A Look Back: Bring Dysfunctional For The Holidays

(The weekend after Thanksgiving in 2012, I got to write what's known as my first review for the college newspaper. I was so lucky to write about the Second City performance. And it was my second time seeing them perform there. And would be come every year to perform.)

After spending the Thanksgiving holidays with family, audiences were entertained by Second City’s version of a dysfunctional holiday at Illinois Central College.

On Nov. 24, The Chicago Second City performed “Dysfunctional Holiday Revue” at the Performing Arts Center at ICC to a sold out crowed. The cast contain of actors of Neal Dandade, Alex DiGiacinto, Chelsea Devantez, Cate Freedman and Eddie Mujica.

The first act started with a group of friends being together watching the snow fall, discussing on how they should handle the Christmas party with gift exchange of Secret Santa and that the group thought it wouldn’t be such a good idea as the actors performed bits of short skits of flashbacks.

As the show moved on, the cast interacted with the audience as part of school musical with actor Dandade as the musical conductor. Each audience member had a part.

But it was until actor Devantez who acted like a young blonde, gave the contactor news that her ex boyfriend was in the section she was conducting. Devantez brought up Mark Schore from his seat to the stage and gave him the symbols to play. As it was all put together, everyone played to the tune “Deck the Halls.”

The funniest sketch of the show came when actors Mujica and Freedman were coming to his apartment after a date. As they came in, Devantez came out wearing a tight t-shirt and short shorts because he was doing laundry.

Devantez played the Wii and then the radio and that’s when Dan Fogelberg song “Same Old Lang Syne” come on and started crying like a baby because it reminded him of his ex wife. “

Finding and Clearing: Wednesday Night Drama

The Mysteries of Laura: "The Mystery of the Dysfunctional Dynasty"

We see a lot more in this week's episode of Laura than just a solving a murder. A relationship might be forming too...

A murder of an elder couple was found by a little girl and her dog. Laura gets called in and searches around. Her and Billy then talks to the girl and dog.

Laura and Billy interview the dance instructor that the couple was at and she told them about a lawyer that was getting them to sign things. So they went to talk to the lawyer, who had some terrible bug bites. Laura helped him to take the itching away.

Later on, Laura and Billy talked to Daniel, the couple's only and gay son, and his boyfriend. After they talked to Daniel, the boyfriend's family seemed to be in question.

Meredith and Billy followed and got to talk to the boyfriend's brother, who was a business man and rude to women. But as soon as him and his bodyguards left, Meredith spotted golf clubs, which is something that could be used as the murder weapon.

Then Laura and Jake planned out a sneak and search, Billy and Meredith were the ones that went in but there were bodyguards by the door.

 So she took plan B which was for her to fool around with the guys and Billy goes in the room searching.

Seeing Meredith in this scene was one of the funniest. The character has really blossomed since the pilot and during this episode we do get to see something brewing between Billy and her.

As Billy search the room, he find out clubs in the closet and he seen blood on it. He then took a sample and got the hell out of there because the guy was coming back.

Later on, Laura and Meredith got the brother and talked to him about the blood on the club. He then talked that those clubs were there at the golf course overnight because of the rain and bugs biting. Laura got the hint that it wasn't him but the lawyer that killed the Daniel's parents.

When they called the lawyer to the station, Laura told him that Daniel asked for him. It was then that Billy and Laura told him that Daniel talked who killed his parents but said that he was the one. He was trying to get his parent's money away from the church.

This episode after being off for more than a week, it felt good to see the show back on. This was more hilarious than dramatic. I feel since the premiere of the series that it's gotten better with it's characters and that the stories are getting better too.

You can catch "The Mysteries of Laura" Wednesday nights at 8/7c on NBC.

Chicago PD: "Assignment of the Year"

After one hell of a week it was last week, it was sure wasn't peaceful this week on Chicago PD. 

As Dawson was working his second job, trying to talk to his soon to be ex-wife about how he would like them to be together. Soon the guy he's watching get's upset about his wife and soon takes him home, but he asked Dawson to stop at the gas station for a pack of smokes.

As Dawson pulls into the gas station, a garbage truck follows too. He then goes in and gets a pack of smokes. He returns with the guy shot to death. 

Voight comes and takes the case off one of the detective. As soon as both Dawson and Voight met with the lawyer, Dawson as only 48 hours to solve the case of he'll have to turn in his badge, gun and everything away. 

As the gang tries to find out about the guy, Al types up for the whole damn episode paper for Dawson. 

Atwater and Burgess, are back together working, following the victim's wife. And Halstead and Erin go to a strip club to talk to someone who knows Taylor. Poor Ruzek, he really wanted to go with Erin, mostly because he wants to visit the club. 

As tensions get a bit high for Dawson. he get the guy called Taylor. He was just part of the the victim's wife's plan, but as Atwater and Burgess lost her. 

She comes back and tells Dawson that she can't be pinned to the crime and gave him papers that prove it. 

But Dawson is still on the team, thanks to Voight and Al with that paperwork that Al was typing for almost the entire episode. 

This episode was great and thrilling. There was humor with Ruzek and his wanting to go to the strip club bit...dirty man. 

But also we get to learn a bit more of Roman and how he is willing to fix the problem that he caused Dawson. I did love how Voight got to talk with him one on one. That was freaky great. 

You can catch "Chicago PD" Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

We Can Hear it All The Way Here: Chicago Fire "Chopper"

This week's episode of "Chicago Fire" deals with its most significant rescue action so far, a chopper crashing on top of an apartment building, plus a lot of drama before and after.

We start with seeing Chief Boden and his wife at the doctor's office, checking on their baby. Both excited and nervous, the doctor took an ultrasound and showed the nearly fully grown baby, but then the doctor saw something and wanted to check.

He found out later that his wife was at a certain age, and there would be some complications. That took Boden and his wife into some severe withdrawal of not speaking to one another. But near the end, they get a call from the doctor to come in; Boden comes and sees his wife there.

She talks to him and soon discovers they will have a baby boy. That's pretty much the best news after all the things that have happened, too.

We're going to see some severe moments with Severide and his wife. After making noises that could be heard past the state line of Illinois, including Casey's apartment, Casey and Dawson think it's time for them to leave if they'll be like this every night.

Severide and his wife talk, and when he sees the time, he has to get going to work.  But she doesn't want him to go and take a day off. But he didn't want to, so he soon left.

That makes things a bit worse down the road in the episode. When an accident of a chopper lands on top of an apartment, when she hears it on the street, she texts Severide a lot and even calls him. At one point, she goes to the scene and freaks out about his safety.

After the accident and everything had calmed down, she and Kelly talked, and soon it turned into an argument about how he could die right then and there, but he soon forgave and made up. This is going to be a significant issue in this relationship.  I had already placed my bet, saying four to five episodes, this relationship won't last.

Meanwhile, we saw one of the best action-packed scenes that the Firehouse gang faced this season: the chopper comes down by a drone from some kid who was flying it. Amazing how a couple of pieces of the helicopter went in different directions; the tail rotor landed on a lady, and one guy in a van was had a bit of metal in his stomach.

Britt treated that guy, but before she treated him, she noticed that he had a bag of IDs and such. He's one of those undercover hitmen. After pulling a gun and telling her that he doesn't need to go in, she treats him and leaves him.

It wasn't until near the end, when Britt left work that someone was following her in the car. After driving fast and slow, she turns into an alley, and it turns out to be that guy that she treated. He wanted to thank her for treating him and saving him. He gave her a card and told her if she needed help with anything she could call him for help....that's anything!!

I think that card will be handy in next week's episode when Mils tries to save a life, but the person doesn't make it. The father of the victim is upset and soon threatens Mils. What will happen? We'll have to find out.

You can catch "Chicago Fire " on Tuesday nights at 10/9c on NBC

"Nina In The Block" Benched: "Hooked & Booked"

This week's episode of "Benched" deals with Nina tries to be one of the guys in the PD office. It turns out to be one hell of a night for both Nina and the guys.

Nina doesn't seem to be adjusting as a public defender, when she goes to talk to her client about the charges. She freaks out about the smell in the room along with the sticky substance on the table. Soon Nina leaves and told her client that she'll make a deal, without the client agreeing to it, for lesser punishment.

When Nina gets back to the office, Phil makes a fun at her by how she's asking for the hand sanitizer and just does nuts over it. She talks about how it was disgusting in the jail interview rooms.

Later on Carol is freaking out about how his computer keeps freezing but turns out that he's upset about his wife. Then Phil comes up with an idea for an all guys night out to help Carlos take his wife off his mind.




As they planned it out, Nina just came back after an incident where her client freaked out how she wanted her to speak about who's drugs they were. And soon the client is back in jail. Nina does get a bit upset about her heels getting scuff.

Phil then talks to Nina about the "Hooked and Booked" program that new public defenders do to get close to their clients. You know to see and what's it really like in jail for their clients. After Carlos talked about his time, he spoke about Phil's time that the guy he was with in jail died.

So, as Nina was heading out to get her one hour spa day at the Four Seasons. She goes to Morris and taps him on the shoulder. She gets booked and put in jail with other females. Nina starts to freak out just a bit. In one scene, she asked the others to look away when she was trying to use the toilet.

Then came her client and fireworks started up until each got tasered by one of the officers. Soon she wakes up and she thinks she's at the Four Seasons until she realized that she was still in jail. Then her client and Nina got real and talked.

The client told Nina that the drugs wasn't her and that it was her boyfriend's. She did it because she loved him and soon Nina realized that she did the same thing too.

Meanwhile, the Phil and Carlos goes out to bars, only Carlos doesn't drink. Phil goes all out and him and Carlos had a moment of respect.

The next day, as Phil and Carlos was back in the office, Nina came back, wearing the same clothes and having half of her hair breaded looking like one of the gals in Orange is the New Black. The guys were shocked that she did it and soon as she left to go wash up, they went to look for the tape of her getting teased.

Morris comes in with the tape and gives it to Phil as Nina was talking to him. Soon Nina realized that the while "Booked and Hooked" was all a joke and then punches Phil in the stomach.

I thought this episode was just so freakin funny. Some of the characters in jail were funny, including the client where she looked like Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black.

I think that Nina is hilarious with the way she's freaking out about the jail smells and sticky stuff. That was pretty funny along with her thinking that the whole booking process was just an act of the club.

You can catch "Benched" Tuesday nights at 10:30/9:30c on USA Network.

State of Affairs: "Pilot"

In her first television role since "Grey's Anatomy," Katherine Heigl returns as Charlie Tucker, a top CIA analysis who's responsible for the President's Daily Briefing in the the new NBC series "State of Affairs."

After a year since a terrorist ambush, where Charlie's fiance and the President's son was killed, we see Charlie reliving through those moments while talking to her therapist. Seems Charlie like to take those horrible memories and go to bars, get hit on guys and have a one night stand. So she's a rebellion.

When it comes to crunch time for her and her team, she has to make a decision between saving a doctor before he gets killed by a terrorist group or take down the terrorist who killed her fiance. And when she chooses, it turns into one hell of a typical work day.

Just after Charlie briefs President Constance Payton of the important situation and not mention about how they could take down her son's murderer. Soon the head of the CIA hears about what Charlie and her team has done and gets upsets and puts an arrest warrant for her.

When she gets word of the situation from her team, Charlie decides to go whatever it takes. When a visitor who talked to the head CIA, Charlie thinks that he's spying on the CIA and soon the President. Charlie calls a friend for help, who is a bit like Saul from Homeland, and picks the guy up. He does find a hidden cell phone, which proves Charlie and the team right.

Soon Charlie is trying to get to the President to clear the situation up. She goes beyond the distance, trying to get there. Soon as she gets there, the new CIA director makes an argument that she should be fired.

But after President Payton asked her about it, Charlie gave her her opinion and then told that the guy that the CIA director had was spying on them and soon the President.

Later on during the episode, we see Charlie's been getting secret text messages from someone who knows what happen at that ambush. She tries to get a tracker but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Later on that evening, as she comes home, her apartment door is open and sees Nick, a CIA operator who was there of the time of the ambush.

Nick shows signs of wounds, talks to Charlie, seems like he has some demons like she does. After she talks to him about if he was responsible for the text messaging, he admits it wasn't him. It seems he's wondering why that moment a year ago isn't effecting her as much as him.

Soon, when Charlie and Payton was at Aaron's memorial, Payton talks to Charlie and gets real, like really real with each other on getting the guy responsible for killing Payton's son and Charlie's fiance.

I got really into the show middle through the pilot. The first part of the pilot was a bit hard to follow but when we got down, meeting the new guy, the team and the situations, things really did pick up. I thought that the situation when Charlie was wanted for what she had done was just thrilling.

I think that this show as the penitential to grow. I like the character of Charlie and the President's relationship but also Charlie's team too.

This show has a bit of network version of Homeland meets with The Blacklist that also meets The West Wing.  

We are left with thrilling situations at the end of the show that'll set the tone of this series. I look forward to tuning in next week to see what this show will do.

You can catch "State of Affairs" Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Heartache and Regrets: Parenthood:

It's never easy getting your first heart broken by someone you really love. This week's Parenthood dealt with Max's first ever heartache and for Max's case, it didn't go so well.

We all know that Max has a crush on Dylan and we think that its the best thing that we've seen of growth as a character to make this development. When Max goes to his mom and ask her for advice about how to ask someone out. Kristina tells him to just be himself and ask her.

During school, probably during break or lunch, Max was looking for Dylan. He looked everywhere until someone told him she was in the kitchen. As he went into the kitchen, he saw her with someone else kissing and that turned love into heartache.

Max then went to Kristina and asked her to ex-spell a student for the things that Max thought of, but he did tell her he saw Dylan and the boy kissing. Later that after noon, Max then passes out flyers asking everyone to ex-spell the student.

Soon Dylan came by and saw the flyer and tried to talk to Max and then came the student. And after that, there was a rumble and Kristina took both the student and Max to her office.

It wasn't until later that Dylan came by the house and told Kristina how she doesn't love Max but likes him as a friend. When Max came down and saw Dylan, he went back upstairs and Dylan went off too.

The next day, Max thought up a way to get Dylan to like him back. He made a poster of photos and things that she likes, including a drawing she did and threw away. By the way, this was in front of other students during lunch so it was totally embarrassing her.

Dylan tried to tell Max but Max was getting louder and asking her more questions until she snapped and yelled out that she doesn't love him and will never will. That sent Max running out of the school and Kristina running after him. One of the heartfelt moments of this episode came when Kristina talked to Max and told him that she was proud for what he had done in there.

Meanwhile, Crosby is dealing with two things. One him and Amber are trying to save the business. Adam is away on business and so for what's been going on they've been recording jingles for advertisement. One of them was for cats, and the duo was meowing more than singing.

So after having such a boring recording session, Amber had an idea for her and Crosby to go out to the clubs and find this band that she has heard of and get them to record. Well, Crosby didn't think it was such a good idea but later he did go right after dinner with his mother-in-law.

As Amber and Crosby get to the club, two things happen. One that Crosby was searched before getting in and the guard find pot in his jacket. And two that Amber was having strange labor pains. Don't worry folks, it was just false contractions. But Amber does need to take it easy. But after that Amber told Crosby that she wants to keep the business up and had Crosby promise not to give up one it  

The other thing with Crosby was that since his business isn't doing well. Jasmine decided to take part of making money for the family as a file clerk along with her mother. That didn't settle in with Crosby at all, because of the whole male ego thing. But later Crosby does talk to Jasmine about it and that he tells her that he doesn't want to be a failure if he can't bring in the money and provide for the family.

And of course, Hank has finally stepped up and be a father. As Ruby was upset (again) about her mother no letting her stay home alone. She asks Hank for support, which he did. But later on, as he checked up on her, he soon drove to see and found a party going on at the house. At first Hank really didn't know what to do and hide at first but later on he went in there and told everyone to get out.

Of course, Ruby tried to tell him that she only invited a couple of friends over but Hank didn't buy it and soon she went up stairs but not before telling him that she hated him. But soon, as Ruby is grounded, she came over to Hank and since she can't do anything like she use to, her and Hank got to play some cards.

I thought that this episode was just amazing. I loved both the Hank/Ruby story along with Max's story. I felt so bad but proud for Max. For someone like me, I could never do what he did at all. Hell I could never do that now. I really was hoping for Max and Dylan to be a couple. That would be so happy to see Max grow up even more. But life is all twist and turns.

Next week, might be the episode that no one should miss. I know I keep saying it but heck this is the final season. So every episode can be missed. But we see a familiar face return, Joel and Julia's relationship: can it still be saved? And a moment that will have us grabbing a hold of someone.

You can catch "Parenthood" Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC

Two Cities but Two of A Kind: SVU & Chicago PD Crossover

They may be different from the outside but are the same deep down inside. As the two-night, three-show crossover of Chicago Fire, SVU, and Chicago PD concluded, we not only see them taken on just one case but see how both two cities aren't different at all.


Where we last left, on Chicago Fire, we saw that a house was on fire and had a guy who was bringing a briefcase but dropped it on the floor. That briefcase was full of photos of little children. Erin and Voight are called, and soon, Erin sees her brother in one of the photos. So they contacted SVU for help to find her brother Teddy. And so, they left, and we are now here.

We start with Voight calling Benson, as she was with Amro and Noah at the park, talking about the case and that Erin and Jay are on their way. He also tells her she should watch for Erin since this is very personal.

Both Amro and Fin talk about Halstead. The last time that Rollins and Fin were there in Chicago, he heard that Halstead tried to hit on her. He also tried to act so macho in a way. Both met in Benson's office, and soon Rollins came in.

Benson shows everyone that Amro found more photos of Teddy, and Rollins looks shocked as she takes it to view the file. Then Benson, Erin, Amro, and Jay were at another place where law enforcement looked through videos and watched kids in a sexual video. They tried to find where the tape was recorded and also tried to find out who the person behind the video was.

They look for Erin's brother and come to a place where he was years ago. They talked to the head person there but couldn't find him and not even the security guard couldn't remember him. So when they spoke to a girl who was once a prostitute at a young age and became successful as she went to school to become a teacher, Rollins and Amro talked to her.

Later, they find out where Teddy is, where prostitution is happening. They pulled, and soon, it was a bit of a family reunion with Teddy and Erin. Teddy is not too happy to see Erin as she's trying to ask for help to find the people doing this to these other kids.

As the episode continues, they find a break in the case when the security guard is part of the ring. As Benson, Erin, and Jay chase him, Benson gives the badass knockout to suspects on the run while Erin gets hit by a biker and soon falls to the ground.

That's when Voight visits the Big Apple; he visits Erin in the hospital and sends her back home to Chicago. Then, that's where the chills began as Benson and Voight greeted each other and met for the first time.

As Rollins and Amro question the suspect, Voight thinks that it's a bit boring. As soon as he couldn't take it anymore, he went in there and handled it himself. As he takes him to the wall, Benson commands him to stop.

Moving on, it wasn't until they found where one of the videos was streaming they got three of the guys and found the boy in the live streaming. Everyone questions them, and when one of them wouldn't talk, Benson and Voight get intense with him but send him to a 24-hour jail hold. It wasn't until later that he was killed.

Soon, word from the gang in Chicago informed Voight that the suspect from the fire also died, but he died of a gunshot to the head, along with a police officer guarding him. And that's where things take their turn and head back to Chicago.

The show continued, and we saw the rest of the gang, Dawson, Al, Ruzek, Atwater, Burgess, and Roma, looking at the scene when Ruzek found out who the officer's whole life; it got personal for him as he knew him from the academy.

Everyone goes back to the house; Erin is there, and so is Voight with Rollins and Amro. They bring everyone up to speed on the investigation.

The one thing in this episode of CPD is that we get to see Platt on an emotional side, that she was assigned the officer to watch the suspect at the hospital. She tells them that he was there and working overtime for her daughter's tuition.

Later, they come to two suspects; one of them gives Voight, Halstead, Ruzek, and Amro a run for his money. The guy was running like Spiderman, humping off rooftops. But when he jumped off, it turned out to be too far, and he was hanging on the edge. And then he fell on the ground before Amro, dead on impact.

The others, along with Erin, found one of the girls that was in the video in the video. Erin talks to her, and the girl hugs her very tightly. Soon, Erin takes her in. She's thinking that she could do what Voight did with her, but I don't think she can handle the responsibilities that come with that.

As the gang reaches a dead end, the Commander tells Voight that he has one more day to get this case solved, or he's given it to Major Case. With that in mind, he calls for Benson's help. As Benson comes in, she shares her thoughts and charity with Platt, the falling officer. She and Voight bump heads.

It wasn't until Erin found Teddy and talked to him. She brings him to the House, and he sits at her desk while she talks to Voight and Benson. It was then that Teddy saw a photo and started to say that it was the guy. The guy that took him. It turned out to be the guy that they interviewed at the DCFS office.

As they arrested him, he turned out to be in the basement in a cage. And you know when someone's in the cage, you know what's coming. It's time to Get In The Cage with Voight. But that stopped when Benson told him that she had more cases that she needed him to talk about. So she did talk to him and later on they found the other boy at an abandoned house in a locked room.

After finding the boy, the gang enters the station and exits the car. The officer's family was there, and as soon as they came out, everyone raised their arms for a salute. They walk down, and as they get to the car, Ruzek hugs the widow, helps her in, and shuts the door. As they left, everyone saluted.

Later, Erin comes in and sees the little girl playing. She then tells her that a foster family wants to take her and the little boy with them and invites Erin to come. The girl was so excited when she heard Erin was coming. It did bring some emotional connection to Erin.

Later, at a local bar, we see Benson and Voight having a beer together. (Do I sense a relationship?) Anyway, they talked, and Benson mentioned that she hadn't seen any sights yet and asked Voight if it was beautiful. He replied that it's one of the most beautiful cities and that, at times, when it's not.

This crossover episode event was flat-out amazing. I haven't had this much excitement that it brought in a long time. I remember when ER did a crossover with Third Watch, and I remember Law & Order (the mother-ship) doing a bunch of crossovers.

The storyline for this event was nothing but fantastic. I was really into how we would see Benson and Voight meeting and how they would work together, but as it came out, it worked out fine. And that they have a workable relationship.

I hope in the future that we'll see this again. I don't know if once a year of crossover is good; that would probably be pushing too much.

You can catch Law & Order SVU on Wednesday nights at 9/8c and Chicago PD on Wednesday nights at Tenn/9c on NBC.