True Reviews, Updates and Common Sense Opinions
This Amazon original, much like the Carnival Row, is not for the faint of heart. It plays off of the fall out of the Holocaust with the show dating back in 1977.
Continue reading “Hunters (2020) after one episode | Amazon Original”
The Flash is back for the second half of the season. After the events of the crisis, Team Flash is ramping up its operations again.
Continue reading “The Flash: Marathon | 6 x10 – review”
Freeform’s 2020 drama, Party of Five started off like the generic mellow dramatic teen television show. But it quickly pulled on the viewer’s heartstrings.
Continue reading “Party of Five after one episode”
I was looking for something to occupy my family during the holiday break and somehow came across NBC’s Superstore. I, like you, have seen the commercial, stared blankly at the TV and then turned my attention to something else. However, during the holiday sometimes desperate times cause for television broadcasted shows.
Continue reading “Is Superstore worth binging? (NBC)”
Part 3 of CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover / The Flash begins with New Gotham on Earth-203 getting consumed by the anti-matter. The heroes have been unsuccessful in stopping the multiverse from being destroyed by the anti-matter.
Continue reading “The Flash: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Pt. 3 | 6 x09 (the CW)”
Here is a in-depth, but easy to follow review of what is happening in the Crisis On Infinite Earths cross-over event on the CW.
Continue reading “Crisis on Infinite Earths – Arrowverse (part 1 & 2) (the CW)”
After taking a week off, the CW’s flash returned to Tuesday night. Harrison ‘Nash’ Wells tells Iris, Barry, and a few other people about the Monitors hideout in the tunnels of the city. He calls the Monitor a cosmic imposter with delusions of grandeur who is trying to invoke fear. Nash’s goal is to expose the Monitor. He thinks this will also save Barry.
Continue reading “The Flash: License to Elongate | 6 x06 – (the CW)”
[This review was contributed by (AF).]
Paris, France gets a piece of the Netflix streaming action with its comedy-drama The Hook Up Plan. With a mixed cast of newcomers and award-winning talent, the audience won’t mind reading the subtitles for this french entertainment.
Continue reading “The Hook Up Plan (Netflix) | Series Review”
After watching the first episode of Nancy Drew on the CW, I wasn’t impressed. For me, the show started off very bland. Nancy’s afternoon quickies with the neighborhood mechanic did nothing for me, and her job at the local diner didn’t add anything to her character. Plus, During Nancy’s narration, she says that she isn’t curious anymore since her mom passed, but she is. As soon as something weird happens she jumps headfirst into detective work and brings her coworkers along with her.
Continue reading “Nancy Drew based on one episode (CW)”
This week in Central City, Ramsey Rosso finally ascended into madness while trying to cure his terminal illness, HLH. The episode began with Ramsey sneaking into Central City General (the city hospital) and stealing 10 liters of blood. He believes he can rebuild his cellular structure with the new blood and Romero’s blood and create a cure.
Continue reading “The Flash: There Will Be Blood | 6 x 04 (the CW)”
In this episode of The Flash on CW, Barry and Iris begin to process the Monitor’s message. They are not willing to accept the Flash has to die to save everyone, so Barry decides to time travel to the future and see the crisis for himself.
Continue reading “The Flash: A Flash of the Lightning | 6×02 (the CW)”
This may sound biased, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about The Flash. Most specifically about how the CW has portrayed Barry Allen, Iris West-Allen and the rest of Team Flash.
What do I mean?
Continue reading “Opinion: Do we need the Flash adaption from DCEU?”
Previously on Swamp Thing, the bad guys came out on top. The Conclave, Jason Woodrue, and Avery Sunderland abducted Holland from the swamp and moved him to a mobile lab in Marai.
Abby was left out in the cold with no idea about her status with the CDC or the whereabouts of her friend Dr. Edwards, and it looked like all hope was lost.
Now, all hope is definitely lost because everything we’ve known up to this point is a lie!
Spoilers ahead
It’s important to remember that Jason Woodrue has a wife named Caroline and she is suffering from an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. In this episode we see Caroline get progressively worse even while taking her medicine. Because she’s getting worse, Jason is motivated to experiment on Holland to develop a miracle cure for her.
As a result of Woodrue’s desperation, Holland is abducted from the swamp, placed on a table with power damping technology, and in a medically induced coma for exploratory surgery.
“You’re not a man at all. You’re a plant that thinks its a man.” – Jason Woodrue
At some point during this surgery, he wakes up. Despite expressing that he can feel everything Woodrue proceeds taking out organs, yanking them at points to observe them.
Woodrue concludes that Holland is not the man on the table. The man on the table is a memory shell made up of the plants from the swamp. He suspects that during the explosion at Skeeter Cove, Alec Holland died. However, due to the mutagens in the water affecting the plants, his DNA mixed with the mutagens and the plants formed this body and tried to replicate the human condition, specifically Holland’s memories.
WHAT!
So Woodrue’s theory is that the Swamp Thing is not Holland after all!
“I don’t care. I’m not giving up on Alec.” – Abby Arcane
While all of this is happening, Abby asks Liz to help her find where they are keeping Holland. At the same time, Daniel Cassidy wakes up at the hospital and finds the swamp stranger (the one from the movie set) at his bedside.
The swamp stranger shows him a vision of a possible future of Liz and Abby getting shot up via the Conclave while looking for Holland.
What is the swamp stranger exactly? He just comes out of nowhere when he feels like it.
Anyway, Cassidy fights the urge to be Blue Devil and save Liz and Abby but eventually, he succumbs to either temptation or guilt and goes to help.
In real-time, Abby and Liz find out about Caroline’s condition and conveniently about the mobile lab. So they go to the lab and almost get shot up, but this time the lights go out, the Blue Devil tears all of the Conclave soldiers to shreds, and then runs away after he’s spotted by Liz and Abby.
He must have passed out because he wakes up later in the episode in human form and sees all of the carnage he has caused.
Abby and Liz make it to Holland in the lab and watch him regenerate after being cut to bits. Then he stands up and says that he has to go back to Skeeter Cove to see if Woodrue is right. Abby follows him and Liz goes to investigate the group we know as the Conclave.
Meanwhile, Avery has Maria locked up in a psych ward because she tried to have him killed. Matt Cable gets drunk in a bar and then crashes into a pole while driving.
Don’t drink and drive folks.
“This ‘thing’ is what I am, Alec Holland is …” – The Swamp Thing
Abby and Holland make it to Skeeter Cove and Holland dives into the water. He slowly rises with a rotting skeleton in his arms. The actual corpse of Alec Holland. He died in episode one and was replicated due to the mutagen in the swamp.
How bazaar!
I think this is the biggest surprise of the season. Especially when you think back to Holland and Abby having the moment in the swamp where the Swamp Thing looked like Holland due to the pheromones he released.
How will they wrap up this season?
Will Avery get away with everything or is he in trouble now that Swamp Thing has escaped? Or will he have to answer to the Conclave?
What will Abby do now that the truth about Alec’s death is out?
Can Daniel Cassidy leave Marai now since he saved Abby and Liz?
Is Maria stuck in the hospital forever?
Is Matt Cable dead from the car accident?
Will Jason give up now that Caroline’s condition is worse?
And most importantly, what will the Swamp Thing do now since he’s not a real person?
I can’t wait until the season finale!
Previous episode – Swamp Thing S01 E08: The Long Walk Home (review)
So much happened in this season of Stranger Things! It is a truly exciting episodic adventure and I am glad I watched it. However, there was so much happening that I decided to break up the review into two parts. It’ll be easier to follow that way I’m sure.
Let’s catch up on Stranger Things episodes 1 through 4 in season 3.
Everything is going somewhat well in Hawkins, Louisiana when we meet back up with Eleven (El) and the gang. Hopper is miserable because El and Mike are getting more action than him every night. Local businesses, including Joyce’s, are closing or suffering because a new mall has opened called Starcourt. The entire community is spending time there at the new mall and people are losing work too. But, overall things seem normal.
That is until a blackout in Hawkins knocked out the power for a moment and rats start gravitating toward a warehouse in town. Joyce notices and tries to get Hopper to help her investigate with her, but he’s too preoccupied with trying to date her. Eventually, he comes around and they follow a lead to find out if Hawkins Lab, which was destroyed last season, is the root of this issue.
Not too much is happening until we catch up with Billy, Max’s older brother. He’s a lifeguard this summer and has the hots for an older woman. They plan a date and Billy takes his car to pick her up, but he never makes it because he drives past the warehouse that is giving off weird vibes and attracting crazy amounts of rats at this point.
Somewhat of a shock wave knocks Billy off course and causes an accident. A shadowy figure drags Billy into the warehouse and I assure its all bad from there.
As a result of Billy’s abduction, the older lady is stood up, sort of. It’s okay though because she has a husband and children. One of those children is Nancy.
Nancy is dating Jonathon Byers. They are interning at the Hawkins post this summer, but the editors treat her like she’s incompetent. Nancy comes across a story regarding rabid rats eating chemicals around the town. The editors don’t take her seriously, so she decides to investigate on her own with Jonathan.
Let’s jump back to 1 year before these events. In a place that looks a lot like Siberia, Russian scientists tried to reopen a portal to the Upside Down. They were given a year time frame to open it and keep it open by an unnamed General who was awfully sweaty.
At first, I thought they were trying to weaponize the portal and its beings, but then I realized the General was sweaty!
Let me explain.
Next time we see Billy, he is a sweaty, nasty, violated mess. That’s when it hit me. Billy is infected by the Mind Flayer and so was the General who gave the order in the previous year!
We find out that the Mind Flayer wants to spread himself across Hawkins and the rest of the world by infecting more people. He tells Billy this much. It sends Billy on a rampage to abduct people and take them back to the Mind Flayer for infection.
We meet back up with El, Mike, Max, Lucas, Will, and Dustin. Dustin recently returned from a camp where he made a high powered satellite to talk to his girlfriend, Suzie.
When he uses it, Suzie doesn’t answer, but he overhears a secret Russian transmission.
Transmission: The week is long, silver cats feed, when blue meets yellow in the west (playing over Indiana Flyer Much)
Mike, Lucas, and Will are caught up in the boyfriend, girlfriend drama with El and Max. So Dustin takes his findings to Steve and his co-worker, Robin, at the ice cream parlor in Starcourt. They begin to decode the message and they discover it’s a message telling the people involved when and where to meet underneath Starcourt.
At the same time, Billy has abducted his lifeguard co-worker, Heather.
El ends up having a weird feeling about Heather and Billy so sure uses her powers to spy on them and sees Heather in trouble. Max and El run over to Heather’s house to find Billy is over for dinner.
Billy almost convinces El and Max to back off, but then Mike, Will, and Lucus call for a code red the next day.
Let me back up.
During that same rainstorm, Mike and Lucus are trying to figure out how to get back with their girlfriends. Mike is broken up with El because he lied to her after Hopper threatened him. And Max and Lucas are on the outs because of El and Mike.
Will just wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons but Mike and Lucas wanted to win their girls back. Will threw a tantrum and ran out in the rain. During Will’s tantrum, Billy and Heather abduct her parents and give them to the Mind Flayer. Will recognizes an all too familiar feeling and alerts his friends that that Mind Flayer is back.
Turns out, Heather’s dad, Tom, the boss of Nancy and Jonathan. The next day he turns up to work looking all sweaty, nasty, and like a violated mess. He fires Nancy and Jonathan for continuing their investigation after they were told not to mess with the rats anymore.
He’s been infected!
Nancy still feels compelled to do this story despite pretty much breaking up with Jonathan due to class issues and losing her internship. With the encouragement of her mother, she sets up to continue investigating the rats.
Remember, the rabid rats are feeding on chemicals around town. Jonathon and Nancy previously met with a little old lady, Doris Driscoll. She caught one in her basement. When they came back to check on her during the rainstorm, they found her eating the rat. That’s what ultimately got them fired.
Code red!
Back with Dustin, Steve, and Robin, they hatch a plan to get into the secret room that the Russians are using under Starcourt by using the vent system. Dustin can’t fit so they bribe a little girl named Erica to help.
Erica shimmies her way into the room and opens the door from the inside. They find cases of vials filled with green liquid. They try to leave with a sample but the room begins to move. The room is actually an elevator to an underground facility.
My guess is that it is the same facility that they are trying to open the portal to the Upside Down from.
Joyce and Hopper were attacked while visiting the Hawkins Lab by a man on a motorcycle. Hopper followed his intuition and managed to get some addresses from Larry, a real estate agent working with the Russians to acquire land and buildings in Hawkins.
Larry tells Hopper that the people he’s working with are not to be messed with. Hopper beats him up after they exchange jabs about Hopper’s past substance abuse issues and go to follow the address trail with Joyce. Larry makes a phone, most likely to the same people he just told Hopper not to mess with.
Meanwhile, Max El Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max plan to lock Billy in a sauna to confirm that he is infected.
Of course, he is and he ends up getting into a fight with El. She almost wins, but she throws him out of a window allowing him to escape.
Billy runs back to his warehouse hideaway to find Heather waiting for him. He tells her how Eleven almost killed him. Heather says it’s okay because “She can’t beat us.”
The final shot of episode four is an entire group of people that they’ve abducted and fed to the Mind Flayer. They are all sitting in wait!
Why did this show get canceled?
It just keeps getting better and better each week. It’s explosive, creepy, mysterious, suspenseful and slightly predictable all at the same time.
A lot of information was given to the viewer this week, including the fact that Avery Sunderland is a scumbag on purpose and he’s been bending the town to his will for far longer than we’ve been led to believe.
Spoilers ahead
During my recap of episode 3, I assumed that Sheriff Lucilia Cable was covering up for Avery Sunderland in some capacity. I was wrong, but now I’m right.
Let me explain.
In episode 4, Avery tried to feel Lucilia up in his dining room while Maria was upstairs drowning in her grief. Lucilia said no, leading me to believe that they once had a thing. Well, it turns out they still have a thing. And they meet up to do that thing at a hotel in Marais. We find that out right away during this episode (Drive All Night).
However, what surprised me the most is what happens when Lucilia gets a lead about who blew up Holland in the swamp. She visits Remy Debois and he reveals that Matt, her son, actually pulled the trigger while standing in Avery’s boat. This was his attempt at blackmail, but she immediately shoots him down.
So we find out that Matt did Avery’s bidding in killing Holland. My previous theory pegged Avery as the type to do his own dirty work, which he is, but apparently just not that time. Since my theory that Avery did it himself is debunked now, I have another one.
Matt is being black mailed by his father! His father is Avery!
I wouldn’t put it past Avery. He’s sinister. Just because he likes Lucilia doesn’t mean he’s above it. Who cares if he did give her a ring once. Plus, he has stock in a lot of the real estate in Marai’s. We find that out when he threatens Liz at the town bar because she’s now investigating the disappearance of Haas (the banker). He also has goons try to intimidate her while leaving the bar, but Daniel (the Blue Devil) comes to her aide.
“What’s in here, nobody can take away but you.” – Friendly Swamp Stranger
The supernatural aspect of the Swamp Thing is ramping up. The “green” appears in the form of a friendly stranger to Holland and helps him calm down long enough to hear the warning coming from the swamp.
Through Holland, we find out how Shawna Sunderland drowned. Something drug her down until she drowned in the swamp. Abby couldn’t save her. As a result, Abby was spared by the darkness in the swamp but pushed out of the town due to guilt.
Shawna is the representation of the darkness. She possesses Susie Coyle and draws her mother and Abby to the swamp. Maria is actually trying to drown herself to be with her daughter, but Abby tries to save her. However, Maria has a V for Vendetta so she turns and tries to drown Abby. Eventually, Holland comes to Abby’s rescue and disappears when Matt Cable shows up.
Ms. X (or Ms. Xanadu) tells Abby that there is a supernatural door open, Shawna’s soul has been corrupted by the darkness of the swamp, and she’s come to kill her. Abby is hesitant to believe her because when she was 8, Ms. X told her how to take care of her mom, but her mom still died. That’s actually Abby’s motivation for becoming a doctor.
Lastly, Dr. Woodrue’s curiosity about the specimen Abby showed him made him go investigate Hollands old lab. As you know, Abby gave him access to information in order to use science to figure out what is causing the mutation of Holland. But now that Woodrue figured out that there is something special going on and he’s been instructed to capture whatever being the specimen came from to do more research.
I’m wondering if Daniel (the Blue Devil) is going to aid Holland against Avery and the darkness or if he will act as another foe during the show. Remember, he’s bound to the town but forces we haven’t been introduced to yet. Could they instruct him further?
We are halfway through the season, and it seems like Woodrue and Holland are the only characters getting important information. Everyone else is still clueless. Unless you count Sheriff Lucilia, who probably already knew her son was involved in treacherous deeds.
We’ll see.
This is the second part of the Stranger Things recap. If you weren’t aware of the first part, please click the following link so that you can catch up on season 1.
I wouldn’t want you to jump into season 2 without knowing what’s going on.
I know Stranger Things is kind of a big deal, but perhaps there are some folks who haven’t watched it yet. So with this post, I aim to give you the important plot points of season 2 and get you ready to enjoy season 3 of Stranger Things with the rest of the world.
Great! Here is the Stranger Things season 2 recap simplified.
Season 2
Will is still flashing back and forth from the Upside Down. So his mom, Joyce, takes him to Hawkins Lab to see a new doctor. Good news, he’s not a creeper who kidnaps children. But, he’s still involved him the experimentation surrounding the Upside Down.
Speaking of the Upside Down, Eleven escaped it! Remember, in season 1 she dusted the Demogorgon and they both were sucked into the alternate dimension. Luckily, she found another portal out of there and eventually crossed paths with Chief Hopper and starting living with him.
Will is still going through his problems when his friend Dustin finds the Demogorgon spawn that he barfed up at the end of season 1. Dustin makes it his pet and he names it Dart.
Mike wants to kill Dart, but when he tries it escapes. Dustin eventually finds it again and hides it from the rest of the group because they’ve bonded.
It turns out Dart has siblings and there are other Demogorgon spawns in Hawkins but they aren’t nearly as friendly as Dart. They’re known as Demo-dogs.
Let’s focus on Will. During one of his episodes, he’s approached by a shadowy monster that we later know as The Mind Flayer. He starts deteriorating soon after and drawing visions that he’s having of vines but the picture is segmented in a puzzle. Joyce can’t figure it out, but as luck would have it her boyfriend, Bob is into puzzles.
He figures out that it’s a map of Hawkins. Chief Hopper goes to investigate and finds a bunch of tunnels forming underneath the town. And those Demo-dog are all around. Hopper gets cocooned and almost dies, but is eventually found and saved.
Thank you for cracking the code, Bob.
A group of authorities go to investigate the tunnels further but the Demo-dogs prove to be too much for them and they are mauled to death.
Meanwhile, Eleven is having her own adventure. She finds her mom and discovers the truth about how Dr. Brenner acquired her. She also found out that when her mother came to save her, she was captured and Brenner had her brain electrocuted leaving her in a handicapped state.
Eleven ends up meeting another girl who was in the same situation. Her name is Eight and she is ready to help Eleven exact revenge. She teaches Eleven to use her powers more effectively and they even find the doctor that hurt her mother.
But, Eleven has a good conscience and decides not to go forward with the plan. She does have a psychic connection with her friends in Hawkins and realizes they are in trouble. So she goes back to help them just in the nick of time.
Will is being used by The Mind Flayer and a bunch of people die as a result, including Bob. Plus, the town is being overrun by the Demo-dogs. The group makes a plan to close the portal using Eleven’s upgraded psychic powers. But first, Joyce wants to exercise Will and separate him from The Mind Flayer.
The exorcism works because Joyce turns up a heater and The Mind Flayer does not like that so it runs away after coming up through Wills’ mouth.
Eleven and Hopper go to shut the portal on one end and the rest of the group goes to back her up from inside the woods. Remember, there is a way into the Upside Down from there as well.
They almost get devoured by Demo-dogs, but Dart happens to be around and his connection with Dustin still exists so he sort of causes a distraction for them.
Eleven zips up the portal right in front of The Mind Flayer, locks it away, and all the Demo-dogs die.
All seems well until we find out that The Mind Flayer is definitely plotting his return from the Upside Down.
Now that you are up to speed, I’ll see you for more Stranger Things recaps when season 3 starts on July 4th.