Television Reviews

NCIS: Origins – Monsoon

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Monsoon
  • wiki: link

While dealing with the murder of a Vietnam vet, Franks‘ (Kyle Schmid) taking a homeless vet under his wing brings back painful memories of aimless time between his service and finding NIS. The episode works as a companion piece to “Flight of Icarus” in exploring Franks’ backstory. The flashbacks of the episode include his first encounter with Tish (Tonantzin Carmelo) which also ties into his current obsession of finding the man who assaulted her. The two pieces fit together nicely when his confession of what he’s been up to, despite previously promising he would drop the case, causes the abrupt end of their relationship.

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Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Raph Thinks It Through

  • Title: Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Raph Thinks It Through
  • wiki: link

Following the same format of the first two episodes of the series, “Raph Thinks It Through” offers a standalone tale for Raphael (Brady Noon) who spends most of the episode strung up by the Purple Dragons who fish him out of the river following his fight with a Mechazoid. Unable to use his brawn, Raph is forced to use his brains (especially after the killer robot tracks him to the gang’s lair). While the dimwitted Hun (Carlin James) was okay, I didn’t love the show’s interpretation of the Purple Dragons, particularly the animation for Angel (Jamila Velazquez), but the episode works well-enough for another one-off focused on one of the Turtles working outside their usual comfort zone while not being able to rely on their brothers.

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Shifting Gears – Jimmy

  • Title: Shifting Gears – Jimmy
  • IMDb: link

“Jimmy” is something of a misfire for Shifting Gears which introduces Lucas Neff as Riley’s (Kat Dennings) husband Jimmy. It’s always tricky when introducing an ex after never showing us an example of the couple together. The show never really sells Riley and Jimmy as a couple who would have stayed together for years other than that Riley appears weak in the knees for the man’s musical talent (which we don’t see a single example of on-screen). Nothing here does anything positive for the Riley character. Arriving in time for Carter’s (Maxwell Simkins) birthday, the premise of the episode moves from Jimmy attempting to win back Riley to instead win back his son’s love. Once transitioning to that aspect, which is something even Matt (Tim Allen) can get behind, the episode works better. However, overall it’s quite hit-and-miss.

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Goosebumps – Monster Blood

  • Title: Goosebumps: The Vanishing – Monster Blood
  • wiki: link

“Monster Blood” offers a Blob episode with Cece (Jayden Bartels), and later Devin (Sam McCarthy) and Frankie (Galilea La Salvia), chased around the city and subway by something grown from drippings of the killer car and her kombucha. It’s basic horror, with all kinds of questions such as why the subway is completely abandoned aside from the three kids, but there’s fun to be had. The episode also fills in Cece’s backstory revealing the rather large lie she’s been keeping from everyone. Elsewhere, Anthony (David Schwimmer) continues to struggle to find the missing specimen finding no help from Trey (Stony Blyden) who isn’t sure what happened to him. The two stories converge in the final few minutes as Anthony’s kids find their father in the ruins of Fort Jerome raising new questions for all about what is going on and who is responsible.

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Interior Chinatown – Detective

  • Title: Interior Chinatown – Detective
  • IMDb: link

“Detective” offers a big change for the show and a new path for Willis (Jimmy O. Yang) as the department begins looking into his brother’s disappearance in earnest. Willis, teamed with Turner (Sullivan Jones) shows off a knack for the job while Lana (Chloe Bennet) being paired with Green (Lisa Gilroy) provides the missing background of her relationship with Jonathan (Chris Pang) and events surrounding his disappearance. Together, Green and Lana discover the crashed boat which Jonathan had apparently been using to flee the area providing a potential end to the case (although the show is far from over).

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