The Best Treat of All: Stranger Things "Chapter 1: MADMAX"/"Chapter 2: Trick or Treak, Freak"

"Chapter 1: MADMAX"

The season premiere of Stranger Things starts with a new top video gamer in town, new nightmares, and even a few days of shocking moments.

"MADMAX" was an excellent first episode of the new season that sets the tone for what's to come. Not only are there new characters for the folks of Hawkins, Indiana, but there's a new video game leader for Mike and the gang to deal with.

The episode starts with a robbery a year after the events of season one. A group escapes in a van, and while being chased by cops, one of the members in the van gets the cops to stop as he thinks he sees the bridge collapse, but it is all just in his mind the member that did it has a tattoo with the number 008.

Things in Hawkins, Indiana, seem to be well, back to where we were in the first season. Hopper is doing what he does best when he comes to work first thing, trying to ignore anyone who comes to see him, but this time, he deals with a freelance journalist who's investigating Barb's disappearance. Things do set when Hooper gets calls about someone's pumpkins being ruined by another pumpkin farmer.

Joyce is concerned about Will after he gets another vision/dream of the underworld, where he sees a storm cloud that scares him. Will was taken to see Owens, an executive of the DOE who's in charge of the place, who does tests and asks questions Will about these visions and thinks it's just PTSD.

With all of these new characters and such, you wonder where Eleven is. That is answered at the end of the question with a jaw-dropping moment. As Hooper drives in the woods and walks to a cabin, you think that it might be his new home and that he may be living with his girlfriend. But it wasn't, and it turned out to be Eleven with curly hair who walks in and eats dinner with Hooper.

"MADMAX" was a good episode that set a perfect tone, as I said initially. With the return of these characters we've loved and enjoyed so much, the one that I was glad to see was Eleven back and alive. Yes, I did want to watch Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas rushing to the arcade. I loved the music playing for the scenes and the new character, Mad Max, coming in. I did enjoy the Joyce and Hooper scene as I think that these two might be better together than Joyce and Bob. The writing for this episode was excellent. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

"Chapter 2: Trick or Treat Freak"

It's Halloween, and the gang is ready for trick or treating, but when Max comes in, it doesn't play well for one of the members.

It's Halloween, and Mike and the boys are set with their costumes, dressing up as Ghostbusters. But when they get to school, they notice that no one else is also dressed up. Dustin and Lucas ask Max to join them for trick or treating, leaving them with no answer, but that turns out to be a yes when she scares them with her costume. And that didn't sit well with Mike.

Will is still having visions of the underworld and seeing a giant creator. He's drawn it, and Joyce sees it and still gets worried about it. He has another encounter vision with the creator during trick or treating, and it is triggered when other kids call him "Zombie Boy," but Mike comes and takes him back to his place, and they talk about what he had seen.

The one story out of all this was Eleven and how she managed to return, thinking she was gone. After taking down the creator in the season one finale, she's in the underworld and tries to find Mike without seeing him. She comes to the same opening that goes back to the real world. She comes through and tries returning to Mike's house, but the FBI and cops are there. The FBI tells Mike that he needs to tell them where Eleven is, and he sees her through the window, and she quickly runs off. She uses her survival skills to hunt, protect herself, and wear proper clothing.

Back and forth with the present and past, Eleven wants to trick or treat and tells Hooper that no one will see her with her ghost costume. But he wouldn't agree to it and compromise by getting off from work early and bringing a lot of candy, but that doesn't work out well when Hooper gets pulled into investigating more of the mystery of the dead pumpkins and trees that have that goop from the underworld.

There's one moment where Eleven is upset and brings the TV into her room, and as she flips through channels, she decides to telepath her way to see Mike. When she does, for a minute,e Mike hears Eleven with excitement but then walks away with doubt that it's her even though she's right there, leaving her in heartbreak.

The episode ends with a surprise when Dustin gets home and, for the second time, hears a noise near his home. He sees the trash can moving and walks up to it and opens with a surprise that you'll have to see the third episode.

"Trick or Treat Freak" was an excellent episode, mainly for Eleven than the rest of the characters. I thought that it was Millie Bobby Brown's best performance with character growth and showed such emotion. The Johnathan and Nancy story was not the best, but it was enjoyable. Sean Austin in the last couple of episodes is good and brings the humor but makes that boyfriend awkwardness. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch the second season of Stranger Things available now on Netflix, along with Season One.

Stranger Things Season 1

When I first heard and read (mostly read) about the Netflix series, I was interested mostly because of Winona Ryder was the star of the series. I'm a huge fan of her from movies like Girl, Interrupted, Beetlejuice and Edward Sessorhands to name a few.

But when I first watched the first four episodes last year I was amazed of what I was watching. And after watching those four episodes, I stopped watching it because when it comes to binge watching, I would start with a couple of episodes and stop and I won't get to watching the rest for a while.

But that is then and with only a couple of minutes til season two of the series, I had finally watched the complete series after buying the retro VHS case Blu-ray/DVD.

I was amazed once again and when I contuined watching I was hooked with these characters. The writing was so amazing and the references of the 80's pop culture just made me want to get things from that decade from the music to well getting back to eating eggo waffles. The series had so much montoge to classic 80's movies from ET and Alien and let's not forget The Goonies.

Ryder was amazing and had such great moments. But the real show stealers were the kids, mostly Millie Bobby Brown who played Eleven. Even Fin Wolfhard as Mike, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin and Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas were amazing as well. Even David Harbour's performance of Jim Hopper was so good.

I can't wait for season two to start for which by the time this is posted it would already be time to watch the second season.

Overall, I give the first season of Stranger Things a 9.5/10.

You can catch the first two seasons of Stanger Things on Netflix now.

The Blacklist "Ilyas Surkov (No. 54)"

This week's episode of The Blacklist gave a twist that not only comes in the middle but the end when someone makes a call.

When a bombing happens, Red informs Liz about an Intel of the event that is by an international terrorist group. When they search for a suspect that has ties with the head of the terrorist group, they get bumped by another team from the CIA.

They split the interviewing process for one another until when Ressler gets a call from Cooper that this CIA team is not at all any part of the U.S. Government, which turns into a shoot out til they capture one of the members who thought that they were actually working with the CIA.

After the interview, the left behind agent checks out with her story but shows Liz and the team of their headquarters that turns out to be abandoned. The suspect they are after turns out to be part of the CIA but got blacklisted and disappeared. He's set to take out someone who's about to blow up a Navy Ship but was stopped by Liz but turns out the suspect was right when he says the solider walking in was carrying a bomb.

Meanwhile, Nick was found dead from what shows to be a bombing and kind of blames Red for it, even though Red didn't know about it. Later in the episode, Liz, Tom and Red were at the funeral.

Red gets into the dog grooming business and gets someone, who happens to have the cuttiest bulldog in the world, to search for someone that worked with Kaplan. He gets the person's belonging that includes a cell phone and when he makes a call to a number that happens to been called and recieved many times, he hears Tom answering the phone.

"Ilyas Surkov" was a very good and entertaining episode. With the very intense twist at the end when Red calls and gets Tom on the other line, the one momnet or few happens to be the bulldog. That bulldog, Coco, was the cutiest thing that I've ever seen and she didn't have to do a whole lot. I just wanted to take her home after Red drives away. Anyway, the writing of the episode was very good and Spader was a good as ever once again. Overall, I give this episode a 8/10.

You can catch The Blacklsit Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.

The Blacklist "The Endling (No. 44)"

"Isn't there anything in the universe more powerful than a mother's love for her child?"

I really don't think there is and what this eposode of The Blacklist has shown that a mother's love can stand anything even for her dying child.

Red sees that someone has been killing anyone who is part of The Endling, meaning the last of in the world. What this person is trying to do is more personal than anything could ever be. When Liz and the team are searching they try to protect Princess Sonya that's in the town.

As they try to get to the Princess, things take a turn and the suspect escapes with the Princess' daughter. Asking the Princess about what would someone want with their daughter, turns out that the daughter has a rare blood that's known around as The Golden Blood.

They search for the anymore rare blood disorders and found one that's in the DC Hospital. As Ressler and Samar get there, the child that they were going to protect is gone. And soon findout who the suspect is, Nirah Ahmad, who happens to be the child's mother.

Liz gets Red for help and knowns who the doctor that's helping Ahmad and sees an old friend that fixed his left butt from a wild bore long ago. As soon as Red and Liz get there, Red talks to Ahmad with probably one of the most heartwarming messages probably of the week and gets her to leave the donors. They take her and the child to another location where Liz gets Nick to help, even though he doesn't want to but does.

The mother not only tries to save her child but gives her own life to save his as she shot herself in the head to give her heart to her child.

Meanwhile, Tom is getting worried that Pete might be pulling somethng after getting access into files thanks to Tom stealing Liz's ID number. Nick, who was done with Liz, Red and Tom, check on Pete and gets killed in Pete's apartment. The suitcase is gone and that Pete has gone rouge.

Red gets into a new style of B&B thanks to the mailman, who gets a list of homes of owners that leave for a vacation of so. A very good buiness indead I think.

"The Endling" is a very good episode with a very easy conecpt of a mother who tries to save her child from death and gives her own life to save his. Even though I probably have seen many of these kinds of stories before, it still shows an impact for me as a viewer. I thought Red's speech to Ahmad was really good and really stood out from other moments in the episode. Overall, I give this episode a 8.5/10.

You can catch The Blacklist Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.

The Blacklist "Miss Rebecca Thrall (No. 76)"

When there's a spree of killer cops, Liz and the team investigates it and finds it shocking, while Red deals with his own issues and makes a deal that would make him killing two birds with one stone.

When Red sees that a good cop has been in the news for killing a man for violating his parole, he gets Liz and the team to investigate. There both Liz and Ressler interview the cop who shot the suspect and the cop's partner and figures out that the cop was lying about how many shots he took at the suspect.

They come to a conclusion of the lawyer that help with the cops' situation, happens to be the mastermind of getting them to kill those that needed to be killed and in return get a payment of whatever they need for their life or family situation.

Meanwhile, Red gets a couple of visitors that left him a message to see their boss, who happens to want Red's payment on guns that he promised to give but hasn't. So Red goes to the man that has a ton of money, Glenn.

Soon, Red meets with a business man who has gun products and buys him off, but comes to that they'll have to meet at his private airstrip, for which Smokey and his friend helps to make in time. But to make they each promise, Red gives the guy Tom to hold on to til they exchange.

As the airstrip gets done, the exchange happens and soon cops show up. Tom gets pissed at Red but turns out that it was all Red's idea to get the guns, return Glenn's money and keep the guy's airplane as his new place for him and Dembe to stay, while the other guys go off to jail.

"Miss. Rebbecca Thrall" was a pretty good episode. It was another good, fun and entertaining episode. As much as I do enjoy watching Red and Liz, I do have to say that watching Tom trying to get these bones looked at has really intriguing. It really don't have to be a whole lot to show. Spader was amazing as usual in this episode and so was even Diego Klattenhoff as his character has really gotten in trouble and is living on the dark side of his good man code. Overall, I give this episode a 8/10.

You can catch The Blacklist Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.

No Kids, Karaoke On!! Fresh Off The Boat "Kids"

With Jessica and Louis sees that Eddie might be grown up to get them out of "kid jail," they live like it was no tomorrow (in their own way). Plus Eddie and Alison have a hard time telling Evan the truth about them breaking up.

Just when Jessica and Louis thought that when Eddie was making his "suicide soda" and taking it to the living that he might make a huge mess, but they thought wrong. As they see for themselves, Eddie made no mess and used a coaster. With them thinking that Eddie has grown up, Jessica and Louis decides to bring back their first couch that they got in 1982 and soon after that they decide to go out and live like there was no tomorrow: having dinner and Karaoke with Honey and Marvin.

But that idea wen south when Honey and Marvin tells them that they were planning to have a baby. With shock, Jessica and Louis decides to get them to think that having a baby was a bad idea and pushed Marvin to stop the reverse vasectomy. But on their second night of dinner and karaoke, Honey and Marvin were Karafighting with songs like "All That She Wants" and "RESPECT."

But after Marvin tells Honey how Jessica and Louis showed him what parents with kids look like, Jessica and Louis apologies and tells Marvin and Honey that they should have a child as it's their choice not Jessica and Louis.

Meanwhile, after their break up last week, Alison still comes over to Eddie's house to hang with Evan. Eddie and Alison agrees to tell Evan that they shouldn't be hanging out anymore, but it really turns into two parents trying to confront him before telling him the news, which he didn't take too lightly and ruined the white couch as payback.

Also, Emery and Grandma Jenny try to use his bad luck for good and to get back at her enermies from distorying old gifts that she's gotten to winning over an enemy at a retirement home game night.

"Kids" was a very good and hilarious episode. The Louis and Jessica story was hilarious as usual. Randall Park and Constance Wu really stole the episode with a lot of scenes from confronting Eddie about him growing up, talking about how they can do things without kids and even the karaoke scenes as well. The Eddie, Alison and Evan story was good at times along with Emery and Jenny too. Overall, I give this episode a 8/10.

You can catch Fresh Off the Boat Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on aBC.

A Lot on the Mind: Supergirl "Trigger"

This week's episode of Supergirl had a lot on Kara's minds.

With a new villain in National City,  Kara meets Psi, who happens to have a psychic powers that uses their fears against them, gives a run for Kara when she gets pulled into her tricks.

Kara's mind is played when she first expereince darkness. The second time she meets with Psi, she relives the final moments of her time in Krypton. The thrid time you could say that she suffered in the elavator but I would agree with Wynn that she was deaing  with real anxiety.

And the final time was her thinking that she sent Mon-El to his death in space but Alex comes in and helps Kara put her mind over matter and shows Psi how fear is a lie, she headbutts her.

While dealing with Psi, Kara also deals with Lena Luther as her new boss at Cat Co. and even Jimmy isn't to pleased about Lena coming in and taking over on the first day. Lena feeling excited and enthusiastic about her frist day, even trying to get Kara to do an interview but turns her down handling Psi.

It would be later on that the two would have another talk and even though Kara will admit that what she's going through is personal, Lena turned that friendship card to boss card and told her to set up that interview.

After dealing with Psi, Kara did apologizes to Lena for her actions and the two are back being not only boss and employee but best friends as well.

While this was going on, Samantha deal with balancing her new job and her daughter, who happen to tell kids at school about how her mother saved her by lefting up a heavy metal off her. Trying to convience that she's no superhero, she later runs off and gets herself into danger when Psi was on the move again. Samantha jumps to protect her daughter when a wrecking ball was about to fall on them and Supergirl saves them.

Later on Kara learns that Samantha is the new boss for L Crop for Lena while Lena's working at Cat Co.

"Trigger" was another good episode that had some really good moments, mostly scenes between Kara and Lean and even Supergirl and Psi. But the one moment of this episode that I will take away came early with Alex and Maggie arguing at t eh DOA about something that turns out to be which to have at their wedding: DJ or a Band. And even having J'onn given his part in it was the icing on the cake. The episode really plays to Kara's emotions state of missing Mon-El. I still think he's still alive and will be back. The Samanath storyline is really good as it give you enough to be satsifyied but yet leaving you wanting more. Overall, I give this episode a 8.5/10.

You can catch Supergirl Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.