Sunday, September 25, 2016

Finding Her: The Blacklist "Esteban" Season Premiere


The Blacklist is back!! The most anticipated season is here, and it starts on a high-driven note.

We pick off right from where the finale left off; Red is looking around the room, seeing blood and picturing what happened in the events of Liz, Angus, and  Tom being kidnapped. So, Demebe gets a call on the location of one person there, and so they take off.

We see Red and the crew walking into a nightclub in slow-motion fashion (which is beautiful enough to capture Red's emotional state). They get to the back, where a miss performing CPR on a cop, but by the time Red wants to talk to him, he is dead. So the next best thing was for him to perform a mess operation of cutting the guy's head off. Yes, you read that correctly: Reddingotn cut off the dead guy's head. AWESOME, right?!

He takes the head and shows it to one of his friends, who takes him to a group of cops that are playing porkpokerd asks if they know who the person is, they'll get a cut of the money, but one didn't want to talk, so he got shot and so did the rest of the three until the last one spoke of who he knows.

When Red and Dembe found where Liz was, they headed out to what looked like an automatic shop. Red and Dembe search around and find a room with a glass window, where he hears Kirk behind the glass along with Red. Kirk and Red have a standoff moment; Rehe tries to break the glass with his gun but doesn't seem to do anything. But Cuban police were coming, and Red and Dembeleftf,t but not before Liz told Red that he needed to search for Angus, but also Red said to her that he'd check for her.

Red figures that he needs h help. Call one FBI to find Esteb, a blacklister who is a double agent in Cuba for the USA, but Cuba doesn't know. Esteban is probably one of the scariest-looking guys ever blind, and yet he takes his plastic eyes out for his prisoners to hold. YUCK!

Cooper sent Ressler down there and met with Esteban at his place. The two had a nice chat, and Ressler called on Red to have the two talk. Reed asked him to search for a girl that had been taken (Liz) and the baby. It was later that he found where Liz was being held.

Meanwhile, Liz and Kirk were getting to share a lot. He says he's her father, but she'd buy it. Soon, Angus is brought back to Liz, and she plans to escape Thylacine's place and is caught.

Tom, on the other hand, is the Cuba tour, if you know what I mean. Kidnapped, he was taken by the Cuban Frankenstein (if you will) to another guy who was going to take him out. If that guy thought he was going to have a lot of fun with Tom, he sure hell doesn't know what the hell he was getting into. Tom knocks him out and kills him, but after, he tells Kirk, who was on the phone at the time, that he is coming for his family and an army is coming.

Red and the team get to the spot where Liz is and where Angus is. Dembe looks in the house and heads upstairs til Frankenstein takes him down and beats him til he leaves. Kaplan, who is not on Red's good side then, sees a woman grabbing baby blankets and stuff, finds her with Angus, and takes her out. Way to go, Kaplan!!

Red is, races out to the back and sees the plane leaving, with Liz looking down from the window, all in disbelief and sadness. The camera angle of Red's reaction was perfect in that scene, shocked and lopsided.

The good news is that Red had Angu, but the bad news is that they lose Angus, too, when Frankenstein runs them over. He takes Angus away, but not until he kisses Kaplan with his finger on her lips. What the hell was that for?

OH MY GOD!!! This took my breath away from the moment I ted to the end of the episode. This was the season premiere that The Blacklist had done yet. It was so good, from the acting to the writing and the idirectionalloot. I'm happy they didn't have a trailer and promos for this season, but only small clips with previous clips.

So, what will happen?LOLooksooks, like the haunt to save, Liz is on. What will happen to Mr. Kaplan (to be honest, the dishonest doesn't want her to go)? t it looks like Red might kill her. If anybody agrees that, I think we would want Tom vs Frankenstein fighting it out again, right? We all know that Tom can kick that dude's butt.

Overall, I give this episode a 10/10.

You can catch The Blacklist Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC

The Newspaper







Father and Daughter II: Chicago PD "The Silos" Season Premiere


In the season premiere of Chicago PD, will Erin be the one to turn Voight in for what he did to Justin's killer, or will she help steer him away from the Commander's investigation? Here's my recap and review.

Heart and Soul: This Is Us: "Pilot"

Image result for This Is Us



It was one of the most viewed trailers for a new show this season. This Is Us has finally premiered, and from what critics and others have said about it, it's worth watching.

The story surrounds three pairs: a married couple that are about to become parents to triplets, a TV star brother and his overweight sister, and a son who's looking for his biological father. Each struggles with life's challenges with the good, bad, and the ugly. But these three are connected somehow, and that's the most brilliant secret in this pilot.

Let's start with the married couple: Jack and Rebecca. They look to be the happiest couple in the world. They're also expecting twins, and when it's Jack's birthday, the kids are ready to be born. While waiting to meet their doctor, they get another one, Dr. Katowsky, as the other one is having his surgery. Jack seems so optimistic about everything that he doesn't take to listen to Dr. K about the possibilities of something going south. During the birth, as the first child is out (a boy), things turn for the worse, and the doctor boots Jack out to do his thing. When Dr. K comes out, he walks to Jack with a long look of sadness and tells him first that Rebecca is fine and resting and got the second baby out, too, but the third child didn't make it as it was stillborn. Jack is in shock and keeps asking about his wife. Dr. K repeated what happened and also sat down with him and gave him a nice chat.

The brother and sister: Kevin and Kate: Kevin is a TV star in what happens to be the most extensive series on television, and yet it seems like the stupidest series on television called The Manny. Not only does he turn 36, but he reflects on his life and what he was doing. He felt the series wasn't doing him anything good except making him look sexy. So after doing one great dramatic take, the writer wanted him to do a lighter take with his shirt off, and soon Kevin blows, and it's the internet quick.

Kate is Kevin's twin sister, and she's having trouble with weight problems. She's joined a Weight Watchers program where they talk about their struggles. There, she meets with Toby, another overweight person who likes her, and the two go out. But soon, she was happy being around him, and after Kevin ruined part of the night, it was still a great night.

And for Randell: It's also his birthday, too, 36, and he's the boss of a major corporation. He soon gets an email about his biological father and that he's alive. He talks to his wife as they watch their two daughters playing soccer about it. He may not want to meet him at first, but he does and at first gives him the "I'm Randell, your biological son, and you left me at the fire station 36 years ago," etc. After his father asks if he wants to come in, he does and soon brings him to his home to meet the kids and his wife. Later, Randell learns that his father is dying and doesn't have much time, so he offers, or should I say, to make him stay with them for a while.

Now, since I've been waiting until now to write this, I think I can tell what the big twist of this story is so no one can yell at me about spoiling it. The connection between all of these characters is they're one family. Jack and Rebecca are the mother and father to Kevin, Kate, and Randell.

It's one of the most beautifully structured pilots I've seen on television. Dan Fogelman has done something special with this, and I can't wait to see what comes in future episodes. It does have that feel of "Parenthood" with that realistic-raw emotional feel that'll either make you feel sad, sound, or maybe hate (someone who'd watched it with me didn't quite like how Kate acts with Toby and Kevin about her weight).

The cast is astonishing, as each plays to a significant amount of emotion and humor. The one person I would say that stole the entire pilot is not even a cast member, but a guest star as the man who played Dr. Katowsky (Gerald McRaney); he gave a tremendous performance in scenes with Rebecca and Jack but also with Jack after the babies were born.

I give this episode a 9.5/10.

You can catch "This Is Us" on Tuesdays at 10/9c (soon to be moving to 9/8c on Oct. 11) on NBC.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Chicago Med S1 Recap/Top 5 Episodes And Preview of S2.


If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, you're in for a treat! I'll share a recap of the first season and offer some exciting previews for the upcoming one.