Television Reviews

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Charades

  • Title: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Charades
  • wiki: link

One of the oddest and most unexpected aspects of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the running theme of wacky Freaky Friday-style romcoms centered around Spock‘s (Ethan Peck) love life. And both times it has produced some wonderful television. As in “Spock Amok,” events swirl around engagement to T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) and a Vulcan ceremony to cement their engagement. Also at play here is Nurse Chapel‘s (Jess Bush) feelings for the Enterprise’s science officer who has been noticeably avoiding her of late, unsure how to deal with the feelings he harbors for her. When a shuttle accident leaves Spock injured, and then healed improperly by aliens, a now fully human Spock needs to master his human emotions and prepare for the arrival of T’Pring… and her parents.

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Futurama – Children of a Lesser Bog

  • Title: Futurama – Children of a Lesser Bog
  • wiki: link

“Children of a Lesser Bog” offers one of those episodes of Futurama more memorable for specific moments that an overall story. The episode is the follow-up to the Fourth Season episode involving involving Kif (Maurice LaMarche) giving birth. Now, 20 years later, he and Amy (Lauren Tom) head into the swamps of his homeworld to collect his children (those that aren’t massacred in the episode’s most gruesome joke). With the children developing in different parts of the swamp the two parents end up with a baby, a teenager, and middle in-between child. The episode plays on the usual tropes of early parenthood and on Leela‘s (Katey Sagal) role as the biological mother of the children who are drawn to her. It’s not one of most memorable episodes of the series, but it does have a nice message about non-biological parenting while giving us a minimum amount of Zapp Brannigan (Billy West) zaniness as well.

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My Adventures with Superman – My Interview with Superman

  • Title: My Adventures with Superman – My Interview with Superman
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“My Interview with Superman” highlights one glaring issue with the otherwise strong series in its weak and thoroughly uninteresting choice of villains. After being scooped by Perry (Darrell Brown) assigning the Superman story to other reporters, Clark Kent (Jack Quaid), Lois Lane (Alice Lee), and Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid) begin looking into various unremarkable thugs from Intergang using the same alien tech they’ve seen before which includes sneaking into the prison to look for clues. However, Lois plans to use the chaos Intergang is causing to ultimately get her interview. Strong episode when focusing on the interactions between Lois and Clark (and later Superman), but the reporter introductions are a bit too goofy and Intergang is a disappointment.

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Smallville – Hothead

  • Title: Smallville – Hothead
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Smallville Saturday takes us back to Clark‘s (Tom Welling) first brief stint on the Smallville football team. “Hothead” also marks the first time an adult, rather than someone closer to Clark’s age, becomes a meteor freak. In this case it’s football coach Walt Arnold (Dan Lauria) whose quick temper and fiery disposition is enhanced by the meteor rocks in his steam room making him a Firestarter. The conflict from the episode comes from father vs. son dynamics with Clark disobeying his father and joining the team, and in a short B-story Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) making a similar bold move against his own father. We also get Chloe‘s (Allison Mack) investigation into the football team discovering the bad behavior of its coach (even before he sets the principal’s car on fire) putting herself, and eventually Clark, in danger.

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Only Murders in the Building – Sparring Partners / I Know Who Did It

  • Title: Only Murders in the Building – Sparring Partners / I Know Who Did It
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The final two episodes of the Second Season of Only Murders in the Building allow for Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) to deal with their own personal discoveries while Mabel (Selena Gomez) makes the pivotal connections to solve the case connecting Detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport) to the All Is Not OK in Oklahoma podcast. While our intrepid trio initially suspect Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) of being the mastermind behind the murder in order to create a more popular podcast, for the true brains behind the crime they need to look no further than her assistant Poppy (Adina Verson) who has her own twisted tale to tell.

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