The Secret World of Alex Mack 25 Years Later

She was just your typical average kid until an accident changed her life. 25 years later The Secret World of Alex Mack still sticks with us today.

On Saturday, October 8, 1994, a new series debuted on Nickelodeon's SNICK lineup, The Secret World of Alex Mack. The series was about Alex Mack, who one day was walking home from having a miserable first day of school, until she gets into an accident from the town's chemical planet truck that was carrying a top-secret chemical and gets it on her. After that, her life would never be the same as she developed superpowers from moving things with her mind to zipping electricity and even turn into a puddle of goo. Yes, you heard right.

The show starred Larisa Oleynik as Alex Mack; along with a talented ensemble cast from Darris Love as Ray, Meredith Bishop as Annie Mack and John Nielson as Dave and John Marzilli as Vince. The series lasted for four seasons; with 78 episodes altogether. Once it debuted it was one of Nickelodeon's staple shows; even moved to Tuesdays and Thursdays airing new episodes twice in one week. The series ended on January 1998 with a finale that served up an ending; with one moment left us with a cliffhanger of whether or not Alex ends her powers.

I'm writing about this series because it's literally my top two all-time favorite television shows of all time; right with ER. The series was my first live-action show other than watching the Nicktoon's lineup. I connected with the character of Alex Mack; with just her innocents that makes you really want to be your best friend. But also she just has this way of tugging your heart with not only intense moments and humor but those emotional moments. But also I can't forget the hats, hats, hats that she wore during the four seasons. Other than Indiana Jones, Raymond Reddington,  and Jane Timone, Alex Mack wears the best hats on television.

There are many episodes that I've enjoyed. But it's season two's "The Gift" that stands out the most in the series. Alex tries to make money to buy Christmas gifts for her family; but instead learns that the meaning of Christmas. And now since the complete series is out on DVD now, I can rewatch it during the holiday season.

It's hard to believe that the series debuted 25 years ago.  If you haven't seen the series I highly recommend to check it out. You can catch the complete series of The Secret World of Alex Mack available on DVD available on Amazon.com.

Life Changes: Fresh Off The Boat "Help Unwanted" Season Premiere

It's that time when a boy becomes a man, will Evan get "the talk" from Louis and Eddie or not? Plus Jessica and Honey's friendship is put to the test when it comes to helping each other. Here's a recap of the season premiere of Fresh Off the Boat.

When watching the 1999 Women's World Cup USA beating China, Evan reacts to Brandi Chastain as she took off her jersey in celebration and runs to his room. The next morning after Louis shows the newspaper of the World Cup game with Chastain on the front page, Evan starts running back to his room. Eddie tells Louis that Evan has got the tinkle for Chastain; which has Louis ready to give the talk.

As Louis prepares to give 'the talk" to Evan, Eddie thinks that he should rethink his approach. As Louis acts cool with props, one looks at Evan and he ran back to Eddie for help. Just as Eddie was about to do it, he ran back too.  The two try to figure out a way even gets Louis' mother involved as well. But in the end, Evan already knew about "the tinkle" when he researched it in the library.

Meanwhile, when Jessica helps Honey how to get her oldest baby to eat; she returns the favor by helping Emery to choose an elective at school: drama. That pretty much upset Jessica and the two battled to help each other from Jessica given Honey's child legos to Honey given Jessica's mother-in-law a blow horn. It all stopped when they ripped Emery's arm sleeves for his play; but after hearing from Louis, Jessica confronts Honey and ask for help.

"Help Unwanted" was a very good and solid season premiere. The writing was solid with good character development; even humorist moments from Eddie and Louis discussing how to give 'the talk" to Evan. And not to mention Jessica and Honey battling it out with their helping for one another was so good. I couldn't stop laughing when Honey brought Marvin to Jessica's house and had him play his trumpet to wake both her and Eddie up.  And given the fact that I wasn't expecting another season after the season five finale, this was literally icing on the cake. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

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

America! Sunnyside "Pilot" Series Premiere

The series premiere of Sunnyside gives a solid basis to American pride, but the comedy is a bit light.

When a former city councilman, Garrett Modi, is ejected from his office due to his bad behavior, one of which he's a hit star on YouTube when he's caught drunk in front of the police. When he moves in with his sister, he finds a job as an expert in the profession of his drunk video popularity, which was selling t-shirts, etc. Next, Garrett meets with a group of people asking for his help to get their citizenship and realize the entire week to help them study and learn to be an American. After laying off a couple of days of teaching and having fun, Garret discovered a member of ICE.

Garrett comes to his senses and goes to his successor for help, where ICE took their friend. Garrett tells them he'll try to help them with what he knows and can learn. After agreeing, it seems that this is what the series will be about moving forward.

While the pilot wasn't the strongest of the new shows so far, it has a good premise with an excellent ensemble cast, but the writing doesn't seem to be there or a lack thereof in the humor department, with only a few funny scenes.  Overall, I give this episode a 7/10.

You can catch Sunnyside on Thursdays at 9:30/8:30 on NBC.

Are You Sure?: Chicago PD "Doubt" Season Premiere

It all comes down to asking that one question, "are you sure?" Here's a recap of the season premiere of Chicago PD.

In the season premiere of Chicago PD "Doubt" had both not only the audience asking major questions but the characters too from did Voight kill Kelton to where's Antonio? With the murder of newly elected Kelton; with everything pointing to Voight would prove that this could be it, but in the classic fashion, it wasn't.

But that didn't stop Halstead to still keep asking in his mind that Voight had something to do with it. Even the homicide detective tries to get Halstead to turn on Voight, but he keeps his stance that he didn't do anything. That is until he and Voight figured out that gun was used in a previous shooting that was taken from evidence; but got into the hands of Kate Brennan, who took getting revenge on Kelton for what he did but not give her after helping him too.

When Halstead realized that Voight was going to talk with Kate, he and Upton decide to see if Kate would turn herself in; but with Voight leaving alone they both went in to see Kate about to end her life. Voight gets upset with him for not trusting him.

While the case was going on the whereabouts of Antonio was getting worrisome; thinking that he had ended his life after getting back on the pain pills. We soon understand that he seek help not only from his sponsor; but also called Voight for help and took him to an undisclosed rehab location.

"Doubt" was such a good episode from beginning to the end that keeps you on your toes. After this episode, I think that the relationship between Voight and Halstead will be very complicated. I was leaning towards Kate killing Kelton. I was so impressed with what Anne Heche has done on the show. The writing was so good and the character development was as too. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch Chicago PD Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

Stranger Things Renewed For Season 4

Get ready for more Eleven, Will and the gang to take on more strange things, as Netflix as ordered a fourth season of it's hit nostalgia-filed 1980s thriller.

On Monday, a teaser video for Season four also confirms with what was widely suspected, coming out of this summer's run that with Will's family moved and some sorts of loose end dangled before us over in Russia, "We're not in Hawkins Anymore."

The hit series pick up comes as part of a new, multi-year deal with creators and showrunners, The Duffer Brothers, who will develop series and films for Netflix.

"The Duffer Brothers have captivated viewers around the world with STranger Things and we're thrilled to expand our relationship with them to bring their vivid imaginations to other film and series projects our members will love, Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos said in a statement. "We can't wait to see what The Duffer Brothers have in store when they step outside the world of The Upside Down."

Here's a teaser:

Seasons one through three are available on Netflix now.

"What the Fork!" The Good Place "A Girl from Arizona, Pt. 1" Season Premiere

The season premiere of The Good Place was everything to the smell of donkey-butts to mouth-full of fleas. Here's a recap!!!

We pick up moments from the end of the season finale where Eleanor shows Chidi around The Good Place. There he's jumping with excitement, but Eleanor is a bit disappointed by losing her true love in this experiment. As Eleanor returns to Michael's office, everyone gives her a vote of confidence that this will work out for the best, even both Michael and Shawn gives them a pep talk, which was one of the highlights of the episode.

As Eleanor and Michael greet the next new residents, Linda, who happens to be a bore of the group that doesn't see any excitement of being in The Good Place. Not to mention, Brent, who thinks that everything is too PC in the world. The gang tries to connect with one another to find out what makes them tick; but it's not even coming close, not even Simone, who believes that not of this is real and acts like a total goofball.

Michael tries to convince Eleanor that it's time to use Chidi to help, mainly with Simone. As soon as Eleanor introduce Simone to Chidi, it didn't even work at all. So the next day, Eleanor and Michael get the flying seminar; but Linda wasn't too thrilled, not even flying a couple of inches off the ground. Eleanor and Michael try to bond with her favorite things but she's not bunging at all until she starts punching both of them in the nose and flies around ruining other's flying time.

In fact, Linda is not who we all thought she is as she's just a fraud in Shawn's scam to ruin the experiment. The judge learns and punishes him, by putting Chidi in the experiment. But she also threatens Shawn if there's a smell of his doing again that she'll take out his eyelids and make him watch soldiers coming home greeting their dogs.

As the train comes, Bad Janet comes to pick up the fake Linda. Michael tries to tell her to tell Shawn "booyah!"

Meanwhile, Jason gets jealous with Derek coming back and forth; seeing that he's trying to win her back with his dum affection. Trying to make truths to one another, Jason couldn't take it and murders Derek with his killswitch button; which didn't quite win over Janet as she's been dealing with a billion things to do.

"A Girl from Arizona, Pt. 1" was such a good episode;  there were some surprises that weren't huge but satisfying shocking.  And it was hilarious to watch the Judge go after Shawn for his antics once again. But I just loved how the characters between Eleanor and Michael were in this dynamic. You could see Eleanor trying to do two things at once as she's trying to make this experiment work but also keeping Chidi far far away from Simone as well.  Also Jason and Derek fighting over Janet was just a nice balance making the episode funny and crazy. Strong writing and character development. I just wish that this was an hour premiere instead of a half-hour. Overall, I give this episode a 9.5/10.

You can catch The Good Place Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

Sweet Reunion: Superstore "Cloud 9" Season Premiere

Superstore returns with a season premiere that was not the only hilarious but gave such a heartfelt reunion. Here's a recap!

The season premiere picks up with the Cloud 9 gang out having a vigil or Mateo after ICE detained him. A few months have past and Amy gives a staff meeting about how corporate wants to push the store into the digital age with a giant cleaning robot named Glen and many more.

As Amy gets Jonah to help program the robot; she deals with Cheyenne who hasn't visited Mateo since he was taken away. There are signs like stopping a customer from buying a hair product or taking down the cleaning robot; but Amy finally gets Cheyenne to go see Mateo, which was literally a tearful reunion as they talked about who wore what and all.   

Meanwhile, as everyone has had it with the robot, Amy and the gang choose to give the corporate love pet an accident all on its own: fall off the roof of the store. But seconds later after falling off the roof, the robot gets back up and comes back into the store. REAL FREAKY!!!

"Cloud 9" was such a good season opener. While the humor was all there, I was literally taken away with the story of Amy and Cheyenne; as the performance from both Nicole Bloom and America Ferrera in this episode. The moment that Cheyenne and Mateo meet tears just started streaming down my face. The writing was so solid. Overall, I give this episode a 9.5/10.

You can catch Superstore Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.