The Masked Singer 4x03

 

It seems like I misspoke last week: it's not yet Group C's turn on The Masked Singer, it's Group A again! Which actually fits me better because, as I said before, if there are too long breaks between two appearances by the same singer, I tend to forget everything about them, including if I even liked them the first time. So hopefully this won't happen this season, and it really shouldn't, now that I have the best documented notes and clues I ever wrote for this show. So without further ado, Group A, Part 2!

The Masked Singer 4x02

Okay so this was uhh... a weird night on The Masked Singer. I don't really want to spoil anything (not that anyone who hasn't already seen the episode would read this... right?) so I'm saving the surprise to the end, and instead I'm just going to say this for now: things have definitely improved from last week in terms of singing talent and quality performances. I know the jury was already in awe of Group A, and Nick Cannon even started this night with telling us that "already our panel is calling [season 4] the strongest season yet!" (which I absolutely called last week, by the way), which is obviously still too early to say, BUT, I enjoyed Group B a lot more than I did A. Why? Read on to find out...

 

The Masked Singer 4x01

 

Oh, The Masked Singer. I know this show has many detractors, with lots of people critizing the judges, the quality of the performers, or the whole gimmick, and even the people who keep watching it often bashfully characterize it as a "guilty pleasure". Well, I don't believe in guilty pleasures. I like what I like without being ashamed of anything, and I honestly like this show a lot - although I will admit that some of the steam has went out of it since it began. The contestants in the first season are still the most memorable for me, and while I understand why they wanted to increase the number of them - more celebrities and more wacky constumes, yay! - for me it killed a bit of my immersion in the show. Last season I stopped writing down clues entirely and by the time the same performers rolled around I completely forgot if I even liked them the first time. So I'm not altogether happy that they decided to keep this format, but hey... more wacky costumes, at least! As for the judges, yeah, they can be annoying... all the "No way!!!" even when they guessed someone right four weeks ago, the fawning over mediocre performances as if it was the best thing ever, Ken Jeong's increasingly terrible-on-purpose first guesses... but you know what, I saw the first episode of the Hungarian version, and the Americans have nothing on them in terms of sheer absurdity and horribleness, so I appreciate the fact that it could be much worse.

Before starting to review this season, it's also important to note that I hardly ever guess any of the celebrities right, in fact, I can only remember two times when I did, and even then only after the judges did first and I started to agree with them. Now the reason for this is twofold: the majority of these contestants I've never even heard of (especially all the athletes and radio hosts and reality stars) and the ones I have, I'm just not that familiar with their personal lives or up to date on celebrity gossip of any kind. I literally have no idea who went through a difficult time recently or had self-image issues as a child or got how many kids, and I know even less about where and when they worn born and how many awards they have, which to me seems to make up an unreasonable amount of the clues we get.

Speaking of clues, I did catch up on a few things over the last three seasons that should make it easier to guess them. Generally speaking, there's two rules I follow while guessing:

1. If they reference some super famous song or movie title in a super obvious way, it has nothing to do with their identity (no, judges, it's not Tom Cruise just because he said "succeeding in this business seemed like a mission impossible"). In a related note, I noticed that if the judges latch on to a particular guess really hard, song/movie titles of that person usually start to appear in the clues to make them think they're on to something, but they're not.

2. The majority of the clues require an insane amount of conjecture to get right, and usually include visual puns or wordplay. My "favourite" was the one where an actual baseball bat in Kelly Osbourne's package was supposed to be a reference to her dad's infamous incident with a real, live bat, and I thought that was just really fucking dumb.

None of this really helps my guessing in any way, so usually the only thing I can really count on is recognizing the voice and then somehow fitting the clues to that person... then again, I did not get Bret Michaels until his very last episode and I actually love Poison and know his voice a lot so... maybe I'm just not very good at this.

Before I get into the actual recap of this episode, I feel obliged to address one more thing - that is, the whole Nick Cannon of it all. To start with, I'm not in the least a fan of what in recent years came to be known as "cancel culture". I really don't think people should lose their jobs and have their reputations ruined by something dumb they posted on social media, especially if said posting happened years ago and the person hasn't actually exhibited behaviours reflecting it in real life. This goes for ordinary everyday people, and celebrities as well. Obviously if it's something more serious like actual, provable domestic abuse or child molestation, then go for it. Now, what Cannon did falls into the first category, so I don't think he should have been fired (not that he ever was in any danger, I mean, he's a black man who tweeted about white people being subhuman savages, when has that ever bothered anyone in Hollywood). That said, from the moment I read about his true opinions, I knew I would never be able to take his friendly banter with any of the white judges or contestants seriously ever again... or with his favourite joke-buddy Ken Jeong, for that matter. I'm not sure how black supremacists feel about Asian people, but it can't be good, right? Also, if I was Robin Thicke or Jenny McCarthy, I would probably feel really awkward making nice with this man from now on. But hey... I'm not a Hollywood person whose whole livelihood depends on pretending, so they'll probably be fine.

Alright, now that that's all over and done with... how did Group A fare this week?

Legends of Tomorrow 4x01-05

I don’t think I’ve ever written about Legends of Tomorrow before, so let me start this review with a little confession: it is my favourite Arrowverse show, and no one is more surprised by that than I am. For starters, I only started watching it for two, maybe three reasons: Arthur Darvill, Sara Lance, and to not miss out on any lore-building or continuity nods to the other shows (which, back then, were only Arrow, which I loved, and The Flash, which I liked quite a bit, but not enough to get all the hype for it). What’s more, I couldn’t stand Ray Palmer on Arrow (seriously, I even listed him as one of the many things that ruined season 3 for me), and I wasn’t at all interested in Captain Cold or Heatwave either: they were, in my opininon, unfairly lauded boring, one-note villains, just like every single other villain of the week on The Flash. So pretty much EVERYTHING was against Legends when it started, and season 1 didn’t inspire too much confidence either. But along the way, things started to shift imperceptibly. Ray became insanely likable, Snart and Rory were expanded and built upon as characters I could actually care about, and when season 2 got rid off all the deadweight and introduced Nate and Amaya to the cast, well, that was pretty much it. Couple that with Arrow’s increasingly dark storylines and stagnating quality, The Flash becoming pretty repetitive, as well as Supergirl’s subpar debut season, and Legends quickly became one of the shows I most looked forward to every week.

The Walking Dead 9x06 Who Are You Now?

Generally, I’m not a big fan of time jumps. I hate the feeling of missing out on potentially important developments concerning my favourite characters or couples (you hear that OUAT season 4? Those six fictional months were really important to me), and it’s even riskier when there’s such a big jump that characters invariably have to be recast with actors who will fit their new ages better. You can tell me that it’s the same character all you want, but if the new actors’s not good enough, I simply won’t feel about them the same way ever again. On the other hand, I will admit that sometimes it’s worth to have a time jump for all the new mysteries such a big change could bring (wait, when did that happen? Why are they not talking to each other? Oooh something BIG must have went down, I can’t wait to find out what!)… except when you have insufferable showrunners who handwave it all away with „oh you know, time has passed, people change, you’ll get used to it”… and then that’s another whole new kind of feeling fucked over. So with all that said, I’m happy to say that I really enjoyed The Walking Dead’s first post-time jump episode! By jumping forward a whopping six years, I was spared from having my heart broken from watching Michonne’s fresh grief over Rick’s „death”, which I appreciate a lot. Moreover, the only character who had to be recast was Judith, and her new version is wonderful so far, and there was even a little bit of mystery peppered in, although this is not necessarily the kind of show where I expect that sort of thing. So it was great! Overall I’m still surprised by how much I’m loving this season, and I’m a bit sad we only have two more episodes to go before the winter break.

The Walking Dead 9x05 What Comes After

 

Well that was… an episode. I’m not sure what I expected since it’s been known for a while that it would be a kind of flashback/hallucination episode leading up to Rick’s departure, but was it wrong of me to want a little more out of it? Not more action, necessarily… in fact, I’m kinda loving how lowkey and subdued this season has been so far. It’s been nine years, I don’t crave outrageously gory zombie slaughter every second episode anymore. I like heartfelt conversations and small but meaningful character moments just as much. So was that the problem? That Rick spent his last remaining moments on the show conversing with dead people, instead of getting some closure with his loved ones? Nope. For me, the problem lies in the very fact that this was Rick’s last episode, or more accurately, the fact that I knew this was his last episode. How am I expected to enjoy anything about it when I know that whatever happens, by the end of it Rick will be gone? I guess I could say props to everyone involved for still managing to make it somewhat suspenseful, but that’s hardly consoling. Like, can you imagine the absolute gut-punch this episode could have been if they had kept Rick’s exit a secret? I know I complained about this before but it’s something that’s on my mind a lot, and not just regarding TWD. Generally, I would prefer never to know when an actor is about to leave a show. I want to be surprised and outraged, dammit, not just mildly sad when it finally happens after half a year of knowing it would.

You 1x09 Candace

I expected this episode to be momentous ever since I looked through the upcoming episode titles like two months ago, and boy did it deliver! True, we didn’t meet Candace in the present day just so she could deliver some shocking truths to Beck like I originally expected we would, and neither did we really find out what happened to her - that’s the job of next week’s episode, I guess – but so much else happened in these forty minutes that I almost don’t mind any of that.

The Walking Dead 9x03 Warning Signs

Going into the new season of a beloved TV show knowing that not only one, but two of your favourite characters will be gone by the end is tough. If it was up to me, I would forbid actors and writers to spoil things like this beforehand, because really, what’s the point? Don’t you want your audience to be surprised and outraged when it happens? That’s like the best part of watching any TV show: the fucking plot twists. And while killing off Rick Grimes might not have been such a big twist four seasons ago, it damn well it is NOW. For my part I always thought Rick would die eventually and Carl would take over his legacy, but now that Carl is dead, Rick might as well be invincible… and THAT’S why it would have been the mother of all surprises if he just… died. And then Andrew Lincoln would have been like „Guess what my dudes, I knew this would happen a year ago when I quit my job, but I kept it a secret for all these months because I didn’t want to spoil it for you”. Wouldn’t that have been neat? I can’t believe they cheated me out of it.

You 1x07 Everythingship

Things have improved a lot for Joe Goldberg in the past couple episodes. Not only did he manage to convince Beck to give him a chance, he also eliminated his last remaining rival for her affections, her best friend Peach. Of course, getting rid of Peach didn’t magically make all his problems go away, as any sane person could have told him if only he asked for a second opinion. Murder is very rarely the answer, Joe! But at least it did take the show to some previously unexplored places, for example we got to see Joe and Beck spend some quality time together that was not constantly interrupted by her other jealous psycho stalker. Things were only perfect for a short time, though, as Beck grew increasingly resentful of Joe just… being there for her. If Joe was anyone other than you, you know… himself… I would actually feel bad for him. As it is, I spent a good chunk of this episode gleefully cackling. Finally, he has all he’s ever wanted – that is, Beck all to himself – and she’s ruining it. Fantastic. I truly love this new development.

American Horror Story 8x04 Could It Be... Satan?

 

If you, like me, were starting to get this deep, sinking feeling in your stomach about halfway through the premiere of AHS: Apocalypse, that you and everyone else are about to see your hopes crushed when it’s going to be revealed that the so-called „Murder House/Coven crossover” storyline was supposed to be taken metaphorically… You know, because the season is gonna take place in something like a coven/secret society, but there are also ghosts and shit like in Murder House, but no actual characters from those seasons were ever gonna show up… Well now you can breathe again because nope, the witches are finally here!

This Is Us 3x02 A Philadelphia Story

 

The Pearsons are back! And for some reason I feel really optimistic about this season. I know that we ended things last spring with some pretty difficult cliffhangers that foreshadow dark things ahead, but for me the one big hurdle that made me almost anxious before watching every episode is finally out of the way : Jack is dead. I mean, he’s really dead this time. We saw it, we cried, we never have to worry about „Will this be the episode where Jack dies? Oh god, I can’t watch this.” ever again. It’s kinda like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder and now I can just watch the show, like a normal person. Yay!

You 1x05 Living with the Enemy

Unbelievably enough, Joe and Beck are now officially in a relationship, or I think so, anyway. In American media they usually make a big deal about whether two people are „just dating”, „messing around”, or „being exclusive”. I said it once that this is weird to me because I always imagined that if you don’t like someone after about three dates you should just cut it off and not stay in this undecided place until you can finally decide whether you want to make it exclusive or not, because that’s not fair to anyone. Anyway, Beck was referred to as Joe’s girlfriend by another character in this episode and Joe didn’t correct her, but why would he? It’s Joe. He not only thinks he’s a boyfriend, he’s the PERFECT boyfriend. Jury’s still out on Beck’s opinion though ,since it was already established that she likes to mess around with guys on Tinder and have one night stands, so I’m not sure whatever it is that she has with Joe constitutes a relationship in HER mind. What’s clear is that they’ve been spending a lot of time together, which means that Joe constantly has to hang out with Beck’s awful friends, and needless to stay, things spiral out of control pretty quickly.

Mayans M.C. 1x05 Uch/Opossum

It’s been a while since I checked in with the boys and girls of Santo Padre, but the truth is, not much has happened in the past four episodes that merited a full review. That’s not to say they were bad - if they were, I wouldn’t watch them every week (okay that’s not strictly true since I’m still watching One Dollar too, even though I feel like it’s going absolutely nowhere). It’s just that the storyline is still extremely simple and right now it’s being dragged out to the point of paper thinness, which means that there’s not much to say about it on a weekly basis. That said, the show did earn the fall’s first renewal out of all the new series, so I figured that’s a nice enough reason for me to check in and summarize where we’re standing right now.

Manifest 1x01 Pilot

Manifest was hands down my most anticipated new series of the fall season, partly because its premise sounded very intriguing but more importantly because it stars Josh Dallas –the first of my main OUAT crew to be back on the screen (unfortunately, Rebecca Mader’s Like Family and Ginnifer Goodwin’s Steps didn’t get picked up, although apparently the latter still has some chance next season). I’ve read many opinions about the premiere before I watched it, indeed some before it even aired. Naurally, most people immediately latched onto the similarities with Lost – disappearing plane and all that – but opinions varied as to whether it could become a great success like its predecessor, or if it’s gonna be another one and done series with an interesting idea that it will ultimately fail to build on. As for me, I don’t form opinions before I’ve actually seen the thing. I’m old-fashioned that way. That said, when one commenter desribed the premiere as „This Is Us on a plane”, I was surprised: surely this implies that the show will focus more on family relationships and the personal drama ensuing from people returning after having been presumend dead for five years, instead of the actual mystery behind said disappearance? An unexpected development, but then again, Lost was so great in the first place because somehow it managed to focus on both and never made a big deal about it.

You 1x03 Maybe

Things were heating up on You quite a bit this week, both literally and metaphorically. I was right when I said Beck would fall for Joe if only he asked her out on a date like a normal person. He did, and she had. The problem is, Beck kept putting him at arm’s length because she had fallen for him. She had no problem going on meaningless Tinder dates and having sex with all the guys she met, but with Joe she didn’t want to rush into anything because she likes him. It’s the kind of logic I see a lot on American TV and one I am absolutely unable to relate to. This whole culture of dating multiple people at the same time and being unable to decide whether you want to be exclusive or not is completely alien to me, but hey. It’s just TV. In any case, even if Beck took the simple route and just started dating Joe like she clealy wants to, there’d be obstacles galore.

American Horror Story 8x01-02

This is going to be my first year of watching American Horror Story as it airs live, as I’ve only just recently caught up on all the previous seasons, but even I could tell that this summer there was a louder buzz around the upcoming storyline than usual. It’s pretty easy to guess why: this is going to be the show’s first ever crossover season, bringing together characters from Murder House and Coven, and fans are excited! Everybody from Connie „not seen since season 1” Britton to Frances Conroy to Jessica Freakin’ Lange is back, and that spells something huge, undoubtedly. But what it might also spell is confusion, since most of these people are reprising previous roles as well as playing new ones, and while I know it’s not unprecedented for some of them to play multiple characters in the same season, it’s never happened on this scale before. So it’s either gonna be amazing or a colossal clusterfuck, it can really go either way when it comes to AHS.

You 1x01 Pilot

Usually when I start a new show, I give it 3-4 episodes before I decide whether to keep watching it or not. If I still don’t care about the story or any of the characters after four episodes, it’s time to let go. But every once in a while there comes a series premiere which grabs me by the shoulders, pulls me close and whispers „I’m amazing… you need me in your life” into my ear. Of course, there’s always a chance of deterioration of quality as the season continues, but as a general rule of thumb if I love the premiere, I’m gonna love the rest of the show as well. So chances are I’m gonna love You! It’s definitely my favourite new series of the season so far, and I can easily see it being in my top ten come the end of December.
 

Mayans M.C. 1x01 Perro/Oc

I have a confession to make: I’ve only ever seen the first five episodes of Sons of Anarchy. It’s not that I didn’t like it – although the part where a dude’s full back tattoo was literally fried off his back had lasting impressions on me, and not in a good way – I guess I was just never in the mood for it ever again. That sounds weird, I know, but it’s the truth. For this reason, I wasn’t interested in its spinoff at all either. Then I found out that Sarah Bolger was going to be in it, and as a one-time OUAT guest star I liked, I felt obligated to check out her newest role. But am I really going to get into a show I potentially won’t even understand or like just because of a single actor? … Well yeah, of course I am, it wouldn’t be the first time. So yesterday as I was bracing myself for the episode, I did one last IMDb check, and it turns out she’s not the only one I know in it! Danny Pino, aka Scotty Valens from Cold Case (remember Cold Case? It was such a good series) also stars, and so does Maurice Compte, who played one of my favourite characters in Narcos, Colonel Carrillo. What’s more, apparently not a single member of the main cast ever appeared on Sons on Anarchy, like… not even once. That’s probably not good news for SoA fans who were hoping to see some of their favourites appear here full-time (if they’re still alive, that is), but it was what finally sold me on the series. I’m aware that I’ll probably miss a bunch of in-jokes and easter eggs and the like, but from the premiere I got the feeling that it will mostly be an independent story only tangentially related to SoA, and I’m more than fine with that.

The Purge 1x01 What Is America?

 

I’ve never seen any of The Purge movies but I know enough about them to have come to the conclusion that they’re essentially a questionably executed pretty interesting idea, done over and over again. A 12 hour period when every and all crime is legal, and for some reason all anybody can think about is murder? Please. I have more faith in people than that. Most of us would probably do stuff that would be actually beneficial for us in the long run, like rescue animals from kill shelters, or loot a bookstore. Am I just really naive? Maybe. Probably. The point is, I don’t know anything about the bigger mythology of the franchise, if such a thing even exists, which means I’ll probably miss tons of references and such in the TV series, at least until I finally bring myself to watch the movies.

One Dollar 1x01-02

Literally the only thing I knew about One Dollar when I decided to watch its first episode was that it features several characters who at one point each possess the titular one dollar bill, and who all end up being connected to a murder committed in their small town. This was enough for me to be interested – I like it when a series tries to distinguish itself from the thousands of other murder investigation shows in some way, and the one dollar method seemed like a particularly clever idea.