Saturday, March 21, 2015

Flashback in Time with The Man In Black

If Friday night was any indication for the audience at Illinois Central College, it was literally a flashback in time of getting a chance to experience one of America’s most beloved musician.

Flashback Friday was a sure phrase to put it on Mar. 20th, ICC presented its Guest Artist Series “The Johnny Cash Experience” A Tribute Act at the Performing Arts Center  with a sold out crowd. Performed by Philip Bauer, who dressed, performed and even sang like the real Man in Black, Johnny Cash.


Thought out the show, Bauer performed some of the classic songs from “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Kate,” “I Walk the Line,” and yes even “The Man in Black.” But it was when he performed “A Boy Name Sue” that had everyone excited, as he not only performed it but had the audience yell out the verse as well.

Before each performance Bauer would tell a short story and fact of each song. At one point as he performed "A Thing Called Love" he walked off stage, sang and shook audiences hands.

There was no one that didn't know each song that was performed. Audience members would either sing it softy or tap to the beat of the song.

At the end, he performed “Ragged Old Flag” for the veterans that were in the audience. With that last song, the audience stood and gave a standing ovation that lasted more than a couple of minutes.

For that one night, folks got to visit or revisit a moment, a concert of a man that's still and forever will be one of America's most beloved musician.

Friends Becoming Enemies: 12 Monkeys "Divine Move"

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WOW! Can you believe that?  I guess a curious friend now becomes the enemy. The mission of stopping the virus has now added to stop a friend from doing any more harm than good in this week’s episode of 12 Monkeys.

12 Monkeys - Season 1It was shown at the end of last week's episode that Ramse is now against Cole and Project Splinter. He comes into the compound and destroys all the files that they had, plus takes the serum that’s used for the Core and uses it for leverage.

12 Monkeys - Season 1Acting like some hero, almost looking like Arrow, Ramse hikes back to the other compound where his girlfriend and child are staying.  He soon spots another group, The Daughters, an all-women's group that believes men cause the epidemic. Who could blame them, right?

Walking over to the group, Ramse talks with their leader, an older but wise-looking woman, and speaks about the army of the 12 Monkeys, the virus, and even mentions Cole’s name. It became one of the most bizarre scenes in this episode, but also, the one thing that came to my mind was, could this lady be Cassandra from the future? She looked like her, but also, when she heard Cole’s name, she wondered just a bit.

Speaking of Cole, he surprisedly appeared when he came in on Cassandra and Marker having an evening together. He unlocks the door and comes in, startling both of them. Cassandra and Marker thought it had been destroyed, but it hadn't. Cole explained what happened and asked them to find out who made the virus.

12 Monkeys - Season 1Upset and seemingly drinking her pain away, Cassandra helps Cole find Dr. Peters, who made the virus. Either she’s drinking due to working on stopping the virus, or she’s in denial that she has feelings for Cole, in my opinion.

Cassandra finds Peters, who is in a locked storage box but sends him off without killing him. I find that a bit odd for her not to do after searching and finding answers.

But as for Marker, he meets with this mysterious woman who tells him that Cassandra is an essential part of him and them. It looks like Marker could be helping with an army of the 12 Monkeys, it seems.

Cole, on the other hand,  returned to 2043 as his health had become an issue from time traveling. Jones decides to try temporarily saving him by using this excellent glass-lung machine.

12 Monkeys - Season 1Ramse soon came back to Splinter after his girlfriend's death. He returns the serum but soon goes full combat mode, takes things under his control, and tries to kill Jones.

The shocking scene came near the end when Jones escaped from Ramse’s rampage. He decides to use the Core and goes back to 1987.  Cole now has more on his plate than ever before: stopping the development of the virus in 1987 and also finding and killing Ramsey.

This episode held up to its expectations from its previous episode. The storyline through now has been outstanding and well-telling. These characters have changed a lot since the beginning, and now their emotions seem to make them make some hard decisions. I literally can’t wait for the next episode.

And yet more questions are being asked, like what’s the need for Cassandra? Was that the future version of Cassandra talking to Ramse? Just how long will Cole have to survive traveling in time? Does anyone think that Ramse decided to use the Core

You can catch 12 Monkeys on Friday nights at 9/8c on SyFy.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Weekend Catch Up 2



It's catching-up time here, and I thought that I would do another weekend catch-up with some shows and talk about other shows that I haven't seen yet but will soon. I've been busy these last couple of weeks with things, so let's get started.

Chicago Fire: "Forgive You Anything"

This week's episode of Chicago Fire deals with Boden back as Chief and,d well, more tension for the firehouse crew with that spot open for Squad. When Severide sees an old friend telling him he's ready to return to work, Severide takes it to Boden and gives the guy a chance. 

Now word gets out that this guy did something terrible in his last firehouse, but rumors are rumors, right? With him joining, joining doesn't make Mills happy about that. He thinks his vertigo is gone and does a crazy stunt to save a guy to prove he's all well. 

Tension rises, and well, let's say we'll see what Mill's test results will be. Also, I want to meet Kelly's high school friend, who works in Chicago. This is a clue that we're close to the spin-off episode, which is just a couple of weeks. 
 Kelly didn't apologize to his friend, and now things are looking good. 
This upcoming episode will bring a heated temper Herrmann to the table as he'll go full Rambo on a guy that probably set a house fire with his kid in it. 

You can see Chicago Fire Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC

The Blacklist" The Major"

This week's episode brought a lot of history to the forefront. The best way to call this is that it's a Blacklist episode with a clip show mixed into it. And it made one hell of an hour of television in my book.

Liz is being prosecuted for the death of the boat guy, who is. When the judge questioned why what she was doing was private, it turned into the Judge asking Liz about her work and the whole meaning of Reddington and the blocklist
As that is going on, Red is on the hunt for The Major, who takes young kids and builds them up to be dangerous spies like Tom.

But as soon as the detective finds a clue inside the boat, a bullet from Keen's gun, things don't look promising for Liz or even Cooell, who lied to the Judge.

I'm so impressed with this episode. The first time we don't get to see Liz go after a black star, it's still one of the best hours of television. It was intense and hilarious at times.

This coming episode will be something.

You can catch The Blacklist Thursday nights at 9/8c on NBC.

 

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Eye Candy 

I know I haven't written anything in the past month of this series, but it still doesn't mean I don't love the show. I still do. This series is one of the best shows I've seen on MTV.

There has been tension between Lindy and Tommy throughout the series, which makes me think that these two are liking each other. But who knew after last week's episode that the Flirtual killer is an e. Who knew?

I didn't see that coming at all. 

The season finale is going to be such good to tune into tonight. I hope this series will return; it has pulled away from its killer storyline to do other things, too. ,

You can catch Eye Candyon on Monday nights at 10/9c on MTV.


This week:

This week,k I'm looking forward to this Tuesday night of comedies on NBC: Undateable and One Big Happy. 

Undateable was last summer's #1 comedy; it returns this Tuesday with a new cast member. Bridgit Mendler (Good Luck Charlie) is the latest bartender at Justin's bar and maybe even a new love interest, too. 

From all the promos and behind-the-scenes, this will be a season of hilarious guy stuff and, hopefully, others. 
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Another new comedy is One Big Happy, produced by Ellen DeGeneres. It's a comedy that involves two best friends, one gay female, and one straight male, and when one wants to have a baby, they start trying until the guy gets married. But when he tells her that he got married, she becomes pregnant. 

From the promos and trailers, this series looks very good. I love a good show that's about two best friends. It kind of has that Will & Grace feel. 

You can catch Undateable and One Big Happy Tuesdays nights at 9/8c and 9:30/8:30c on NBC.





 

Friday, March 6, 2015

Opposite Rescue: The Blacklist "T. Earl King VI"

     

In one of the weirdest blacklister so far and a complete opposite of who's saving who, this episode again wasn't a disappointment. 

This week's blacklister is of a family who have been capturing and selling more than just priceless items but people too for more the two centuries. The family known as the King run by Earl and his two sons that play Russian Roulette after each auction. 

I found these three characters interesting, like in they're messed up interesting for doing something like this to people and to themselves. Brothers will be brothers and compete with each other fighting for probably daddy's power. 

When Red founds out that one of his associates was captured by the Kings, he gets Liz and the FBI to investigate but when Red gets info from Liz of the whereabouts, he goes and gets caught in a setup. 

The one thing to take away from this episode was how we're use to seeing Red rescue Liz from danger or Russler. But in this episode, it's the complete opposite as Liz rescues Red and he doesn't seem happy about that at all. 

That last scene with Red and Liz in the van, Red tells her not to do that ever again. Liz gives it to him by telling him that the proper way of saying is thank you. 

He does but repeats to never doing that again and we see Liz looking ahead with tears rolling down. 

I think in a way, with what has happen in the past couple of episodes have given her something to think about. 

The other matter with this episode was with the return of Tom. We only had one scene with him and Liz talking on the phone. Does anyone think that these two will be together or are in a way still have feelings for each other? 

All in all, I gave this episode a B+ overall. I like how the characters were for Red and Liz and even Tom. Each seeing more growth especially Tom. The blacklister isn't one of my top favorites but it's one of those serious but not deadly serious kind of characters if I could put it in those terms.

You can catch The Blacklist Thursday nights at 9/8c on NBC

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Teniosn and Reunion: Chicago Fire "Red Rag the Bull for Mouch




It's pretty good you know who your friends are and your enemies too. This week's episode of Chicago Fire brought the heat up a bit with the tensions and also a family reunion?

Tension rises between the new chief and Casey even more when he confronts him about how they should share the divorce alimony. Then of course, Welch didn't help things either being in between them.

It was when they get a call to a apartment fire that things really took off. When they get there, there was a girl in there but just before going in, someone down the street was running to get help that her grandfather fell. The new chief decided that Casey and his team need to go and Severide's team take the fire.

That turned out to be the wrong decision. As Severide and Capp rescue the little girl, to their acknowledge that no one else was there, the tenant of the apartment jumped off the third floor as he was trying to help look for the girl.

The new chief gave his version to the bosses, but when Severide heard some of it. He decided to give his own version of what actually happen. So with two firefighter's own version, the chief tried to get Welch to sign his version of what happen but he decided not to after Casey saving his life from a drive by shooting during a call.

Welch was dismissed from House 51, but the important part of this was that Casey and Welch kind of settled their differences and shook hands. Finally that bad blood had ended.

Even though I do love heavy rivalry between a group or two people, I love how this handled out with Welch finally seeing how good of a firefighter Casey really is.

Another matter, apparently Mouch is a father. It was years ago that Mouch had done some sperm donating as anonymous, but a computer issue accidentally released his name and well his son has been trying to contact him.

Mouch for most of the episode not wanting to see him but when Pratt talks to him he does make an effort but then left.

I thought it was a great character development for Mouch. We get to see him struggle with this life decision of will he or won't he meet with his son. I was mad that he didn't get to see him in person.

One more thing, I thought it was one of the funniest stories in this episode, when Herrmann got to visit Bowden just to talk about what's going on over at House 51. Bowden's wife comes down, sent him to take care of their son and that's when she told Herrmann that he needs to go back to work.

After the results with the new chief, Bowden is back and his wife gave one of the best pretend reactions I've ever seen.

All in all, I thought that this episode was pretty good. I loved the tension between the new chief and Casey and Severide, and I thought that the storyline was tight and nice that it was a good two story arc. If things might get better , who knows?  But next week deals with Severide rescuing someone in a van but that van is under a pile of rocks. Can he get out before him, the victim become a squash bug?

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

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Welcome back to the Ride: The Night Shift "Recovery" & "Back at the Ranch"



"Recovery" (2/23/2015)


In the season premiere, TC has been suspended for his actions in the season finale, due to PTSD. To keep him busy, he's saving lives on his own time and we see him rescuing a kid who fell off a cliff.

He and another rescue worker try to get the kid up but when the kid stops breathing, TC has to do something then and there in mid air. Nothing but a something stuck in the throat and dislodging it would do.

Things have changed, Dr. Za is now in charged of the ER and not Jordan. Drew is going throw some relationship stuff with his boyfriend since last season and Michael is going through some post surgery ideal.

The season opener started off great. It felt like it even though this was the second season that it felt like a pilot for someone that hasn't seen the series. The new surgeon, Joey, seems to be interesting to watch. Plus Jordan's triangle relationship between TC and Scott makes interesting television there, I would believe.


"Back at the Ranch" (3/2/2015)


When TC is officially back from been suspended, he takes care of a woman who gets shot accidentally by her husband, who thought was an animal getting it their yard. Apparently, TC couldn't save her and takes it very hard.

I know TC is a rebel and that he thinks that he needs to save everyone that comes through those doors but he really needs to know that death somethings comes and he can't do everything to save them. Jordan tells him at least.

Meanwhile, after last week quieting being the boss and wanting to be a doctor, Michael returns and becomes a physician's assistant and well from Dr. Za and other employees, he gets some much needed treatment.

I really enjoyed Michael getting some treatment after treating others pretty badly when he was a boss.

Some of the stories this episode was pretty interesting and some cases that I couldn't understand until they figured out. Who knew that if someone drank antifreeze that beer could help or that when someone comes in with a separated shoulder pops it back in and then walks and has a head injury that's caused from concussion from playing sport.

I did enjoy the moments that TC and Joey had, I felt it was something that TC needs to listen to from someone that has been there and well has beaten the things TC has seen.  This episode had some good moments that were funny and serious.

Next week's episode will deal with one single moment that can go wrong and that wrongfulness starts a chain reaction. Hell's breaking lose in the ER.

You can catch The Night Shift Monday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

Monday, March 2, 2015

The X-Files: I Would Want Them Back






Let me first say that I was never a fan of The X-Files at all when if first aired during it's nine year run on FOX. I never like a show that scares the crap out through my pants and can't fall asleep. I would have nightmares for months maybe years.

But a few of years ago ( I want to say summer of 2012), I've watched  The X-Files on Netflix and soon I got hooked on it. I ordered the really, original box set on DVD of the series and let me tell you that challenge of watching it too forever.

When I began with seasons one and two, I was blown away from it. Yes it was scary to this day even if this was out in 1993. Season one was pretty raid I would have to say, I loved how they had this character known as squeeze who was the scariest thing that season.

As for season two, I'd enjoyed it, it might not be my ultimate favorite season but it was still great. The Flukeman stood out of my mind when I think of season two but also that arc with Mulder searching for the truth in the episode "Anasazi."

Season three was also great but it was from season four to season seven that I really enjoyed the show. There were so much amazing story telling that those four seasons are my favorite out of the whole series.

I enjoyed episodes like "Home" and "Leonard Betts." Also not to mention the storyline of Scully's cancer. That was so remarkable that Gillian Anderson deserved that Emmy Award win.

Season five was another home run season for the series. I enjoyed that cliffhanger from season four to the two part series premiere in season five.  The story of Mulder finding the cure for Scully's cancer was just so remarkable because even if he doesn't say it that he loves her, he''l fight to the end to help her and protect her from any harm.

They made a great way into the film of the show, The X Files: Fight the Future. I love that movie so much that I play the soundtrack many times til I found something else. Also I kept playing the DVD of the movie more and more. Hell, I do recommend to anyone if they haven't seen the series that they could ether start from the beginning or this film.

I will admit that season six was a bit Hollywood type of show. There were so humorist stuff and things that didn't quite go with the form mate of the series but I enjoy it.  I enjoyed "The Beginning," "Drive," "Triangle," How the Ghost Stole Christmas," "Monday," and "Biogenesis."

In season seven, the show found its feet again and it was another great season of storytelling and plus the relationship of Mulder and Scully intense to I love you. I do think that after seven seasons that its time that these guys said it. You can hold it for so long util there's nothing left to do but go that route. I love the two part season premiere of the season. I enjoyed episodes like "X-Cops," "all things," "Hollywood A.D.," and Requiem."

 For season eight and nine, I liked it but it wasn't my top list of favorite seasons. I do think that if Mulder was taken that Scully was going to need a new partner and a partner who doesn't see what they've seen for the past seven years.

I'm not a fan of John Doggett at first but he did grew on me at the end of the series. The Scully baby was an interesting storyline for season eight. I can see that the show was losing it's steam and losing its touch that the series was once was a huge hit. I really didn't think that if Scully was going to leave that the show would have carried on with Doggett and Monica Reyes.

They could be the complete opposites of Scully and Mulder but with the original duo, it's never going to be the same.

The series finale of the series was not as bad but not as good. I see that they try to end the show but open up to the possibility that a movie or two will be in the future. It's not one of the best finales of all time but it was a decent one to end the series.

I don't even know if I want to talk about the second film or not. As soon as I watched the series finale, I watched the second feature film The X Files: I Want to Believe. It was bad but it was a bit dull when first watching it.

After the second and third time watching it, it was good. Carter said that he wanted to do a Monster of the Week storyline but that seem to not work in this case

I think that now that its 2015, we would all want another film. But when word got out a month or two ago that The X Files might get a reboot with Scully and Mulder coming back. That would be like amazingly super awesome!!! Wouldn't we want them back somehow in this new media?