the audience really laughing, “You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You’re Making Love).” That song number came when Gary Coleman and the Bad Idea Bears, portrayed by Matthew Henry and puppeteers Emilie Dierks and Christopher McHenry, this came when Princeton and Kate Monster, puppeteer by Ryan Groves and Trisha Bagby, had a night of drinking and decided to go to her apartment and have some fun, in a way.

“That number really had me laughing so hard,” said Johnson.

The set on stage was of a neighborhood like of a New York City suburb, with an apartment building and an old store which is used for other things like an apartment and etc.  The show used the projector screen during the show to help audience to where they are located at and also with word pronunciation with words like “purpose” and “commitment.”

The show also used music a lot and not just for musical numbers but for each of the character’s theme,. It symbolizes of its character’s own character. There was an orchestra that was conducted by Tony Jones.

“I thought that the characters of Nicky and Rod were familiar to me in a way,” said Susan Kelly, of Peoria. “They reminded me of Burt and Ernie from Sesame Street; they had almost the same characteristic and were very funny.”

“Avenue Q” is a musical about how sometimes you are not always going to find what you want to do and that it has turns to something that you don’t expect. There’s humor, education and some romance as well.

You can see “Avenue Q: The Musical” playing now on Sept. 26 through the 28 and again on Oct. 3 through the 5, at the Performing Arts Center. For tickets contact the box office at 694-5136 or order them online at www.ArtsAtICC.com. 

Jeter, Thanks for the Memories

This has been tough to write about. I literally have been putting this off for quite some time now and it just get's harder and harder everyday goes by with every hour, minute and second goes by that I don't think how this day is coming. The day that we bid farewell to The Captain, Derek Jeter. 

Words are never enough to describe it. I feel happy that we wants to move on from baseball. He does deserve everything that he has come to him and ahead of him. He is one of the greatest players to have played the game. 

He may not be a home run hitter like a Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth, but my god, when it comes to tie ball game at the bottom of the ninth inning and Jeter is up, you know for sure that he is Mr. Clutch when it counts.

The game Thursday night was the moment that prove who Jeter was, that when in a time to win the game, he's there ready to finish it. 

I grew up watching Jeter probably since I was not even ten years old. I remember seeing him make that amazing catch that he did in one game back in 2001 where he just ran and jumped caught the foul ball and landed in the stands. When I saw that with my grandparents and mother I was just blown away. 

I remember the one game back when the Red Sox and Yankees were playing in the Playoffs in 2004, Jeter catches the ball just before pasting the foul line and couldn't stop running and just dive into the stands. That was a moment there.

Since then the New York Yankees have become my American League team to root for as I'm an original fan of the Chicago Cubs. 

I can't image what it would be like when today, if he plays at Fenway Park, what it would be like when he is finally gone from baseball. I guess that's what others before us might have said when Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Banks, Koufax just to name a few when they played their last game. 

When the new season comes, there won't be #2 there at shortstop anymore. A new era will begin for the Yankees and for MLB, who will be the next Jeter. 

That's another question for another day or until next season starts. 

Jeter has been the perfect image for MLB, the perfect role model that we have looked up to and just hopefully we could play like him. 

This year with all of these commercials of his thanks #2 or #Re2pect, the Gatorade and Nike ads that has us all in tears (don't deny it, it really did) that it shows us that even if we are not a Yankee fan, there's a player that we can relate to in so many ways. 

I thought that that moment at the end of Thursday game was a moment that we will never forget. I had another idea for what would be a great moment to send Jeter off. 

It's the bottom of the ninth with two outs and when the third strike is called out, we see  both Rivera, Andy and Jorge come out towards Jeter and give him a hug. As they hugged, they tell him it's finally time and at that moment they walk off the field. 

Just to let you know that I've thought about that this whole season. I really think it's a great idea. It sure got me emotional just thinking about it. 

As I said before, there are no words to describe the lost of Derek Jeter. He is just a simple guy, who day in and day out works his butt off trying to win games and championships for the town that he represented. 

He is a man that puts his fans and team first besides himself. He is the most unselfish ball player that has ever played the game of baseball. 

I have not doubt that he will make it into the Hall of Fame. he is a first ballot, no questions asked.

 He is literally The Captain..Derek Jeter. Jeter thanks for all the great moments and memories that you have given us for 20 years. Every game if it wasn't a good one or not you play til the game is over. You are literally an inspiration to us all and in that mind we thank you. 

  

Parenthood "Vegas" review

We never really thought that this day would have come, that we would never seen this family ever again. But tonight's not the cast at all. Tonight was the season premiere of the final season of "Parenthood." We've seen this family gone through a lot of different realistic issues that we've never seen on television making, Tuesday and Thursday nights family time. 

We thought it was going to be the series finale and not a season finale, but NBC picked it up for one more season and tonight starts the emotional roller coaster ride of what will the Braverman family face this time.

In the last season finale,, we saw the Braverman ended up being happy. Haddie has come home and informed her parents that she was gay, Kristina's idea of forming a new school for special kids like Max is in the works, Joel and Julia were still separated, Sarah and Hank are together and Amber spent some time with Ryan until he left to recover and move back to his mom's place, but not without saying goodbye. 

In the season premiere we first come to hear a heart beat sound and we see Amber at the doctor's exam room. She is pregnant and apparently pretty shock too. Her doctor informs her that she needs to think about what to do about this, she doesn't have much time before someone finds out. 

We see Crosby's family at home and see Aida walking for the first time. Zeek is planting in his garden and is excited to be pickling as well. Camille is painting as they are both outside their new home. 

Sarah and Hank are having breakfast, apparently they are stay together in his new place. And Hank talks about how his daughter, Ruby, is going to be coming back to stay with him. As that happens, Sarah has plans to take her father to Las Vegas for his birthday. 

We come to Sarah and Zeek at Vegas, playing the slots and drinking until when he was playing cards and he got up and fainted to the floor. They both go to the emergency room and find that there was nothing wrong with his heart but wants to do more test. Well, Zeek being Zeek, he through a big fit. 

Meanwhile the family is having a bit of a hard time dealing with it. Camille is worried about him, Julia get a call from her and she soon heads to confront her. As for Adam and Crosby, Adam talks to Sarah and asked her to have the doctor speak to him but Sarah thinks she has it all handled. That had Adam and Crosby go to Vegas and they met at the hotel where Zeek wasn't there but instead playing at the cards table. 

As Kristina's new school is only a couple days away, it still needed more work. So the family from Haddie, Amber, Max, the kids, Camille and Julia were helping get things put in order and put up as well. Then comes Joel, who seems to be happy to see the family and seems to miss them too. Kristina asked him if he could help with the pluming. He offered and also offered to call some guy to help. But not before we see Julia being a bit nervous when he was in the room. 

But there is an issue that Max doesn't want to go to this school, instead he likes it being home school as he gets his work done, no one holds him back and he can go to work with Hank after. Even though both Adam and Kristina tried to make him go and understand he went anyway.

Later on for the first time in like a long time I would think, Amber and Haddie had some girls time together and talked about as Amber told her that she's pregnant. The talk in their high school that they use to go to and remember some moments that they have had years ago. 

As Hank's daughter comes, in a teenage fashion attitude, his ex wife comes too. She wanted to talk to Hank about splitting her 50/50 of taking care of her after a bit of a tough time handing her in Minnesota  And they agree to do just that. 

As soon as Zeek comes home, Camille give him a hug and told him that he has a doctors appointment to see his heart doctor that day but he was a bit tired and wanted to lay down due to the flight back. As soon as they see the doctor, the doctor didn't like what he was seeing from the results from the hospital in Vegas and that he was going to have to perform surgery to see what's the cause. 

We've seen the Family go through so much life situations in the past five seasons, this might come to near the top. Word is that this season the family will experience a death in the family. Could Zeek being going? The trailer for the upcoming season gives a lot of what will happen but also you might want to grab tissues if you are going to watch it. 

You can catch "Parenthood" Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC.