Television Reviews

Invincible – You’re Not Laughing Now

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  • Title: Invincible – You’re Not Laughing Now
  • wiki: link

Keeping to the series’ trademark of overstuffing its episodes with plot, but somehow still managing to end in a cliffhanger, Invincible returns with a new season kicking off with Mark (Steven Yeun) all-in with training under Cecil (Walton Goggins) for months to expand his abilities. We get a couple of early fight sequences for Invincible that are otherwise disconnected from the plot including taking down the Giant (Fred Tatasciore) in the desert and, alongside Rex Splode (Jason Mantzoukas), failing to stop two thieves from stealing the Declaration of Independence when Multi-Paul (Simu Liu) shows up blaming Rex for his sister’s death (except she’ not exactly dead). The latter of these seems like it’s important but it’s dropped almost immediately to pivot to the reveal Dupli-Kate (Malese Jow) is still alive.

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NCIS: Origins – Touchstones

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

A break-in of the evidence room and the theft of $41,000 dollars allows the show to explore the backstory of one of the show’s recurring characters in property master Kowalski (Michael Harney) as events bring old memories and feelings to the surface that cause him to resign (although he’s back with NIS by the end of the episode). The Kowalski situation is also notable for exploring his relationship with Granville (Daniel Bellomy) while the search for the missing money implicates a member of NIS and also allows for another appearance by Special Agent Gary Callahan and ends up being tied to events in “All’s Not Lost” as well.

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Shifting Gears – Grief

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  • Title: Shifting Gears – Grief
  • IMDb: link

I’ve watched a couple episodes of the new Hulu sitcom Shifting Gears starring Tim Allen and Kat Dennings as bickering father and daughter who are forced to reconnect after she moves back home with her son following the disillusion of her marriage. The set up allows both to quip, and, at times, do a small bit of introspection. “Grief,” which focuses on Riley’s (Dennings) attempts to get her father to deal with the grief of her mother’s death, is the best of the episodes I watched ,while still firmly nested in the sitcom trappings of the show, which allows the walls between the two characters to come down long enough for some honest discussion of loss.

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The Irrational – Ghost Ship

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  • Title: The Irrational – Ghost Ship
  • IMDb: link

Aside from exploring family dynamics of Alec (Jesse L. Martin) with his father (Ron Canada), “Ghost Ship” feels like a story that could have been written for any number of procedurals that was adapted for The Irrational. The idea of unraveling a ship with a missing crew is an interesting setup, but the mystery turns out to be rather straightforward (even if it was fun to see Monk‘s Jason Gray-Stanford, albeit in a mostly thankless role). In terms of psychology, Alec is able to get a key witness to relax enough to provide answers, but the show is largely geared to Alec’s damaged relationship with his father and a necessary first-step to remedy that.

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Matlock – Friends

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  • Title: Matlock – Friends
  • IMDb: link

Throughout the season, CBS’ Matlock reboot has played with the idea of Madeline (Kathy Bates) has grown to care for the colleagues she’s working with while secretly spying on them for information related to the death of her daughter. Driven to find the truth, we’ve even seen Maddy close out an episode on the line “we’re not friends.” However, “Friends” showcases how things have changed and how the mock Matlock has come to trust and value Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) as a friend playing into growing friction with Edwin (Sam Anderson) over her priorities which is only further exacerbated over their disagreement on how to handle the bullying of their grandson.

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