Monday, December 18, 2017

Live it Up Like It's Your Last! The Good Place "Chapter 18: Existential Crisis"


Just as things are seeming to go to plan, Michael finally understands the meaning of live like there's no tomorrow.

Just as Vicky thinks her plan is working, Michael gives her his plan for torture of what she could do with Eleanor and the gang. But she didn't like how long it is and wants them in a one page with pictures (you know someone like the current President wants every memo).

As Michael gets Vicky's plan about having Tahani throw a party, she'll be throwing a party too. As Tahani and Jason prepare for the party, Chidi tries to teach Michael about ethics but when he talks to Michael about death and what would happen to him if Shawn found out, it turned Michael into a broken man.

Our gang get together at Tahani's party but when they headed over to Vicky's party, Tahani became mad and jealous about it. That lead her back to her party along with Jason, who tells her his own good person meter and rates her at an eight out of ten.

Meanwhile, Michael runs off during Vicky's party but comes back with a look out of Miami Vice, shocking Eleanor and Chidi. They try to get the old Michael back and Chidi tells Eleanor that the only way is to tell a story of a sad event about death. With a flashback of Eleanor's past of learning about her dog had died as a child, at her dad's funeral to even crying about family at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And Eleanor tells Michael that moment and it seemed to work as he's back from his mid-life crisis.

As Chidi, Eleanor and Michael about to get ready for another lesson, Tahani and Jason wake up in bed together after a night stand. Tahani shocked and wanted to talk about it but Jason, too excited, wanted to make her breakfast cereal. Given Tahani a moment to think and smile.

"Existential Crisis" was another great episode that had a lot of humorist moments and not to mention some heartfelt moments as well. The humorist moments coming from Danson once again with Michael reacting to what death really means for him and dressing like Don Johnson from Miami Vice. The heartfelt moments comes in with Jason making Tahani feel better after coming from Vicky's party. And also Eleanor's flashback and moment with Michael was sure a heartfelt moment to see the characters, that includes Tahani and Jason, to grow and open up. The writing was strong and performances were solid. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch The Good Place Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

Go Go Team Cockroach!! The Good Place "Chapter 17: Team Cockroach"


As Michael propose to team up against Vicky, Eleanor and the gang try to get something out of it, mostly Eleanor.

Michael proposes that he, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason team up against Vicky and her ideas of The Good Place. With that idea on the table, Eleanor doesn't believe at all what Michael is saying at all and tries to escape back the Mindy's place. But Chidi comes to give Eleanor a second thought, she goes back to Michael and asked him about how many times he has helped her in situations, with the answer to be all the time.

In the middle of the episode, we get to learn about how Tahani died. She died of a statue falling on to her after trying to take it down during her sister's Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame party. Tahani really got the reason why she isn't in the good place.

Eleanor agrees with the others to team up with Michael and get rebooted back to where they all started with frozen yogurt stands all around. Michael and Eleanor take another tour and get to watch Vicky perform her song and dance number to everyone. Michael tells the gang that he will be watching over them for Vicky so that will give them time to learn about good ethics so they go to the real good place. And just as they prepare for what is to come at Vicky's party, Eleanor and the gang, including Michael and Janet, get their hands together and yell out "Team Cockroach" as their team name.

"Team Cockroach" was once again one of the funniest episodes and probably one of those episodes that you could watch and feel better at the same time. With so much humor and character growth that watching these group of characters would make you feel good if you are in a bad or depress mood. The performance from the cast was amazing once again. Everyone really shined equal to one another, but if I really had to choose it would be Bell, Jamil and Danson. The writing was solid once again. Overall, I give this episode 9/10.

You can catch The Good Place Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

Dance Crew: The Good Place "Chapter 16: Dance Dance Resolution"




As Michael's attempt for the second try failed, he thinks that the third time will be the charm even if Shawn doesn't know.

"Dance Dance Resolution" might be one of the funniest episodes so far, only being the third episode, this season. With the show showing so much character growth and wit, Ted Danson brings his best comedy chops in this episode as Michael tries once again for the third time to get Eleanor and not have her figure out she's in the Bad Place.

But the third become twelve and twelve become ninety and so on and so on. With every attempt that Michael had come up with it would fail again and again by Eleanor Not to mention that even Jason figured it out by himself and that would be the lowest point for Michael to have learned.

Just as he might have the right concept, Michael meets with his workers, but only to see Vicky there. She attempts to blackmail Michael that if he reboots one more time that she'll take over and tell Shawn all about what happened in attempt two.

As Michael gives it some thought about Vicky's proposal, Eleanor and Chidi figure out again that they're in the bad place and leave for the middle place with Janet meeting once again with Mindy. There they learned that they've been coming to Mindy's place fifteen times already and even showed Eleanor that her and Chidi are actually meant to be together after show her a video of them making out.

As soon as Elanor and Chidi get back together Tahani and Jason, Michael shows up and gets a word full from Eleanor about the bad place and asking for demands. But Michael throws them a shocking moment that he would want to team up with them.

This was Danson's best episode so far in this series. I've enjoyed the reboots and attempts but the one scene I've enjoyed the most was when he was getting depress, drinking while talking to his recorder and just goes on about how fat he's getting and shakes his legs. While saying this Eleanor is right there in front of his desk. Not to mention the Eleanor and Chidi relationship I've so much enjoyed. I don't think that Eleanor will tell Chidi about the tape for a while. The writing was solid and the performances was excellent from the cast but also from  Tiya Sircar, who plays Vicky on the show, that really stole the episode. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch The Good Place Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Life In Pieces "Thirty-Five Teacher Escape Lottery"

Image result for Life in Pieces "Thirty-Five Teacher Escape Lottery"



From staying positive for a birthday to playing a game at home and trying to indict someone, this week's episode of Life in Pieces showed a lot of perfect moments.

"Story One: Jen's Birthday" 

It's Jen's 35th birthday, and she's unhappy about it. Greg tries to keep things positive and gives her another b-day card showing Clementine's picture. Greg thinks that having Clementine as Lark's babysitter would be great, but not to Jen. As Jen goes with Lark and Clementine to the park, she sees that Clementine is great. Things take shape when Greg, Jen, Clementine, and Lark go out for Jen's birthday, and the waitress accidentally thinks that Clementine is Lark's mother and Jen is Lark's grandmother. Jen drinks her way through her birthday cake, happens to have 53 on the cake, and soon falls asleep at the table.

"Story Two: Teacher's Pet"

Just as Heather and Sophia get going, they see Tyler and his friend, who happens to be Sophia's science teacher. What looked gross at the beginning for Sophia begins a special treatment from the teacher. But Tyler couldn't take his friend's kids, as they were acting out of control with him. So he had to break it up, and her teacher punished Sophia. But that all changed when Sophia bought flowers for her teacher and had them made by Tyler, and of course, she took stock.

"Story Three: Escape House"

When John wants to bond with his boys, he decides to get into the Escape house game that has been a hit around town. The game takes place in John's bedroom, and as soon as the game starts, they are locked from the inside and must find a way to get out, but when they see a moving van outside with the guy and crew taking John's stuff out, they realized that they're being robbed and they were with nothing left in the house.


"Story Four: Lottery"

After having lunch with Joan, Colleen is not only upset about being with Matt's mother but also that her lottery ticket was stolen from her and blames it on the valet guy. Matt thinks she had misplaced it and asked his mother to lie and say that she had found the ticket but wouldn't. So when Colleen and Matt drive back to the restaurant and ask for the valet guy, he doesn't work there after he quits. Matt tells Colleen that she has to acknowledge that she lost things, and she walks away, but Matt comes driving back after he finds the ticket in the car and asks her to forgive him. She did, of course.

This episode was excellent and funny most of the time. I find each one to be as humorist as the last one, but I enjoyed Jen's Birthday and the Lottery. The writing of this episode was excellent, and the performance from the cast was once again amazing. Overall, I give this episode an 8/10.

You can catch Life in Pieces on Thursdays at 9:30/8:30 on CBS.

Friday, December 15, 2017

Victoria Season 2 Trailer and Clips

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Just about a month away til the season 2 premiere of Victoria on Masterpiece. Here's some trailer and behind the scenes clips of season 2.





And even though we might get to see it air in the United States, here's a trailer for the Christmas Special that'll air this Christmas on ITV.


You can the second season of Victoria Sunday, January 14th at 9/8c on MASTERPIECE on PBS.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Twas the Night: Chicago Med "Naughty or Nice"




Twas the holiday in the air at Chicago Med, and all the doctors and nurses were doing their best to bring in the holiday cheer.  Okay, I'm not Charles Dicksens, but give me a little credit for coming up with that passage for this week's episode of Chicago Med.

With Christmas just around the corner, the doctors and nurses at Chicago Med face challenges that will define their professional and personal values. Let's start with Dr. Charles as he gets news about Kellogg, the man who shot him, was found dead in prison. The new Goodwin thinks that Charles should take a couple of days off to clear the air but instead takes on a patient who comes in pretty loony. But when Dr. Choi learns that the patient killed a priest, it doesn't settle with Charles as the patient freaks out and shocks him with the electric pedals. Of course, Charles tries to treat the patient the way he wanted to try with Kellogg, but after a check-up from Reese, who feels very bad about Kellogg's death, Charles takes Goodwin's offer to take a break.

April and Noah butted heads while taking care of a patient that has a sister who's a bit bossy. April tries to help Noah with the orders, but Noah sees she doesn't think he knows it. Seeing that the patient has the same symptoms as other patients in Chicago, it turned out with the help from Robyn that the Christmas tree that the patient got inflected with back bacteria from lousy soil. Weird, right? But in the end, April and Noah do forgive one another and have a nice moment looking at the brother and sister that they helped.

Manning and Halstead were faced with the challenge when it came to informing a health risk and Manning treating a pregnant woman for a check-up and coming to find out that it was Braxton hicks contractions.  Meanwhile, Halstead meets with the pregnant woman's husband, who looks pale as a zombie and gets a workup with the results showing that he has the Zika virus. The husband admitted to Halstead about being away with another woman and demanded not to tell his wife about it because the husband is a lawyer. Halstead tells Manning about it, and Manning tries to talk to the wife as they leave, but Halstead comes in with the last-second save as he calls the CDC to handle it.

Meanwhile, while it's Robyn's first day back, she works with April and Noah on the outbreak case. She seemed to hear noises in her office, thinking that her mental state wasn't well again. But after running a test with Reese, it showed nothing wrong. It turned out to be nothing, and I learned that the noises from her office were the air events getting fixed.

While Robyn was working and worrying, Rhodes took on a patient who fell off the ladder and had his organs move in places where fecal matter was in the patient's lungs. But he and Bekker team up to fix the patient, and as one of the nurses says, they like Jordan and Pippen. I second that with their perfect chemistry, even though there still seems to be some bad blood there.

Not to mention, Goodwin faced the challenges of the hospital's broken system once again when Santa, who was waiting in the waiting room, died, and his family got a $1600 bill. Goodwin takes it with the Troll and feels they should pay for it. Goodwin took it to the board and got the bill taken off. But the Board didn't like the way Goodwin did that and might be thinking of removing her from her job.

"Naughty or Nice" was an exciting, intense (at times) and joyful hour of television. There was excellent character growth and a perfect continued storyline of Charles and even Reese with the Kellogg story. I thought that this was Dr. Charles's best episode. Even though I love the #Manstead story, I like the chemistry between Rhodes and Bekker. I can't wait to see where these two, along with Robyn, will go. The writing was so good, and the performance from Platt was excellent. Overall, I give this episode an 8.5/10.

You can catch Chicago Med when it returns Tuesday, Jan. 2nd at 10/9c on NBC.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

24th annual SAG Awards Nominations

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The nominations for the 24th annual Screen Actor Guild Awards were announced Wednesday and HBO's Big Little Lies and Netflix series GLOW led the field with four nods. 

The 2018 SAG Awards will be simulcast live on both TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 21st with the first ever host hosted by The Good Place star Kristen Bell.

Here are the nominations:

Drama Ensemble

Game of Thrones
The Crown
Stranger Things
The Handmaid's Tale
This Is Us

Drama Actress

Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things
Claire Foy, The Crown
Laura Linney, Ozark
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale
Robin Wright, House of Cards

Drama Actor

Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling L. Brown, This Is Us
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

Comedy Ensemble

Black-ish
Curb Your Enthusiasm
GLOW
Orange Is the New Black
VEEP

Comedy Actress

Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Jane Fonda, Grace and Frankie
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie
Alison Brie, GLOW

Comedy Actor

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Sean Hayes, Will & Grace
William H. Macy, Shameless
Marc Maron, GLOW


TV Movie or Miniseries Female Actor

Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies
Susan Sarandon, FEUD: Bette and Joan
Jessica Lange, FEUD: Bette and Joan
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies

TV Move or Miniseries Male Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Jeff Daniels, Godless
Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies
Geoffery Rush, Genius
Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies

Stunt Team

Game of Thrones
GLOW
Homeland
Stranger Things
The Walking Dead