Tuesday TV Touchbase: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Librarians and More!

 

Wheel of Fortune is back ALL NEW next week with some changes.

Instead of a pair of toss ups, the game will now open with a speed round for players to solve as many puzzles as they can in a short period of time. 

Well, that sounds like it might be fun.

Also Jim Thornton will no longer be the announcer.

For reasons that are not fun at all.  

Apparently Jim was caught watching kiddie porn on an airline flight back in May.

I don't won't to insinuate there is a right way to watch kiddie porn because people who use children for sex are the lowest life forms and deserve their own special corner of hell with especially hot and sharp ass pokers.

But here are some wrong things to do while watching child porn:

• watching In public 
• In a restricted space (like on a airplane) 
• with no disguise, no glasses or hat
• wearing a Wheel of Fortune jacket

Sony suspended Jim Thornton.

Jim lawyered up and his lawyer said the link to the child porn site was an accident, he didn't know it was a link to child porn, he doesn't like this sort of thing, he's a good person who helps people....

Taking all that into consideration....

Sony fired Jim Thornton.  

I can't help but think Sony wouldn't be stirring the pot like this unless they know some really seriously bad shit about Jim Thornton.  

Presumably producers are scrubbing Jim's announcing audio from the new episodes shot for this season and scrambling to find a new announcer. 

My wife Andrea has been agonizing all weekend over how Ryan, Vanna and the Wheel of Fortune crew have been dealing with this horrible mess.  

You would think Ryan and Vanna are her friends or something. 

Jeopardy Masters

Tonight is the finale of this year's Masters tournament.

Man, we were so close to see Yogesh Raut washing out and not making the cut for the tournament final.  A bad bet by Paolo Pasco on Friday let the prickly Yogesh slip through.  

Tonight the contest is down to  Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut and Andrew He.

Everyone think good thoughts: Yogesh must not win. Yogesh must not win. Yogesh must not win. 

The Librarians: The Next Chapter

Last night was the season 2 finale.  

As I write this, Andrea and I have not watched the season finale but we've enjoyed this new season a lot. 

While the plots about various magical artifacts have been entertaining, the real driver for this season has been really good character growth which fed a lot of the drama and comedy for this season. 

Vikram, Lysa, Connor and Charlie have had to deal with past traumas and current fears in order the meet the challenges they've encountered.  

We got a visit from Lindy Booth as Cassandra Cillian from the O.G. Librarians and I squeed like a total fanboy when Cass did her super math! The episode was structured as a team up of Cass and Jacob Stone with Charlie with the rest of the new crew sidelined. Which meant we missed out on a face to face meet up of Cass and Lysa doing a complete geek out nerd meltdown. 

Olivia Morris who plays Lysa got to pull double duty with an adventure as Vikram's lost love Anya chasing down a dangerous magical artifacts in 1857. 

I'll post more next week on the season finale as the team has a show down with Merlin who is up to some sketchy shit.  

Spider-Noir

Prime announced it's season one and done for Spider-Noir.

Which is OK.  I mean, I enjoyed this wild and wooly film noir take on Spider-Man with an unhinged Nicholas Cage and I wouldn't have minded seeing more of this distinctive world.

But season 1 felt such like a complete thing with a story arc that was satisfactorily resolved.  

Lanterns

Speaking of a super hero show taking a unique spin on the subject. we're halfway through season 1 of Lanterns.

Speaking as a comic book nerd with a fairly extensive knowedge of Green Lantern comic book lore, I am not offended by the shifts away from that lore the show is taking. I am impressed they have kept as much of that Green Lantern mythos from the comics as they have.

I know there are some fans bitching and whining "That's not how that happened in the comics!" regarding John Stewart's back story. Hey, this is not your comic books, OK? This is a TV show which has a specific agenda to meet for a story built for television.

Not only does John Stewart deserve the ring, he may well deserve it more than Hal Jordan.

So Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan is a jerk. Get over yourselves! You know damn well that the Hal from the comics could be quite the asshole.  

Anyway, I am enjoying Lanterns and I am very interested in seeing how this season 1 arc plays out.  

Stuart Fails To Save the Universe

Last week, Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry landed in a universe where everyone is telepathic.

Things we learned:

• Barry's mother bathed him until he was 12.
• Bert wasn't sure he liked chili on hot dogs but then he tried it and he did.
• Telepathy helped Denise and Stuart have the best sex ever.

There's also a sequence where Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry encounter 2 other universe travelling versions of themselves in the same scene. 

Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie had to shoot the scene once, then shoot it again and then a 3rd time. In an interview, Brian and John said it took 3 days to shoot that sequence. 

Then there was the multiverse chase with our three teams of Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry running through every universe the show has been to so far before ending with one of the teams in a universe where everyone is a centaur.  

All that produced an episode that was (I kid you not!) 15 minutes long.  

That didn't stop Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day from hosting a 50 minute podcast following that episode.  One of their guests was the super hot Riki Lindhome who keeps turning up as some form of Ramona Nowitzki in each universe, working the receptionist desk at Caltech.  

Yes, we're watching the Stuart Fails To Save the Universe Official Podcast.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase!

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Blue Skies and Jeopardy Masters

 

I'm going to start today's post about a show:

• With a police officer.
• Whose partner is a dog.

Now you're thinking that sound like Hudson & Rex, well, yes, it does but that's not the show we're talking about today.

The show is called Blue Skies and it's about a police detective named Jodie Larson played by Scarlet Hunter.

Now THAT is a NAME! Scarlet Hunter!  

That could be a super hero name!

"I am vengeance! 

I am the night!!

I am Scarlet Hunter!!!"

OK, some back story: after finishing up her tour of duty in the military, Jodie Larsen has returned home to rebuild her relationship with her father after the death of her mother.  Jodi has a job as a police investigator with the National Park Service.  Her beat: Crystal Ridge National Park. 

Apparently national parks are a hot bed of criminal activity as there is always something to keep Jodie and her team busy.

Like Jesse on Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has their resident tech nerd who can call up anything on his 'puters. 

Like Charlie and Sarah on Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has it's own chaste as hell heck flirtatious relationship between Jodie and Ryan, a high school "friend" who runs a coffee shop and also is an expert climber who helps with search and rescue missions in the mountainous Crystal Ridge National Park. 

And like Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has... a dog.

Blue is a yellow lab who just shows up at Jodie's cabin one day. 

Efforts to extricate herself from Blue do not succeed.  No matter what Jodie does, Blue inevitably appears by her side.

And it turns out that Blue is an extraordinarily gifted tracker. 

Who is this dog? Where did he come from? These are mysteries the show will explore.

I'm gonna call it: Blue is Jodie's reincarnated dead mom! 

I'm gonna admit: that's probably not it.

In addition to the mystery of what is the deal with this dog, Jodie has questions about the death of her mother.  She presumably died in a mountain climbing accident but there are questions about this "accident". 

The location of the fictional Crystal Ridge National Park is left vague. I thought it was a Canadian park but it might be in Colorado.  

Blue Skies has a lot of gorgeous park scenery to look at and the calm, measured pace of the show is in line with all the natural scenery. 

Blue Skies is very family friendly as befits a show that is on UP TV and it's UP Faith and Family streaming service.  

Like Hudson & Rex, we came to Blue Skies for the dog and Blue is quite the scene stealer.  

But the mysteries around Jodie, what happened to her mother and where the hell heck this dog came from, is keeping our attention.  

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ABC has launched a new season of Jeopardy Masters.

 Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut, Andrew He, Paolo Pasco, Juveria Zaheer and Long Nguyen are the players for this year's contest.

Yogesh is as insufferable as ever, cocky and arrogant when winning, pissy and grumpy when he's not. 

Victoria is as charming and delightful as ever. 

But....

After three episodes, Andrea and I came to a most unfortunate conclusion: Jeopardy Masters is boring.

It's hard to play along. The clues are more obscure and trickier than regular Jeopardy.  

It always seems like a foregone conclusion on which 2 of the initial 6 contestestants are going to wash out. This year does not look good for Long Nguyen.  

But after Andrea and I said the quiet part out loud about how Jeopardy Masters just wasn't doing it for us, the game got interesting on night #4.  

Long Nugyen has a kick ass dominating game and vaults into the top 4.  

You just never know with Jeopardy.

We've got another week and a day of this fershlugginer thing.

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Late Nite With Seth Meyers is on a very long hiatus (from August 1st to September 21st) as I wrote about here.  

But we are not being denied A Closer Look.  Seth is joining writer  Sal Gentile for podcasts to cover some of the Trump world shenanigans going on while the show is in reruns. The podcast series is called A Closer Look: Out of Office  (or AKA "Proof of LIfe").  

While a typical Closer Look segment can run on average about 10 minutes or so, the podcasts are nearly an hour long as we watch Seth and Sal talk it out in real time all the bullshit that Donald Trump and his syncophants are up to and it's a lot.  

As such, the podcasts are a bit unfocused, a major pet peeve I have with a lot of podcasts. Still, the form does allow Seth to stay in the loop while he is away.    

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That is that for this week's the Tuesday TV Touchbase:

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.  

 

Ubu really likes it when we watch crime shows about dogs! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Plus Superman and Green Lantern

Before we get underway, good news for a show I watch: Stuart Fails To Save the Universe has been renewed for Season 2. 

Now if we can only get similar good news for a 3rd season of The Librarians: The Next Chapter. Please? Pretty please?

Andrea and I finally finished up Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.  Instead of running these episodes once a week on ABC as God intended (I'm sure it's in the Bible somewhere), the 2nd half of season 6, 10 episodes were dropped at one time on Hulu.

While I am down with the young people (see Friday's post for proof of that), I don't understand this need to cringe filange wench binge TV shows at one time.   

And I certainly can't see anyone sitting down to watch 10 episodes of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune at one time.

I mean, I know a little weed can work wonders but there is only so much lifting the Mary G. Wanna can do to get through 10 hours of Ryan & Vanna and celebrities of questionable celebrity status.  

Below is a photo from the season 6 finale with Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Kelly McCreary and Billy Gardell.  I knew who Billy was.  He's a comedian and actor who used to be "how is his heart NOT exploding" super fat when he was on Mike & Molly, then he went on a GLP1 shot and now he's "how many years has this man been dead" thin. 

I had to Wiki who Mary Elizabeth and Kelly were.

Kelly plays a doctor on Grey's Anatomy and Mary Elizabeth is a character known only as "the Waitress" on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. 

Kelly and Mary Elizabeth did well with some big wins but Billy had to settle for pity money.

"Pity money" is my euphemism for the least amount of money a person can win on Wheel of Fortune just for showing up. For Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, it's $30,000 for the celebrity's charity.  

Most episodes of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune have me complaining either "Who are you people?" or "I didn't know <insert name> was still alive".  

Some "celebrities" are also questionable in their assertions they've actually ever watched Wheel of Fortune with displays of bad game decisions and surprising failures to solve puzzles.

Well, Andrea seems to enjoy Celebrity Wheel of Fortune well enough so I will endeavor to endure.  

An endeavor that must continue as Season 7 is on the way.

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Andrea and I finished the season 3 finale of My Adventures With Superman.  The season began with questions and concern about the future. 

Kara Zor-El needs to figure out her new life on Earth and her relationship with Jimmy Olsen. 

Meanwhile, Clark has visions of domestic bliss with Lois that involve a farm and city girl Lois ain't quite so sure about that.

The season progressed with the future coming to visit.  Time travelling from a dystopian apocalyptic future is Clark and Lois's son Jonathan, AKA Superboy.  He's there to re-write that future by preventing his dad from being killed by Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman created by Lex Luthor.   

• Good news: Jonathan keeps Clark from dying.
• Bad news: Clark loses his super powers.
• Worst news: the future Jonathan returns to is worse than ever.

While Clark struggles with his relevance and worth without super powers, Lois and Clark get another visit from the future.

It's a different Jonathan who is crankier and surlier than the one who visited Lois and Clark before.

And this Jonathan has brought his sister, Laurel. 

So Lois now has a future where she gets pregnant TWICE to give birth to TWO super powered children.  

And those two kids and Kara are all that stand between the Eradicator, another damn weapon Lex Luthor lost control of, and total annihilation.  

Meanwhile, Clark's quest to regain his powers takes him to the Fortress of Ineptitude...Oops! That's where I live! <ahem!> To the Fortress of Solitude where Braniac sends Clark into Krypton's past to repel alien invaders to prove his strength.

Except Clark discovers that the aliens who have come to Krypton are not attacking but are refugees. (Any connections to real word events are I'm sure just a coincidence. Wink!) 

Overall,season 3 of My Adventures With Superman felt a bit uneven and chaotic.  As the ultimate knock down drag out slugfest against Eradicator unfolds, I had to struggle a bit to remember how did we get here.  

The resolution of that battle seemed to lack for me a real emotional payoff.  It just came to an end. 

SPOILER: Clark is Superman again! But he is reticent on exactly what price did he pay to regain his power.

Less reticent is Lois about the future.

Lois drops to one knee and asks Clark to marry her. 

We'll see how all this shakes out in Season 4.

 

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Andrea and I caught up to the debut of Lanterns, the HBO Max series about DC Comics' Green Lanterns.   Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre star as Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

John has admired Hal since childhood and is earnest and sincere in being trained as a Green Lantern.

Hal has aged into a bitter curmudgeon prick who is more than a little reluctant to train this newcomer in the use of the power ring.

Hal understands the assignment: he's not training John as a back up.  He's training his replacement.

The core of the action takes place in 2016 in a small town called Rushville, Nebraska.  A mass murder has taken place at a high school football game and Hal suspects alien involvement.

The sheriff's office has arrested a suspect in the killing and Hal confronts him.  Just because Hal Jordan is a cranky sonevabitch doesn't mean he can't be right about things.

Yep! The fucker is an alien who can 'SPLODE!  Hal saves Rushville and perhaps the whole state by ringing up a force bubble.  

BIG OL' HONKING SPOILER! 

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(Seriously! Spoiler alert!) 

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The end of the first episode takes us to 2026 and the sheriff has summoned John Stewart back to Rushville.  Sitting in the stands of the football field is Hal Jordan. Dead.  His ring: missing.

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(End of Spoiler alert!) 

Lanterns has a dark somber vibe as it's central mystery in 2016 plays out like a film noir detective story.   

While this version of Hal Jordan is an ornery cuss, Kyle Chandler does he damnedest to  make him endearing, even possibly likeable with flashes of wit and humanity bleeding through the hubris and selfishness.

Lanterns may have a realistic Earth bound setting but it doesn't ignore the more fantastic components of the Green Lantern comic book mythology: the Guardians of the Universe, the Man hunters, Sinestro.  

By the way, you might wonder how does the Guy Gardner Green Lantern from Superman (2025) factor into this? That answer will be forthcoming when Nathan Fillion guest stars on an upcoming episode.   

Lanterns has set the stage for a complex and very engaging storyline.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

StarTrekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 - “Level Five Transporter Accident"

When I first heard about a year ago that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would have a puppet episode, I FELT some concern about that.

WARNING: This post will employ several labored puns involving the word "felt". Because puppets are, you know, made of... felt. Get it?  

While SNW is known for taking some big swings (crossover with Lower Decks, musical episode, low budget 1960's sci-fi, etc), it FELT like doing an episode with puppets might be going too far.

Well, with “Level Five Transporter Accident", the moment was here to finally deal with the puppets whether I FELT like it or not. So let's take a leap of faith and throw ourselves into this episode.

It's time for The Great Star Trek Puppet Caper! 

An experiment by Scotty and Spock to expand the range of the transporters FELT like a good idea at the time.  Using a childhood puppet called "Little Ricky", Scotty aims to test the transporter to beam the puppet over a distance of 30,000 kilometers.

Spock is off the Enterprise in a shuttle, monitoring a relay bouy used in the experiment.  Something goes awry and everyone on the Enterprise finds themselves being beamed away and returned as puppets.

Scotty explains: “Something about the puppet’s quantum particulates caused the energy in the transporter to expand outward across the ship.”

Ah, you just gotta love Star Trek technobabble.  

Spock is the only one still in humanoid form and has to do all the work of running the starship as puppets... can't.

Lacking skeletons and muscles, puppets can't handle even the most mundane tasks like pushing buttons without difficulty.

You may ask, "Hey, if they lack skeletons and muscles, how do they move about or sit upright?"  And I will reply "You ask too many questions!" 

OK, I suppose I could come up with a less snarky response if I FELT like it.  But I don't.  

Pike is able to get a communication to Admiral April who is trying to wrap his head around this situation.

APRIL:  "So you're a puppet?"

PIKE: "Yes!"

APRIL: "So who's controlling you?"

PIKE: "I'M CONTROLLING ME!"

I can understand why the Admiral FELT confused.

(No, I will not stop the "felt" puns!)  

April says a ship is on the way to help but it's a couple of days out from Enterprise.  

So if everyone can just keep their heads down and stay out of trouble until...

Oh SHIT! It's an Orion pirate ship!

SIDEBAR:  These Orions! I KNOW this guys! (Yes, I FELT like I recognized them somehow!)  It's driving me crazier than I already am! Who are these guys?!?!

The Orion captain is played by Rachael Harris! OMG, guys! It's Dr. Linda Martin from Lucifer. Man, I hadn't thought about Lucifer in ages and it was such an integral part of our TV viewing around here. I miss that show! 

The Orion captain's second in commond is portrayed by Joe Lo Truglio!  Yep, that's Det. Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine! Man, it's old school week here on the Tuesday TV Touchbase!

Let me say that even as a puppet, Commander Una Chin-Riley still has beautiful hair.  

Am I having lustful thoughts about a puppet? I'm not sure why I FELT I should share that information.

The Orion pirates board the ship to steal it since their sensors only register one single life form on the Enterprise, Spock.

So the puppets, in addition to lacking bones and muscles, also lack circulatory, respiratory and nerve systems that would be recognized by sensors as biological life forms.  But they are able to think, talk and move and... and... and...  HOW DO THEY DO THAT?!?!

So... many... questions.

The Orions capture Spock and take over the ship as the puppets are well...   you know... puppets. 

Just pick 'em up and toss 'em.

Capt. Pike has the epiphany that his crew is failing to stop the Orions because they are are trying to fight back like humans and the key to success is to embrace their puppetness.  

Long story made short: the puppets rescue Spock, defeat the Orions, take back the ship, Spock wakes up and....

And...

Spock. Wakes. Up? 

NO! Do not tell me! Do NOT tell that it was....

IT WAS ALL A DREAM?  REALLY?!?!?

Yes, Scotty's transporter experiment did get all bolloxed up but only Spock was caught up in it and has been in a coma and....

IT WAS ALL A DREAM?!?! Oh HELL NO! We can't be going there. 

I should've realized.  I FELT like the writers might go in that direction.  

I suppose the "it was all a dream" ending does effectively address all the questions about puppets being alive AND not alive at the same time.  

And essentially this is Spock's story as he evolves from the "human curious" Spock of SNW to the  "dedicated Vulcan" Spock of TOS.  His subconscious creating a scenario of puppets and what not serve as an effective metaphor for his changing yadda yadda yadda .... IT WAS ALL A DREAM?

At the end of “Level Five Transporter Accident", I wasn't sure how I FELT about that "it was all a dream" resolution. On one hand, it such an overused cliche. On the other hand, I can't deny it does tie a pretty effective bow on all the came before.

All in all, putting aside any qualms about the ending, I think The Great Star Trek Puppet Caper is a win. 

Next week, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds enters the 2nd half of it's 4th season. 

Until next time, live long and prosper.

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Why are the puppets still here?   

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I FELT like that was a pretty good blog post.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: The Librarians: The Next Chapter and Batman: Caped Crusader

The Librarians: The Next Chapter is back for a 2nd season and so far, Andrea and I are very much enjoying this new slate of adventures.  

The season starts with 19th century Librarian Vikram, newly appointed Librarians Lyssa and Connor  with guardian Charlie working as a well-oiled machine against a swarm of mummies to recover a lost magical artifact.  

A smiling Charlie charging at the mummy horde, ready to smite them to dust with her sword is so damn awesome. 

But the team's effectiveness at dispatching mystical threats belies their personal struggles with doubt and fear, problems that rise to the forefront when the team investigates magical shenanigans at a high school experiencing explosions of hormonal rage.

From left to right: Bluey Robinson (Connor), Olivia Morris (Lysa), Callum McGowan (Vikram), Jessica Green (Charlie)

The 2nd episode of season 2 is “And the Tethered Wish" which is about a freed genie living his best life and seeding chaos wherever he does, granting random wishes regardless of cost or consequences.

Such as when Vikram in a fit of pique with his less experienced teammates wishes he was bound to a more experienced Librarian.

And ZAP! It's guest Star Christian Kane as Jacob Stone from TOS Librarians.  

Careful what you wish for. Vikram now has a Librarian partner he can't run away from.  

Not for lack of trying. Which gives us a lot of classic physical comedy from Vikram and Jacob as the invisible tether between them keeps yanking them back together. 

It never gets old.

The episode gives us... kind of/sort of... a team up between Librarians: TNC and Librarian: TOS.  Jacob had been yoinked from a mission with the classic team involving a tribe of Amazons. Lyssa, Connor and Charlie fire up the magic door to sub in for Jacob to complete that mission.

Which we do not see.

After the ad break, Lyssa, Connor and Charlie come back through the magic door to report that Jacob's team is fine, a terrible magic artifact has been recovered and Cassandra no longer has to be Queen of the Amazons, much to her disappointment.

Also Ezekiel stole Connor's watch. 

Hey, Dean Devlin, there better be at least some kind of tie in comic book or something to cover that Amazon adventure,OK?

Later this season, Lindy Booth will be back on screen as Cassandra. I'm squeeing like a fan boy for that one!

Speaking of guest stars, Jeremy Swift chews up the scenery as the rogue genie and hey, is that David Tennant's son Ty in an episode?

The TNC gang finds out that Peter Pan and Neverland is real.

And Charlie wears a dress.  

Dominic Monaghan is on hand this season as a recurring big bad, Merlin. This Merlin is charming and manipulative, definitely NOT to be trusted.  

Season 2 of The Librarians: The Next Chapter looks better than the paper thin low budget production that was season 1.

The world of the Librarians deserves to go on and I do hope TNT picks up The Librarians: The Next Chapter for a 3rd season.

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Season 2 of Batman: Caped Crusader dropped on Prime recently.  While the creative minds from Batman: The Animated Series are behind this new series with an aesthetic that recalls the beloved B:TAS, storywise, Batman: Caped Crusader is very much it's own thing.

A film noir take set in the 1940's, B:CC is a more brutally violent, adult oriented version.  Unlike B:TAS which had to mindful of a kid audience, B:CC has no such constraints. People can and do get killed and a bad guys call for the death of "that goddam Batman". 

Batman's classic rogues gallery gets quite there makeover in this series.  The Mad Hatter gets gender switched as Hattie Tetch, a gossip mongering propogandist who tries to sell the public that crime boss Rupert Thorne is an innocent victim of a so-called "justice" system out to to destroy a good and noble citizen of Gotham City.  

Edward Nygma is no snivelling, giggling genius Riddler obsessed with puzzles; instead he is a hair trigger psychopathic punk cast in the mold of the mobster archetype James Cagney got famous for playing in the movies back in the early 20th century.

Then there is the Joker.  It's hard to get too excited over an appearance by the much overused Clown Prince of Crime. But the B:CC version is something unique.  There is the use of the classic Joker toxin that causes his targets to laugh themselves to death, leaving a corpse with a rigor mortis frozen grin. But the Joker himself is no cackling comedian of carnage. Not a lot of laughs or bad jokes, just a quiet, deliberate shadow of death pronouncing a grim judgement on his victims.  

As for the man himself, Batman continues to be a stoic humorless vessel of vengeance as he fights an unyielding battle against those who would harm Gotham. There are some flickers of humanity around the edges but this is a Batman with little or no time for anything beyond his unrelenting mission.

Prime dropped all 10 episodes of season 2 at one time but Andrea and I are taking our time to go through these episode one at a time. 

Batman: Caped Crusader in it's 2nd season continues to be a rather well made new interpretation of the classic Batman mythology.  

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Next time on the Tuesday TV Touchbase:

• Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
• Lanterns

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.  

 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Hudson & Rex and Late Nite With Seth Meyers

And we’re back! 

Well, kinda/sorta.

I’m still on a blog break but I thought I would poke my head in a minute to look around.  

Normally the Tuesday TV Touchbase is where on Tuesday I touch base on what I’m watching on TV.  

Since things are a bit weird on the blog this week, on this Tuesday I will touch base on what I’m NOT watching on TV.

TUESDAY 
TV
TOUCHBASE

 

Hudson & Rex

After cycling through seasons 1 through 7 repeatedly, Up TV recently began airing episodes from season 8 of Hudson & Rex. 

Getting new episodes of a show we like would normally be cause for celebration.

But Andrea and I will not be watching season 8 of Hudson & Rex.

Hudson & Rex is a series about a crime fighting police dog named Rex and his emotional support human, Charlie Hudson, in the Canadian city of St. John’s, Newfoundland. 

Andrea and I came to Hudson & Rex for the dog but we wound up staying for Charlie, played by John Reardon. 

John Reardon has the most beautiful, piercing eyes.  And my wife Andrea agrees with me.  

Anyway, as of season 7, John Reardon had to step away from the show to address a diagnosis of cancer.  While John took time out to go through treatment, Charlie was written out as going to Mexico to save his brother from some trouble he gotten into.

Back in St. John’s, the supporting cast of Sarah, Jesse and Joe took up the slack of being Rex’s emotional support human and taking care of the paperwork after Rex solved the week’s major crime.

Those episodes were weird seeing people like Sarah saying lines you know were originally written for Charlie.  But Andrea and I were OK as long as we knew this was just temporary and Hudson and Rex would be together again.

But…

John Reardon’s treatment for cancer went well and he was ready to return to work.

The producers of Hudson & Rex decided to go in a different direction.

At the end of season 7, the gang in St. John’s Major Crimes Unit hear that Charlie Hudson was shot in Mexico and he fell in a river, his body washed away. Charlie is missing, presumed dead.

So the show brings in actor Luke Roberts as Mark Hudson to be Rex’s new emotional support human for season 8.

To quote Rocky from Project Hail Mary,  “Rocky hate Mark.” 

There are stories and videos online that identify Mark as Charlie’s brother. No, he is not.  He just happens to have the last name of Hudson. 

While Charlie just sort of fell into the role of being Rex’s emotional support human, Mark is actually a trained K9 police officer so he’ll have a different dynamic in his relationship with Rex yadda yadda yadda I really don’t care.

Andrea and I are giving season 8 of Hudson & Rex a miss.

After season 8 aired in Canada to negative fan backlash and declining ratings, the producers of Hudson & Rex got smart and fished Charlie Hudson out of that Mexican river. 

John Reardon and his most beautiful, piercing eyes will return for season 9 this fall in Canada.  Those episodes will not hit American television until next year. 

Late Nite With Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers and his A Closer Look segments are a much appreciated source of political humor. 

So why are we NOT watching? 

‘Cause it ain’t there too be watched!

Late Nite With Seth Meyers is on a hiatus.  

It is not uncommon for the show to go into reruns for awhile as Seth and his family take a vacation in and around Labor Day.  But this break is longer than it has been in the past.

This hiatus for Late Nite With Seth Meyers began August 1st and the show will not return for new episodes until September 21st. 

OMG! What if Donald Trump or his cronies do something stupid and/or illegal?!?!  

Like  sign an executive order to fuck with a safe and proven regimen of vaccines that will only make life worse for everbody?

Click here for more about that.

Who’s gonna expose and mock shit like that?!?!? 

51 days gone?!?! What are you doing to us, Seth Meyers?

Next week I’m back with a Tuesday TV Touchbase on shows I am actually currently watching.  

• The Librarians: The Next Chapter
• Batman: Caped Crusader
• Celebrity Wheel of Fortune

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be covered in my Star Trekking posts.

As for the blog, we’re still in low content mode until Saturday when I’ll be back with a new Movie Time post. 

See y'all on Saturday!

Remember to be good to one another.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Big Bang Theory is dead.

Long live Big BangTheory!

Let's take a look at Stuart Fails To Save the Universe. 

Let's start with the theme song composed by Danny Elfman.

The comments on You Tube dismiss the opening as A.I. slop. I think this may be just trolls engaging in "haters gonna hate" or hell, the comments may be A.I. slop.  It does seem to be the go-to insult to to dismiss anything as A.I. slop whether it is or not.

God, I hate having to always be on guard if something is A.I. or not. I can't always tell even though I am a genius as certified by  Cracker Barrel Inc. 

Me, maybe I'm just dumb but I liked the opening and I hope it's not A.I. slop.   

Anway, that's the intro from episode one.  The opening changes with each episode with Elfman providing variations to the arrangement each time.

The naming convention for episode titles is "Spoiler: _____"

For episode one, it's "Spoiler: Gary Dies".

Who's Gary?

He's just this guy who.... don't get too attached because, well, he dies. 

OK, he is in episode two because as Stuart correctly identifies, "You're some kind of running joke in this nightmare."

So what the hell is going on in Stuart Fails To Save the Universe?

OK, here's the deal,sparky! 

Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter and Howard Wolowitz have created a quantum entanglement doohickey that has gone wrong and fractured reality.

Comic shop owner Stuart Bloom is tasked with recovering the device and averting a resulting "multiverse Armageddon".  The device sends Stuart skipping across different realities encountering variations of himself and his friends with different worlds operating under strange and distinct rules.   

The core of the series features: 

• Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom 
• Lauren Lapkus as Denise No Last Name* 
• Brian Posehn as Bert Kibbler
• John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke 

*It looks like Denise might be in for a repeat of the gimmick of Penny on Big Bang not having a last name. But the name on the door of her apartment building in episode 2 shows "Denise Jeffries".  But that's just in one of multiple realities so it might not stick and become "some kind of running joke in this nightmare." 

Also making cameos: 

• Kunal Nayyar, Kaley Cuoco, Melissa Rauch, Joshua Malina, Wil Wheaton, Christine Baranski and Riki Lindhome are among the ones we know about.

During some recent interviews, Jim Parsons made a point to say how miserable he was playing Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory and has no intention of being Sheldon ever again.

Doth the man protest too much? 

Nobody's heard from Johnny Galecki.  As for Howard, Simon Helberg's been quiet as well but I can't see Simon saying no to this.

Stuart Fails To Save the Universe is an amalgamation of comedy and sci-fi adventure.  While rooted in some obvious Big Bang Theory nostalgia, this show also far removed from BBT.

For example, instead of appearing as Beverly Hofstadter, Christine Baranski appears as "noted film, TV and theater star Christine Baranski" as the host of a training film at a rehabilitation camp. Will the rehabilitation be painful? as "noted film, TV and theater star Christine Baranski" says, "It will hurt like a motherfucker" and then she laughs.

Oh yeah, they get to cuss on this show.

As Stuart says in the pilot, "Shit's about to get weird."  

What turns Stuart Fails To Save the Universe on it's head from being a mere nostalgia trip is seeing how returning actors from Big Bang are NOT exactly playing the characters we remember.

Episode two is "Spoiler: Zack Is In This One"

Hey BBT fans! It's everyone's favorite Penny's pre-Leonard dumb boyfriend, Zack!

Actually, Zack is not the best example of "the same but different".  Zack's still kind of dumb.

But Kaley Cuoco shows up as Penny but NOT the Penny we knew but a dark haired hard ass leader of a resistance movement against a planetary fascist A.I. regime. 

While Stuart Fails To Save the Universe defies our expectations from Big Bang Theory canon, it also defies our expectations of a sci-fi adventure series. 

Stuart Bloom is still pretty much the weak willed nerd comic shop owner from BBT but he's genre savvy enough to know he needs to step up to this challenge he's been thrust into. Too bad he's not a stronger, smarter person than he is and thus, as it says in the title, Stuart is destined to fail.   

That seems a bit of a pessimistic premise to hang a TV series. I don't know, maybe Bert or Denise will have better luck.

Spoiler: Barry Kripke is NOT to be trusted. 

As befits a series set around a comic book store owner, Stuart Fails To Save the Universe will be part of a series of variant covers from DC Comics.   

Jason Badower

Serg Acuna

Sean Izaakes

By the way, there is an official Stuart Fails To Save the Universe podcast that goes live after each episode drops.  It's hosted by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day and the podcasts are longer than the episodes they're talking about.

And that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on the Touchbase: The Librarians are back as the next chapter resumes with season 2.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.