This Is Us "The Right Thing To Do"/"The Big Day"

"The Right Thing to Do"

The first new episode of the new year and they hit us with another winning episode.

"The Right Thing to Do" will be remember of how it all reminds us that when things in life are in a tough spot, there's always that one right thing to do about it.

From Toby declining and then changing his mind about having surgery on his heart. Thinking that he might not need it but realizes that even though he loves Kate, the right thing to do is to have it and see what goes beyond there. For Kate on the other hand, she tries to decided whether she wants to be wit him long term and she tells Toby after surgery that she would want to marry him. That's when he awakes and agrees.

For Kevin, when you think that him and Sloane might hit actually be a couple, Kevin doesn't really acknowledge it the way we see it. After performing the play in front of the director, he thinks they could pull it off. But that changes when Olivia pops up wanting to join the play again, which the director was pleased to have back. Olivia tries to make things right with Kevin but soon he realizes that he's better with Sloane and than leaves with heartbreak.

For Randal and his dad, he thinks that his dad seems to be moving away from him after meeting Jessie. But that wasn't the case at all, as he tells Randal that his cancer was coming at him full strength and the medicine wasn't working. That's where they decided to stop the chemo meds and let it takes its course.
Probably one of the uplifting stories was of course, Jack and Rebecca. We see them learning that they are having triplets and that the apartment that they just got wasn't going to be enough for all five of them( let along carrying them up and down the stairs). Rebecca talks to her stubborn mother about their situation and she offered her and Jack to stay with them. She tells Jack about it but he kind of takes it not seriously because Rebecca doesn't like her mother at all (as we learned in the Thanksgiving episode).

When Rebecca ask Jack to get some ice cream for her, he takes off but forgets his wallet but hears Rebecca crying. He then drives off to, what I thought was to Rebecca's parents place but that turned out to be wrong. He drove to his father's place and asked for money. Jack and his dad don't get along as we saw it in the beginning of the episode, but he gave him the money and Jack took his classic car and sold it and used the money not only for a station wagon but also the house that he's working on with his crew, which is the home that the family stays in through childhood.

This was another great episode. I was so amazed from the story plots and the characters that it just made me smile at times. When life gets in the way you just have to decide what's the right thing to do for that moment and each of the characters did something in their situation. I have to say that Milo Ventimiglia gave a really good performance in this episode, maybe his best. I guess we'll have to see.
Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

"The Big Day"

Let me this say this: after watching this episode, I was literally lost for words. When I mean that I mean I was blown away from everything that I just saw in this one hour episode.

I'm not going to recap of what happen. I will just say this (while not being a butthead about it). I recommend you watch this very episode and see for yourself. This was by far the best episode since Last Christmas let along the Pilot or The Trip.

The writing was just outstanding. It moved me in so many ways to tears and joy. Mandy Moore and Gerald McRaney were literally put on their best performance with McRaney stealing most of it with his dramatic acting and brilliant comic tone.

And also I want to say that the musical score and music playing during this episode (and throughout) have been literally the best on television. It set the tone and mood for the scene so beautiful.  Give a lot of credit to Siddhartha Khosla and Goldspot.

For the second time, I do recommend watching this episode for yourself. I think if you see what I mean that you would understand where I'm coming from. This episode is clearly worth watching.

Overall I give this episode a 10/10.

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

Fear is Not Real: Timeless "The World's Colombian Exposition"

Timeless is back and we pick off right where we left off and leaving us on the edge of our seats.

Wyatt and Rufus get back to present day and search for Lucy, even though they had to wait til the machine cools down for four hours. They find her in Chicago at the World's Fair in 1892. Trying to figure out why that time and place would be somewhat a plan from Flynn with a double edge sword

Flynn takes Lucy and tries to get Harry Houdini to get inside the meeting of three of the biggest minds of the 20th Century (Edison, Ford and Morgan). But when they get in, it back fires on Flynn and Houdini leaves Flynn handcuff for now and recuse Lucy.

Meanwhile, the other reason why Flynn chosen this time and place was to lured them into Murder Castle owned by H. H. Holmes. Trapped with two other people, Wyatt and Rufus tries to
breakaway and old brick to get someone to hear them as they are in an airtight soundproof room. They will escape thanks to Lucy and Harry and the meeting between Lucy and Wyatt was like fireworks.

They try to find Holmes but only found the caretaker. While looking for Holmes, Lucy spots a photo of Holmes and it turns out that the guy that was with Wyatt and Rufus was actually Holmes himself.

He takes her to the basement to burn her. Fear as she should, she learned what Harry had told her and used that against Holmes, pretending to be a psychic. That gave enough time for Wyatt and Rufus to get there and save her. Eventually, Wyatt kills Holmes and the three get back to present day. Rufus declares war against Rittenhouse, as he's done with the recordings. Of course, Mason doesn't like it, but goes with it.

At the end, Wyatt gets a call from Flynn about returning the favor that he promised back in the previous episode with Benedict Arnold. He give the name that killed his wife and where he is at, but he can't go there so suggested that he should go back and kill his parents or something to that nature.

This was one hell of an episode coming back from a month hiatus. The story was amazing and I was just overly amazed from what they really did in this episode from Holmes, Murder Castle, World's Fair and even Houdini as well.

It's just mind blowing. It literally took me awhile to figure out that the guy hanging with Wyatt and Rufus was Holmes. The writing was amazing, the performances from the actors was great as well. Overall I give this episode a 9/10.

Late last week, co creator Eric Kriple written a letter to fans about the state of the show. It list that the show is doing great on every level expect for live viewing and pleased fans to gets everyone to tune in 10/9c. Here's that tweet of the letter.

You can catch Timeless Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

"Oh My God...."Grimm "Oh Captain, My Captain"

HOLY CRAP!!!! I think that's probably what I could describe in this week's explosion of Grimm.

"Oh, Captain My Captain" had everything we probably wanted and then some. I think when it's all said and done, this episode would have to be in my top ten list of favorite episodes.

With Nick still on the run, he plans to get back at Renard, being Renard himself. By that, he'll have to use the same trick that Adalind and Eve had pulled off, or as I love to call it, the hat trick.

But for it to work, they'll need some of Renard's hair, which left it up to Adalind and Monroe. The scene when Adalind gives Monroe Renard's hair and clothes and soon Renard shows up to change his shirt. Adalind puts him in the closet to get Renard out of the room. That scene was one of many humorist moments of the episode

When Monroe brings in a hair sample, Nick breathes in from the hat. He does nothing for a few seconds, but he soon works and transforms into a creepy, weird, and sweaty Renard. Nick freaks out because he's still in woge mode, but Rosalee calms him down. Another funny scene comes when Hank gets to the shop, and as he comes in, Nick yells at him about his resignation papers and gets Hank pissed off until Eve asks him if that is good. Hank's looks were just too funny.

Nick planned to go on live TV and announce that Renard would be stepping down as the new Mayor. Of course, the real Renard hears about it as Adalind tries to keep him in the house til the live announcement. Renard leaves with frustration and heads over to the station.

Nick and Hank get into the Captain's office and clean the place, taking the laptop and papers. Until Renard's new replacement captain comes in and wants to talk to Renard about the news, pissed off because Renard gave him a deal, kill Rachel Wood's partner, and he'll get the job. But Nick tells him that he won't get it due to blood on the shirt, and the guy woge and soon leaves.

Nick starts to feel something painful but moves on and tries to get out of there, but the press comes in asking questions. As he leaves them, he bumps into Renard at the parking lot, and he and Nick face off, but only for a bit until the press gets there.

Hank, Nick, and Wu return with what they've earned, but a sight problem comes: Nick can't change back. Well, his body was tired when he was in Renard's office. So when Renard called, they agreed to meet at Nick's loft on the rooftop.

As the two meet up, they exchange a couple of funny lines; one of them, if Nick shoots Renard, would that be considered suicide? The two finally battle it out until they can't take either down. But they made truths to go back to the showings and that Nick would raise his son and Adalind would come with him, but Diana would have to be shared with Adalind and Renard.

Nick gets back to the shop as Renard; no one can't find a way to help change back. But then Monroe wonders if Nick is Nick; that could be just the real Renard. But Eve figures they should ask Nick a question that only Nick knows. Adalind asks the first question about where they had their first kiss; he replies that it was at the table in their loft or in the woods that took her powers (yes, I still consider that a kiss). Adalind relaxes and tells everyone that it's Nick and that the kiss that took her powers wasn't a kiss. (yes, it was!!).

Without knowing how to change Nick, Diana soon wakes up and greets her daddy. Nick turns around, and she asks him what had happened, but he tells her that things are okay. She put her hand on his chest, and her eyes changed. And she told him he wasn't her daddy and pushed him with full force across the shop. But that helped Nick change back to himself, and Adalind rushed to his side and hugged each other, but as he looked at Diana and she looked at him, I'm not sure things were good.

As Renard gets to his home, he hears someone in the dark across the room. The guy says that he's still on the wrong side, and who pops up, Meisner!

This was hands down one of the best episodes so far. It had thrills, laughs, and excitement! Since it aired, I've watched it more times than the previous episodes. The writing was excellent. I thought that Claire and Silas did a fine job in that scene of picking clothes and hiding from Renard. Russell and Sasha had a heated exchange after Nick turned into Renard.

Give props to Sasha, too, for doing double duty along with the stunt doubles. It's probably one of his best works so far. As a Nadalind fan, I loved that scene when Adalind and Nick hugged each other after Nick turned back. I think we could all use a #NadalindHug after this episode.

And what can I say about David Giuntoil's television directorial debut? It was amazing!! I loved the camera work during the fight scene and when Nick was breathing in the smoke from the hat. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.


You can catch the final chapter of Grimm on day nights at 8/7c on NBC

Family and Faith: Chicago PD "Don't Read the News"/"You Wish"/"Sanctuary"

"Don't Read the News"

When a dead girl's body is found on a school football field, it's not the first time this has happened in the neighborhood.

I thought this episode was excellent. Meam is interested in the case that the Intelligence Unit was trying to solve. When a photo of a teen girl is found dead at a school field, the unit learns that it's not the first time this has happened and that a serial killer is out there.

Voight and the team find there have been over nine murders over the past ten years, and none of them have been solved by the district unit, even though their excuse was that they had moved around a lot.

The suspect looked to be the boyfriend of the victim b, but there was a twist when the team found out the victim survived. They talked to her and had her look through some photos and found the guy who turned out to be the victim's boyfriend's stepfather—twisted, right?

The guy was a real prick when interviewed by Voight and Al, who tried to tell them that he didn't do it and that he knew the guy who gave the photos of the victims. Thank god he's locked up.

Other things: Erin gets to meet her father. They had an excellent meeting and carried on with a couple of dates later on. Of course, Jay, being the boyfriend and protector he can be, looks into the guy's background and past with flying colors.

And Adam Ruzek is gone for a while, undercover, that is. So that introduces us to Kenny, a detective who's previously worked with Voight. He didn't fit in at first, but he adjusted well.  

As I said, this episode was excellent. The writing was strong enough to keep my interest in the episode. Attacks played the best to their strengths. I wonder if this guy, who says to be Erin's father, is the real deal. I'm not so sure. That one thing I've learned from the past three and a half seasons: Never trust Bunny. Overall, I give this episode an 8/10.

"You Wish"

When a dead body turns up in an alley, it seems to be a hate crime, but it's somehow not what it seems.

"You Wish" had a good case of the week's storyline, but it wasn't the most interesting. When the Unit gets a call of a dead male body in an alley, they find that the victim lost a body part that's most valuable to him.

The search for answers went all the way to a runaway, who had an encounter with the victim, who tried attacking her sexually, but she got away by stabbing him with a knife, which was left inside a bush. Burgess gets into her first interview session, which is okay, but she falls for the suspect's lies.

After not coming up with anything else, they'd decided to look into the victim's past, which led to his ex-girlfriend. Atwater and Kenny interview the lady and tell her that she saw him a couple of nights ago (the night of the murder) but didn't let him in as she tells them he was hurting and banging on the door for help. But she called the special police (police for the apartment complexes) and gave the officer's name. That led to them interviewing the officer, and after leaving him alone to talk to the ADA, the officer tried to hang himself. That led to the lead officer coming in and talking to Voight about their history in another city, for which their boss misled them.

That might have been a good case of the week, but it was the story of Erin finding out that Jimmy isn't her father. That can be attributed to Halstead, who took his DNA from a cup and ran it. I don't know which was more difficult, that Jay was right or that Bunny once again pushed Erinn. I don't blame her for thinking he was her father; he had everything from the photos, but Bunny was being Bunny and thought he was her dad.

The scene when Erin tells Bunny about the DNA was the best location in the episode when Bunny tells her that she shouldn't tell him, and Erin pushes her breakfast out of the table. That's how I felt, too, not to mention yelled at the television. But there's a thinker in this episode; when Bunny comes to the station to talk to Hank, thinking that he ran the DNA, he tells him that he won. There was at that point where she told him to run a DNA on him to see if he was her father. That's something I consider looking into as much as I would never think Hank and Bunny having a one-night stand (EW! Hard to think about it!).

This episode had a good case of the week story but was overshadowed by the Erin/Bunny/Jimmy story. Sophia Bush is excellent with her character dealing with this father issue. Overall, I give this episode an 8.5/10.

"Sanctuary"

When the Intelligence Unit chases two suspects to a neighborhood church, faith and support get in the way of their investigation.

"Sanctuary" might be one of the most exciting episodes when it starts, but also satisfying when it ends.

When the unit got a call about a dead body found at a park, the suspects spotted a few blocks down. They chase them to a neighborhood church, but the unit can't get in until the priest tells them they can't come in because they believe they're innocent.

Things heat up when news gets around, causing people to demand those boys to come out. It gets so dicey that the victim's boyfriend throws a fire bottle in there, but Voight and the team get them out and into the station. They would be in there til they found the real suspect, who happened to be one of the interviewers who said it was those boys.

When the team checked the suspect's place, it looked abnormal. They found the suspect's roommate's head and hands in the freezer. After waiting, the suspect returns to his home but gets spooked and drives off. Crashing into a tree, Burgess and Al search for him in the woods til he has a gun aiming at Al, but with a tackle that's worthy of being called better than any tackles the Chicago Bears has done all season, he takes the guy down, breaking the guy's arm.

In the interview room, the suspect kept blaming the kids for the murder, but Voight told him that in his many years protecting and serving Chicago, listening to that has gotten tiresome and forced him to tell the truth by pulling on his broken arm. Ouch, right?

As I said, this episode had everything an attack could have: enjoyable, motivational, and satisfying. This was an excellent episode. The story was so good that I was moved by characters like Al, Burgess, and even Voight. After going through a lot of mixed emotions and burning a church, everyone from #OneChicago helped to rebuild the church, which was a moving moment that came at the end of this episode. Overall, I give this episode an 8/10.

You can catch Chicago PD when they return with a new episode on e Wednesday, February 8th at 10/9c on NBC.

Powerless (S1E1) Preview "Wayne of Lose"

"Wayne or Lose" 

In the series premiere of Powerless, In a world where humanity must cope with the collateral damge of Super Heroes and Super-Villains, Emily Locke (Vanessa Hudgens) begins her first day as Director of Research and Development for Wayne Security, a subsidiary of Wayne Enerprises that specializes in products that will help defenseless bystanders feel a little safer. Full of confidence with big ideas, Emily quickly learns that her expectations are far exceed those of her new boss, Van Wayne (Alan Tudyk) and office coworkers, so it will be up to her to lead this team toward their full potential and the realization that you don't  need superpowers to be a hero. Also starring are Danny Pudi, Christina Kirk and Ron Funches.

Here are some clips behind the scenes and interviews with cast members:

Sounds that Thrill: The Blacklist "The Forecaster (No. 163)"

When a calling card comes at the door of a murder happening, does Liz take the case? Of course she does!!!

"The Forecaster" might be one of the most thrilling episodes so far with the way it has been told. Liz and Tom are in their new apartment with Agnus and when Liz is about to leave for work and an collage of someone dead is laying in front of her door. Liz takes it to work and shows it and figures that a judge has been murdered and tries to see if Red knows anything about, for which he could only be brief about it. But for what we all know is that this collage predicted a murder would happen an hour before it happened. Spooky, right?

Meanwhile, while Tom and Agnus has a little daddy-daughter sing off and cleaning up, he sees someone walking up the door and dropping off another collage and this time he ran after the person. But as he runs off, he stops and runs back to attend Agnus because he doesn't want to lose that Father of the Week award.

That collage gives a clue about where the killing will take place, so Liz and the team stacked out. Liz got word about a finger print of the suspect that has been placing those collages at her front door. Soon someone on a bike appears, thinking that it might be him, until someone on a motorbike comes up and turns out that's the shooter and Liz saves the victim from getting killed.

Liz and Ressler interviews Fiona Driscoll about the collages and tells them that they are visions predicting these murders. Fiona shows them more of them, those that had happen and when she tells them that it's not her that's doing it but her daughter, Maggie. Maggie has some special disorders and apparently can hear things from other frequencies for which she has heard two men talking about the murders.

So Aram had the idea to use the frequencies that she hears in her hearing aid to their advantage on where that conversation she's been hearing from. It turns out the calls would be calling from the same apartment place as both the suspect and Liz spotted each other. The suspect makes his move quickly and grabbed the girl while Liz and Ressler got to the guy's apartment. Chasing the girl they got her back when turning up the frequencies all the way up to find her (screaming due to being so painful).

Liz wants to use the girl one more time and this time just before she's done with her arts and crafts, they know where the suspect was going to hit. Trying to warn security, too late for that Cooper! But as Liz and team goes in, Ressler goes across the street and spots the suspect cutting the cable of the elevator and soon shots the guy (dead). But Liz save the victim when the elevator was coming down fast.

That was a more interesting case of the week but I think it got a bit overshadow from Red's story plot when he rents an apartment of a former friend, who was shot to death. He meets with an associates of Iniko, Geoffrey, who he asked to invest in his business. It gets to be a cat and mouse type of game at the end when he brings in both Iniko and Geoffrey (who tries to kill his boss but fails). Iniko kills Geoffrey and Red kills Iniko after what he has done for the mining business and killing his good friend. And not to mention that he also took Iniko's cleaning crew, Sakiya and Fudo, who are now working for Red as Mr. Kaplan's replacement.

The one person concern about this is Dembe and he tries to talk to Red about it but he's not really paying attention. Dembe goes behind his back and tells Liz about it and tells her that Kaplan is died, for which we all know is not true as she's alive and somewhere on a mysterious truck ride with someone after a creepy weekend with some woodsman.

This was a lot better episode than last week. This episode has a lot of real interest from this week's case to Red's seeking revenge and Kate's replacement, for which as of now I've with Dembe concerning about Red. Also when Red asked Liz to see the new apartment he had a disappointing look on his face. The scene with Tom and Agnus was hilarious and fun. The writing was great and the cast performed very good. That actress who played Maggie were stole the show. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

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

Rise of the Queen: Victoria on Masterpiece Classice "Doll 123" Series Premiere

(Note: I will not compare this show to The Crown (Netflix) in any way because I haven't seen ALL of it yet. I'm reviewing/recapping it as I see it.)

When we last saw Jenna Coleman, we said goodbye to her as Clara Oswald over a year ago on Doctor Who in one of the most heart-wrenching goodbyes on the show. But now she has returned to television in a royal and dramatic role, Victoria, on Masterpiece Theater.

In the series premiere, "Doll 123," we come to the late night/early morning of the death of King William IV (Victoria's uncle) and travel to Victoria's home about it. Ther,e he can't sleep; Victoria gets the news and proceeds of the Royal exchange of power at 18.

Throughout the episode, she holds and plays with one doll that she got from her mother at the age of 11 and didn't put a crown on it til she learned about her taking over from her uncle at the age of 13. But at the end of the episode, she does put her doll away and moves on into business by signing papers. Throughout the episode, she tries to take things independently, including not having her mom and dad with her during some critical business.

She makes one of the biggest mistakes, accusing Lady Flora of having a child from her stepfather. That was proven wrong after she was ordered to have an exam by Flora's doctor, and when the news came, it wasn't a pregnancy but a tumor of massive size, too. She took a backlash from it from her family to even the press (that was leaked from her own family).

There are perfect moments, one of which is the relationship between Victoria and Lord Melbourne. At first, the two might seem to be a fit for a couple if Victoria had the idea, but I believe or can tell that they'll have an excellent working relationship like the classics of Jack and Liz (even though this isn't a comedy).

The episode displays a lot of beautiful scenery, even though some might have been CGI at times. The music score throughout the episode was stunning, and at times, when the score was during the scene of Victoria's crowning or Coronation, I couldn't stop humming it out of my head.

Coleman shines in this episode. I can feel through her eyes of her and her character's emotions. Also, the cast is impressive as well. Rufus Sewell is excellent and shows chemistry with Coleman—the writing of this episode intensifies. Overall, I give this episode an 8.5/10.

You can catch Victoria Masterpiece Theater (in the United States) at 9/8c on PBS.