The Fuel to the Flame: Chicago Fire

This is going to be a short and quick recap with the last two episodes.

"Arrest In Transit"

Things start to heat up with Casey and Dawson, as the Firehouse was called to a acid is spilling into the street. When Dawson goes cowboy on the squad and moved a truck full of gravel and dumped it on the acid street. The head chief comes by and see's how a candidate handled that over her boss.

That made Casey very upset. Upset that he really kind of went cold stone facial over Dawson. Dawson tried to apologized for it but it seems to go through his head and pretends that every things okay.

Later on Dawson wanted to talk to Casey and have a night out. When she was working at Molly's and hoping to see Casey come by, Mils comes over and the two talk. At one point the two held hands as Dawson talked about her relationship with Casey to Mils. That's when things took a bit of a turn when Casey heard and saw the two.

Meanwhile Mils wasn't having a great day either. When him and Britt get a call about a kid drowning at a community gym pool. Just when you thought you got the kid alive, as they take the kid to Chicago Med and telling his after that he'll be okay. The kid soon took a turn for the worst and later died.

That made the son's father very upset and also that he's part of some kind of mafia type of group. He's got the connections and money to do whatever. The father later goes to Mils and tells him that he better watch out.


"Santa Bites"

When it comes to this being the fall finale episode, they really topped it to the end.

We see Casey and Severide hanging out with each other drinking. Something that we don't or haven't seen in awhile. When two ladies walk by the two talk to them and then...well... let's just say that Casey woke up in one of the lady's apartment.

Boy, did he thought he did something bad. Later on he talked to Dawson and tried to forgive, in which they did. But when Casey talked to Severide about it, Severide told him that he didn't slept with that lady that it was him that did and Casey was drunk and passed out on the couch.

But soon, when Casey forgot his phone at the lady's apartment, the lady soon called and got Dawson. That's when the relationship took a turn and now it's Dawson in for the payback on Casey.

Meanwhile, Molly II was coming into play. Britt had made some Santa Bites which looks very good and another reason why Chicago Fire should be publishing a cookbook for fans to make and enjoy when the show comes on. Chicago Fire tailgate party right? Anyone with me on that?

Soon, the Molly's II truck was going to be displayed at a Christmas festival in the city. When Herrmann talked to a reporter about the new Molly's. The reporter then got to interview him, which turned out to be a bad interview. Quite like me when someone asks me questions.

But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was when Molly's II's breaks were off and it drove all the way until it hit the actively scene.  And makes it so long Molly's II I guess.

While this way happening, Boden and his wife were arguing about how the baby should or shouldn't have Boden's last name. That then turned Boden into a George Constanza and talked about how you're suppose to have turkey on Thanksgiving and not some meatless meat on the holidays.

Soon, when round two was about to come, Boden's wife goes into labor. With no Britt or Mils around, the firehouse gang takes her and drives her to Chicago Med. As they try getting there, traffic becomes the biggest issue for them So, that's when Boden help deliver his son in the fire truck.

As soon as they get there, something went wrong with the baby that it's not breathing.  And we see Boden stopped at the ICU door.

But with that cliffhanger, you think that's it right? Wrong. Before the baby was born, both Britt and Mils were out on a call. A homeless man got run over by a truck that apparently was left at the scene. As they try to help him, soon two cars come up from both sides of the alley.

When Casey and the gang are looking for them. They go out and soon they find the truck but the question is where is Britt and Mils? Two cliffhangers in one night, I love this show!! That was also the case last week in the Chicago PD fall finale too.

You can catch "Chicago Fire" Tuesday night when it returns sometime in Janurary at 10/9c on NBC.

A Look Back: Bring Dysfunctional For The Holidays

(The weekend after Thanksgiving in 2012, I got to write what's known as my first review for the college newspaper. I was so lucky to write about the Second City performance. And it was my second time seeing them perform there. And would be come every year to perform.)

After spending the Thanksgiving holidays with family, audiences were entertained by Second City’s version of a dysfunctional holiday at Illinois Central College.

On Nov. 24, The Chicago Second City performed “Dysfunctional Holiday Revue” at the Performing Arts Center at ICC to a sold out crowed. The cast contain of actors of Neal Dandade, Alex DiGiacinto, Chelsea Devantez, Cate Freedman and Eddie Mujica.

The first act started with a group of friends being together watching the snow fall, discussing on how they should handle the Christmas party with gift exchange of Secret Santa and that the group thought it wouldn’t be such a good idea as the actors performed bits of short skits of flashbacks.

As the show moved on, the cast interacted with the audience as part of school musical with actor Dandade as the musical conductor. Each audience member had a part.

But it was until actor Devantez who acted like a young blonde, gave the contactor news that her ex boyfriend was in the section she was conducting. Devantez brought up Mark Schore from his seat to the stage and gave him the symbols to play. As it was all put together, everyone played to the tune “Deck the Halls.”

The funniest sketch of the show came when actors Mujica and Freedman were coming to his apartment after a date. As they came in, Devantez came out wearing a tight t-shirt and short shorts because he was doing laundry.

Devantez played the Wii and then the radio and that’s when Dan Fogelberg song “Same Old Lang Syne” come on and started crying like a baby because it reminded him of his ex wife. “

Finding and Clearing: Wednesday Night Drama

The Mysteries of Laura: "The Mystery of the Dysfunctional Dynasty"

We see a lot more in this week's episode of Laura than just a solving a murder. A relationship might be forming too...

A murder of an elder couple was found by a little girl and her dog. Laura gets called in and searches around. Her and Billy then talks to the girl and dog.

Laura and Billy interview the dance instructor that the couple was at and she told them about a lawyer that was getting them to sign things. So they went to talk to the lawyer, who had some terrible bug bites. Laura helped him to take the itching away.

Later on, Laura and Billy talked to Daniel, the couple's only and gay son, and his boyfriend. After they talked to Daniel, the boyfriend's family seemed to be in question.

Meredith and Billy followed and got to talk to the boyfriend's brother, who was a business man and rude to women. But as soon as him and his bodyguards left, Meredith spotted golf clubs, which is something that could be used as the murder weapon.

Then Laura and Jake planned out a sneak and search, Billy and Meredith were the ones that went in but there were bodyguards by the door.

 So she took plan B which was for her to fool around with the guys and Billy goes in the room searching.

Seeing Meredith in this scene was one of the funniest. The character has really blossomed since the pilot and during this episode we do get to see something brewing between Billy and her.

As Billy search the room, he find out clubs in the closet and he seen blood on it. He then took a sample and got the hell out of there because the guy was coming back.

Later on, Laura and Meredith got the brother and talked to him about the blood on the club. He then talked that those clubs were there at the golf course overnight because of the rain and bugs biting. Laura got the hint that it wasn't him but the lawyer that killed the Daniel's parents.

When they called the lawyer to the station, Laura told him that Daniel asked for him. It was then that Billy and Laura told him that Daniel talked who killed his parents but said that he was the one. He was trying to get his parent's money away from the church.

This episode after being off for more than a week, it felt good to see the show back on. This was more hilarious than dramatic. I feel since the premiere of the series that it's gotten better with it's characters and that the stories are getting better too.

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

Chicago PD: "Assignment of the Year"

After one hell of a week it was last week, it was sure wasn't peaceful this week on Chicago PD. 

As Dawson was working his second job, trying to talk to his soon to be ex-wife about how he would like them to be together. Soon the guy he's watching get's upset about his wife and soon takes him home, but he asked Dawson to stop at the gas station for a pack of smokes.

As Dawson pulls into the gas station, a garbage truck follows too. He then goes in and gets a pack of smokes. He returns with the guy shot to death. 

Voight comes and takes the case off one of the detective. As soon as both Dawson and Voight met with the lawyer, Dawson as only 48 hours to solve the case of he'll have to turn in his badge, gun and everything away. 

As the gang tries to find out about the guy, Al types up for the whole damn episode paper for Dawson. 

Atwater and Burgess, are back together working, following the victim's wife. And Halstead and Erin go to a strip club to talk to someone who knows Taylor. Poor Ruzek, he really wanted to go with Erin, mostly because he wants to visit the club. 

As tensions get a bit high for Dawson. he get the guy called Taylor. He was just part of the the victim's wife's plan, but as Atwater and Burgess lost her. 

She comes back and tells Dawson that she can't be pinned to the crime and gave him papers that prove it. 

But Dawson is still on the team, thanks to Voight and Al with that paperwork that Al was typing for almost the entire episode. 

This episode was great and thrilling. There was humor with Ruzek and his wanting to go to the strip club bit...dirty man. 

But also we get to learn a bit more of Roman and how he is willing to fix the problem that he caused Dawson. I did love how Voight got to talk with him one on one. That was freaky great. 

You can catch "Chicago PD" Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

We Can Hear it All The Way Here: Chicago Fire "Chopper"

This week's episode of "Chicago Fire" deals with its most significant rescue action so far, a chopper crashing on top of an apartment building, plus a lot of drama before and after.

We start with seeing Chief Boden and his wife at the doctor's office, checking on their baby. Both excited and nervous, the doctor took an ultrasound and showed the nearly fully grown baby, but then the doctor saw something and wanted to check.

He found out later that his wife was at a certain age, and there would be some complications. That took Boden and his wife into some severe withdrawal of not speaking to one another. But near the end, they get a call from the doctor to come in; Boden comes and sees his wife there.

She talks to him and soon discovers they will have a baby boy. That's pretty much the best news after all the things that have happened, too.

We're going to see some severe moments with Severide and his wife. After making noises that could be heard past the state line of Illinois, including Casey's apartment, Casey and Dawson think it's time for them to leave if they'll be like this every night.

Severide and his wife talk, and when he sees the time, he has to get going to work.  But she doesn't want him to go and take a day off. But he didn't want to, so he soon left.

That makes things a bit worse down the road in the episode. When an accident of a chopper lands on top of an apartment, when she hears it on the street, she texts Severide a lot and even calls him. At one point, she goes to the scene and freaks out about his safety.

After the accident and everything had calmed down, she and Kelly talked, and soon it turned into an argument about how he could die right then and there, but he soon forgave and made up. This is going to be a significant issue in this relationship.  I had already placed my bet, saying four to five episodes, this relationship won't last.

Meanwhile, we saw one of the best action-packed scenes that the Firehouse gang faced this season: the chopper comes down by a drone from some kid who was flying it. Amazing how a couple of pieces of the helicopter went in different directions; the tail rotor landed on a lady, and one guy in a van was had a bit of metal in his stomach.

Britt treated that guy, but before she treated him, she noticed that he had a bag of IDs and such. He's one of those undercover hitmen. After pulling a gun and telling her that he doesn't need to go in, she treats him and leaves him.

It wasn't until near the end, when Britt left work that someone was following her in the car. After driving fast and slow, she turns into an alley, and it turns out to be that guy that she treated. He wanted to thank her for treating him and saving him. He gave her a card and told her if she needed help with anything she could call him for help....that's anything!!

I think that card will be handy in next week's episode when Mils tries to save a life, but the person doesn't make it. The father of the victim is upset and soon threatens Mils. What will happen? We'll have to find out.

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

"Nina In The Block" Benched: "Hooked & Booked"

This week's episode of "Benched" deals with Nina tries to be one of the guys in the PD office. It turns out to be one hell of a night for both Nina and the guys.

Nina doesn't seem to be adjusting as a public defender, when she goes to talk to her client about the charges. She freaks out about the smell in the room along with the sticky substance on the table. Soon Nina leaves and told her client that she'll make a deal, without the client agreeing to it, for lesser punishment.

When Nina gets back to the office, Phil makes a fun at her by how she's asking for the hand sanitizer and just does nuts over it. She talks about how it was disgusting in the jail interview rooms.

Later on Carol is freaking out about how his computer keeps freezing but turns out that he's upset about his wife. Then Phil comes up with an idea for an all guys night out to help Carlos take his wife off his mind.




As they planned it out, Nina just came back after an incident where her client freaked out how she wanted her to speak about who's drugs they were. And soon the client is back in jail. Nina does get a bit upset about her heels getting scuff.

Phil then talks to Nina about the "Hooked and Booked" program that new public defenders do to get close to their clients. You know to see and what's it really like in jail for their clients. After Carlos talked about his time, he spoke about Phil's time that the guy he was with in jail died.

So, as Nina was heading out to get her one hour spa day at the Four Seasons. She goes to Morris and taps him on the shoulder. She gets booked and put in jail with other females. Nina starts to freak out just a bit. In one scene, she asked the others to look away when she was trying to use the toilet.

Then came her client and fireworks started up until each got tasered by one of the officers. Soon she wakes up and she thinks she's at the Four Seasons until she realized that she was still in jail. Then her client and Nina got real and talked.

The client told Nina that the drugs wasn't her and that it was her boyfriend's. She did it because she loved him and soon Nina realized that she did the same thing too.

Meanwhile, the Phil and Carlos goes out to bars, only Carlos doesn't drink. Phil goes all out and him and Carlos had a moment of respect.

The next day, as Phil and Carlos was back in the office, Nina came back, wearing the same clothes and having half of her hair breaded looking like one of the gals in Orange is the New Black. The guys were shocked that she did it and soon as she left to go wash up, they went to look for the tape of her getting teased.

Morris comes in with the tape and gives it to Phil as Nina was talking to him. Soon Nina realized that the while "Booked and Hooked" was all a joke and then punches Phil in the stomach.

I thought this episode was just so freakin funny. Some of the characters in jail were funny, including the client where she looked like Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black.

I think that Nina is hilarious with the way she's freaking out about the jail smells and sticky stuff. That was pretty funny along with her thinking that the whole booking process was just an act of the club.

You can catch "Benched" Tuesday nights at 10:30/9:30c on USA Network.

State of Affairs: "Pilot"

In her first television role since "Grey's Anatomy," Katherine Heigl returns as Charlie Tucker, a top CIA analysis who's responsible for the President's Daily Briefing in the the new NBC series "State of Affairs."

After a year since a terrorist ambush, where Charlie's fiance and the President's son was killed, we see Charlie reliving through those moments while talking to her therapist. Seems Charlie like to take those horrible memories and go to bars, get hit on guys and have a one night stand. So she's a rebellion.

When it comes to crunch time for her and her team, she has to make a decision between saving a doctor before he gets killed by a terrorist group or take down the terrorist who killed her fiance. And when she chooses, it turns into one hell of a typical work day.

Just after Charlie briefs President Constance Payton of the important situation and not mention about how they could take down her son's murderer. Soon the head of the CIA hears about what Charlie and her team has done and gets upsets and puts an arrest warrant for her.

When she gets word of the situation from her team, Charlie decides to go whatever it takes. When a visitor who talked to the head CIA, Charlie thinks that he's spying on the CIA and soon the President. Charlie calls a friend for help, who is a bit like Saul from Homeland, and picks the guy up. He does find a hidden cell phone, which proves Charlie and the team right.

Soon Charlie is trying to get to the President to clear the situation up. She goes beyond the distance, trying to get there. Soon as she gets there, the new CIA director makes an argument that she should be fired.

But after President Payton asked her about it, Charlie gave her her opinion and then told that the guy that the CIA director had was spying on them and soon the President.

Later on during the episode, we see Charlie's been getting secret text messages from someone who knows what happen at that ambush. She tries to get a tracker but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Later on that evening, as she comes home, her apartment door is open and sees Nick, a CIA operator who was there of the time of the ambush.

Nick shows signs of wounds, talks to Charlie, seems like he has some demons like she does. After she talks to him about if he was responsible for the text messaging, he admits it wasn't him. It seems he's wondering why that moment a year ago isn't effecting her as much as him.

Soon, when Charlie and Payton was at Aaron's memorial, Payton talks to Charlie and gets real, like really real with each other on getting the guy responsible for killing Payton's son and Charlie's fiance.

I got really into the show middle through the pilot. The first part of the pilot was a bit hard to follow but when we got down, meeting the new guy, the team and the situations, things really did pick up. I thought that the situation when Charlie was wanted for what she had done was just thrilling.

I think that this show as the penitential to grow. I like the character of Charlie and the President's relationship but also Charlie's team too.

This show has a bit of network version of Homeland meets with The Blacklist that also meets The West Wing.  

We are left with thrilling situations at the end of the show that'll set the tone of this series. I look forward to tuning in next week to see what this show will do.

You can catch "State of Affairs" Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Heartache and Regrets: Parenthood:

It's never easy getting your first heart broken by someone you really love. This week's Parenthood dealt with Max's first ever heartache and for Max's case, it didn't go so well.

We all know that Max has a crush on Dylan and we think that its the best thing that we've seen of growth as a character to make this development. When Max goes to his mom and ask her for advice about how to ask someone out. Kristina tells him to just be himself and ask her.

During school, probably during break or lunch, Max was looking for Dylan. He looked everywhere until someone told him she was in the kitchen. As he went into the kitchen, he saw her with someone else kissing and that turned love into heartache.

Max then went to Kristina and asked her to ex-spell a student for the things that Max thought of, but he did tell her he saw Dylan and the boy kissing. Later that after noon, Max then passes out flyers asking everyone to ex-spell the student.

Soon Dylan came by and saw the flyer and tried to talk to Max and then came the student. And after that, there was a rumble and Kristina took both the student and Max to her office.

It wasn't until later that Dylan came by the house and told Kristina how she doesn't love Max but likes him as a friend. When Max came down and saw Dylan, he went back upstairs and Dylan went off too.

The next day, Max thought up a way to get Dylan to like him back. He made a poster of photos and things that she likes, including a drawing she did and threw away. By the way, this was in front of other students during lunch so it was totally embarrassing her.

Dylan tried to tell Max but Max was getting louder and asking her more questions until she snapped and yelled out that she doesn't love him and will never will. That sent Max running out of the school and Kristina running after him. One of the heartfelt moments of this episode came when Kristina talked to Max and told him that she was proud for what he had done in there.

Meanwhile, Crosby is dealing with two things. One him and Amber are trying to save the business. Adam is away on business and so for what's been going on they've been recording jingles for advertisement. One of them was for cats, and the duo was meowing more than singing.

So after having such a boring recording session, Amber had an idea for her and Crosby to go out to the clubs and find this band that she has heard of and get them to record. Well, Crosby didn't think it was such a good idea but later he did go right after dinner with his mother-in-law.

As Amber and Crosby get to the club, two things happen. One that Crosby was searched before getting in and the guard find pot in his jacket. And two that Amber was having strange labor pains. Don't worry folks, it was just false contractions. But Amber does need to take it easy. But after that Amber told Crosby that she wants to keep the business up and had Crosby promise not to give up one it  

The other thing with Crosby was that since his business isn't doing well. Jasmine decided to take part of making money for the family as a file clerk along with her mother. That didn't settle in with Crosby at all, because of the whole male ego thing. But later Crosby does talk to Jasmine about it and that he tells her that he doesn't want to be a failure if he can't bring in the money and provide for the family.

And of course, Hank has finally stepped up and be a father. As Ruby was upset (again) about her mother no letting her stay home alone. She asks Hank for support, which he did. But later on, as he checked up on her, he soon drove to see and found a party going on at the house. At first Hank really didn't know what to do and hide at first but later on he went in there and told everyone to get out.

Of course, Ruby tried to tell him that she only invited a couple of friends over but Hank didn't buy it and soon she went up stairs but not before telling him that she hated him. But soon, as Ruby is grounded, she came over to Hank and since she can't do anything like she use to, her and Hank got to play some cards.

I thought that this episode was just amazing. I loved both the Hank/Ruby story along with Max's story. I felt so bad but proud for Max. For someone like me, I could never do what he did at all. Hell I could never do that now. I really was hoping for Max and Dylan to be a couple. That would be so happy to see Max grow up even more. But life is all twist and turns.

Next week, might be the episode that no one should miss. I know I keep saying it but heck this is the final season. So every episode can be missed. But we see a familiar face return, Joel and Julia's relationship: can it still be saved? And a moment that will have us grabbing a hold of someone.

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