How I Met Your Father – Pilot

  • Title: How I Met Your Father – Pilot
  • IMDb: link

Spin-offs and sequels are tricky. One episode in, the How I Met Your Mother redux feels more like That 80s Show than Frasier, but I would guess Hulu will be willing to give the show as much time as possible to try and find a groove. The set-up of How I Met Your Father follows the same pattern with an older version of the main character (Kim Cattrall) relating stories about their past. In the case here, our lovelorn lead is New York photographer Sophie (Hilary Duff) who misses out on love yet again in the first episode while making some new friends. Like the original, the show teases an obvious answer to the unanswered question of the series, but still leaves the door open for plenty of movement on who Sophie may eventually end up with.

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That’ll Do, Nicolas Cage

  • Title: Pig
  • IMDb: link

Nicolas Cage stars as former chef turned hermit and truffle hunter who is pulled out of his seclusion when his pig is kidnapped. With the reluctant help of the supplier (Alex Wolff) to whom he was selling his truffles, Rob (Cage) begins a search for his missing pig (who, despite the love Rob obviously has for the pig, doesn’t appear to have a name).

Pig is something like John Wick or Taken with all of the violence taken out (okay, almost all of the violence). The film relies on Cage’s performance and the atmosphere provided from the visuals of cinematographer Patrick Scola in exploring both Rob’s wilderness experience and also the underbelly of big city restaurants. Pig glosses over some nagging plot questions and supplies a not-completely-satisfying ending, but that don’t detract too much from Rob and Amir’s (Wolff) unusual journey.

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NCIS: Hawai’i – The Game

  • Title: NCIS: Hawai’i – The Game
  • wiki: link

Lucy‘s (Yasmine Al-Bustami) skills both at poker and undercover work will be put to the test when NCIS inserts her into an underground poker game involving a drug boss who has managed to avoid prison on a technicality. Even the B-story is a bit Lucy-centric as her relationship with Whistler (Tori Anderson) is thrown for a loop with the arrival of an old girlfriend who seems to think she and Whistler are still an item. The later isn’t necessarily a bad development for the character in the long-term, but I am sad to see CBS bailing on the lesbian relationship so quickly.

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