Lady Calypso

Welcome back, Riverdale! The plots in this episode are pretty much what I expected from this show, such as Hiram's incurable disease becoming cured, or Archie having a boxing match with his opponent to get into a school. They've done this cheating storyline fairly poorly and I disagree with the decision to not even tell Jughead...BUT the Veronica/Archie fallout was handled better than I thought it would be. I feel sorry for Veronica, who shouldn't be handling this as well as she could be. She deserves to be yelling at Archie for what he did. I am frustrated with Archie and Betty for this...but at least Archie told Veronica (although at prom is such a bad idea...but any time is a bad time once the deed is already done). I expected someone else to reveal it to Veronica. So at least Archie did the right thing to tell her, and they rightfully broke up. Betty better be telling Jughead, though. It's the least that she could do. So those Bughead scenes weren't great to watch, knowing that the fallout has to be coming at some point for them. How does Toni's family not know about her and Cheryl? It's not like they've been keeping their relationship private for the last two years. But I guess they've broken up too? I laughed at KO's reaction to finding out about Veronica's speakeasy.

Well, there hasn't been official confirmation on the All Rise actress pregnancy, but even so, I do think that they planned for this. I was expecting a pregnancy at some point and I guess, with how this year has been going, they wanted it to happen this season. She COULD be pregnant, sure, but I think this was a planned storyline.

It's weird, because I feel like there's still something with the Simon/Zoey stuff, but maybe it's more one sided at this point. Simon going to wipe away her tears and getting a bit TOO close for someone who's just a friend felt weird to watch, and a bit icky. It just felt somewhat romantically charged on Simon's end. And I don't think it was an accident that it seemed that way. I'm not impressed with how they made not just Tobin but Leif act so douchey. They were douchey last season, but not THIS douchey. Especially not Tobin, who is seeming more disrespectful around women than last season. I am hoping they stop this very, very soon because I don't want Zoey to have to deal with a bunch of guys who don't show much respect like they are doing to her. I love Hard Knock Life, but the meaning behind the song because Zoey told them to stop playing around was very immature. I guess Leif is still struggling with being a manager, and he seems to want to have it both ways so if they ARE heading toward some sort of fork with him (manager or bro), then it could be interesting. But I hope they decide that soon. Say Something was a lovely song, BUT I wasn't loving the context of that particular song. It reminded me to season 1, when I was perpetually annoyed with Max, who seemed to push Zoey to be on his level whenever she wasn't. The issue with Max had been that he felt entitled to her feelings whenever she wasn't there yet and got pissy about it. Plus, he knows she can't control her powers and I hate him guilt tripping her about it every time she doesn't readily share every little thought. Yes, she needs to communicate more. Yes, I get his frustration. But no, he shouldn't be acting the way that he does. That being said, I'm totally fine with a soft breakup/pause on their relationship. Zoey DID rush into a relationship way too quickly after her father's death. She needs to ease into it. And I did appreciate Max's understanding about that. The restaurant plot seems to be heading in a good direction. I can't wait to see Mo and Max butt heads more. Maggie's plot with Jenna was good. I can't wait to see Maggie's work side more, because we didn't see a whole lot of it in season 1. Plus, it'll give her a plot outside of the home.

I get WHY they might want to expand Martin's interactions now to other patients, but I also don't know how much I love the idea. He's a dangerous man, clearly shown with how he's already planning an escape. I don't quite see HOW he could escape and get away with it for more than a couple of episodes, either. He'd need to find a way to get out legally and I don't see that happening any time soon. I was also hoping that Martin and Ainsley would get more interactions after last season's finale. Alas, it looks like they really want to continue with the Martin/Malcolm dynamic instead. Imagine how Malcolm would feel if Martin actually turned his full attention to Ainsley. That would have been way more fun to explore. Maybe that's coming once Ainsley remembers what she did, but that's what I was ultimately hoping for. And now Ainsley is back to basically doing nothing. Yes, show, we get it. Malcolm's a killer or whatever. I mean, he's technically just an accomplice, not a killer. Yeah...Dani's mostly a fine character on her own, but I really want them to stop with the Dani/Malcolm teasing. I don't see why Dani would like Malcolm, to be honest. He has a lot of baggage and when she has to wear a bullet proof jacket when he's sleeping, that's not typically a sign of romance blooming. JT's discrimination/racism storyline has a good premise, but the execution is just so poor. The case of the week was creepy, not gonna lie, and I had a good chuckle at Malcolm's reluctance to perform a fake exorcism. I get it, Malcolm; it seems ridiculous to me, too.

Aww, Nic and Conrad are having a baby! I expect plenty of drama, especially after Nic's miscarriage the first time they were together, but hopefully it is mostly smooth sailing for them. They deserve some form of happiness. Devon being haunted by his father was well done. I'm glad we got to see that it's still affecting him and I loved the acknowledgement that other, poorer hospitals are understaffed and not as well off in terms of patient care. Mina and AJ's conflict was interesting enough. I'm obviously 100% on Mina's side, but I also see why AJ was so hesitant to turn Cain in and why he wanted to give him another chance to change. I don't think Cain can change, though, and that's the issue. He IS a danger to patients and I don't see AJ being right on Cain changing. Cain's gonna cause some irreputable damage one of these days and the doctors are going to be semi responsible for that if they continue to allow Cain to do these things. Not when they have a chance to try to get him to stop, at the very least. He may be an excellent surgeon, but he's a dangerous one. So, we meet Bell's former stepson, who is Oliver from How To Get Away With Murder. I will say, the actor isn't my favourite but he did a decent job here. And I fully expect to see him working at Chastain in the near future, or he's a doctor at the hospital where Devon's father died and that's how we see that story tie in.

So...the show IS better without Whispery Liv Tyler, so that's a plus. And I like Gina Torres, so that part worked. But there are still things to snark at on this show. Once again, the filter they choose for this show is so washed out and dull. Again, this show, compared to the original, isn't as fun, even when it could be. Plus, the inconsistencies on mask wearing was extremely distracting. The stories were...meh. I guess the roller derby one was ok, and the crossbow one was kind of interesting, but the tank one was questionable with how useless the entire police department were to try to stop it. Did they REALLY assume guns and standing their ground would be enough? TK's mom was interesting enough. Lisa Edelstein was great on House, but never given a lot of fun material. I haven't seen her other shows, so seeing her here was fun. Probie is now the worst character on this show with Michelle gone. He probably could be more annoying and useless, which is a scary thought since he grated on my nerves just by complaining about cheese balls. This show also suffers from not utilizing their main cast nearly enough. No, Lone Star, showing some of them in the spotlight once in a while last season isn't enough. So this episode, we barely got Grace besides her call center scene and the last scene with Tommy and her husband, and we barely got Marjan and Paul, who only had a few funny lines. Overall, a vast improvement from my memory of season 1 but a show that still has enough issues where I can complain here about them.

I think what helped is that they went right into it being a part of their world, so it felt more organic. Plus, they didn't have the characters constantly taking off their masks to talk and we saw them sanitize, which others shows haven't done well. Lots of fun stuff with the premiere, which is on par for the show. The song choice for the episode was on point, as was the bus pun as the bus hurdled through the window. And the kid on the bus, CJ, was a lot of fun as a minor character. Athena still goes in without backup. I was hoping that would be a major change for her going forward, but alas, she may never get a partner on this show unless forced. I like her police captain so maybe she'll enforce something? Michael's cute boyfriend is the ER doc from last season! Awesome to see him hanging around! May becomes a dispatcher, which is literally no surprise since they hinted at it. She did a good job in this episode. Chimney is staying with Buck! I do see Maddie's point about wanting him there instead of with her brother, while she's with HIS brother. Some great moments this episode, even the montage with the biker that did make me sad. Overall, thrilled for the show to be back.

This makes sense to me. My issue is that, since Ruby quit, why would they even leave Kate alive? It teases the idea that Kate will return and, unless they're recasting Kate for the future, it's cruel if they eventually find her dead instead of just doing the deed now. The characters already presume she's dead. And if they're gonna recast Kate later on, why didn't they just do THAT now as well? That's why the storyline isn't quite working for me. It's a fine storyline, but the missing piece is Kate. That being said, Javicia Leslie did a wonderful job as Ryan. I actually thought they introduced her quite well and set up a nice arc for her. Now, she has an enemy in Alice, which isn't totally surprising that the connection would be through the murder of her mother. Alice taunting Jacob about Kate's death was well done. No surprise the rest of the characters find out about Kate being Batwoman immediately. They'd need to know why there's suddenly a new Batwoman in Gotham. The wrap-up on Tommy was about as I expected. I figured Fake Bruce was supposed to last longer with Kate, but cut short with Ryan. Tommy as Fake Bruce was intriguing and I AM glad that he got found out quickly. It felt more realistic that he wouldn't have been able to pull off being Bruce with EVERYONE. So Julia figuring it out was a great way to showcase that. I think, for me, there's always gonna be that missing piece with Kate and, although I'm still going to continue watching, it's gonna be difficult to completely get over that part.

Well, they are airing two new shows in Zoey's spot, so I'm assuming it'll come back once those two shows are done. So, if both sitcoms are only 10 episodes, then Zoey should come back around April. If they're 13 episodes, then Zoey will be back in May.

Welcome back, show! I've actually kind of missed you! I, too, am not a huge fan of how they're handling the Ainsley brutally murdering Nicholas plot, but I expected this outcome to happen. Not just to draw out the overall storyline, but because it definitely would change the dynamic of the show if Ainsley knew she was a murderer right off the bat. But still, I'm not a fan of Ainsley's agency being taken away by Malcolm AND Martin here. I can buy a fugue state from Ainsley; I think the actress DID handle the killing scene well enough last season (as much as I also critiqued the actress, she is clearly capable of more than she's being given) so I don't love that they're keeping her in the dark. Plus, the longer Ainsley isn't told, the more dangerous she could become. And Ainsley is going to get upset at Malcolm for keeping this from her when he could have helped her through it. And it makes it seem like Malcolm doesn't trust Ainsley to be able to handle herself if she knew the truth. I don't know; the entire thing makes me feel a bit icky. And I was going to be thoroughly entertained at a fully aware Ainsley figuring out how to deal with her murdering Nicholas and her and Malcolm having a storyline together with keeping this a secret. Now, Ainsley is back to more of a supporting character for a while and Malcolm has to hold this entire secret with only him and Martin being aware. The JT subplot had a great premise, but I don't think the show handled it as well as they could have. I kind of wish they changed a couple of things to make it better. To me, it felt too scripted, too heavy hammered, and it didn't quite work for me in the scene where the cops were pointing guns at him. So, Gill and Jessica's romance ends before it really starts again. And Dani's role in that? Also not a fan. I don't ship anyone on this show, either. The Whitlys are not capable of being in a relationship, anyway. They ALL have too many issues to deal with first. But this is especially true for Malcolm, who needs years of therapy before he starts dating someone. The case was alright, but I'm more into this show for the character development, rather than the cases.

This was such a solid premiere. I do mostly enjoy how they handled COVID, although there's a few plot holes and issues that I had overall. I know that the wedding takes place after the vaccine is found for COVID, but I still had the thought of Devon needing to wear a mask on the airplane in the final scene. And the idea that we don't know how much time has passed since the flashbacks, so Devon having to possibly wait months before his father's memorial service could even be held. But Conrad and Nic did get to get married finally, so that's fun. And Mina/AJ kissed, so that's good. I hadn't really been shipping them at all but they've had this set up since season 1, when AJ first showed up, and it's been a long time coming so I hope they actually just get together instead of continuing to prolong it. Poor Devon. I felt bad that he lost his father. But I'm glad Kit and Hundley got to survive. I got real worried about Hundley for most of that episode. I could have seen them killing her off, so I'm glad they didn't. And it looks like they're ALSO going the Kit/Bell route. I thought they might eventually but they also did a good job at establishing their relationship as platonic. Cain is still an ass. I wish HE died of COVID. I really hate that they're keeping him around for villainous purposes. Red Rock Rep got a little bit of a humanity arc this episode, not just allowing him to talk about his perspective as an Asian-American man living during COVID times, but also helping out the hospital by breaking the rules for the good of people. They managed to start a redemption for him that they don't seem to know how to do for Cain. If they can allow Red Rock Rep to continue this upward arc instead of making him a mustache-twirling villain again, I'd be down for it. Again, I'm ok with having shady/morally grey antagonists, but not outright asshole villains. Cain is an asshole villain and they seem to enjoy it. I personally don't, because it's just tiring and I feel like we're wasting time when we could be focused on other characters. Overall, solid start to the premiere.

Just a head's up: the show has a rerun airing next week, so it looks like the show is going into an unexpected hiatus. No word on if it's just a two week break, a three week break, or potentially longer.

Also, to note: it looks like there WON'T be a new episode next week. It looks like they're taking an unexpected hiatus. My TV schedule shows a rerun next week. No word yet to when the show will return, so it's unclear if 5x07 will be back in two weeks or three weeks or longer. So we'll have to wait to see the answers on Kevin's Road Trip.

Ok, so I wasn't a fan of Max/Zoey in the first season but I do think they're better this season, in terms of chemistry and scenes together. I thoroughly enjoyed their sex scene together. The mashup was both cringey and hilarious, and the duet was very lovely, even if it was also a bit awkward to watch. That scene worked tremendously well. I'm so glad they're going to be bringing in more women programmers as well. I'm glad Zoey and even Leif both realized that the Frat Floor was getting tiresome and they needed to mix things up. Speaking of Leif, I can buy that he was overwhelmed by his new position of power. Before, he wasn't a manager and didn't have to understand what it was like to control the other workers on his floor. So he could enjoy the bro games all he wanted, as he just needed to do his share of the work (and they have shown that Leif is a smart guy and very dedicated to his job, despite him fooling around from time to time). But being a manager and having to make sure everyone else did their work? I can see how this put things into perspective for him. I actually felt a bit bad when Zoey came in to find Leif asleep from pulling an all nighter while the other bros were still fooling around and playing games. Plus, Leif's song was so good. Out of a cast filled with a lot of talented people, Michael Thomas Grant is still top tier above everyone else with the performances. I'm glad we're seeing a different side to him now that he's managing the entire fourth floor. As for Tobin, I hope they can also grow him as a character. He's hilarious and he does care about people, but we need to see more than an immature, bro side to him as well. The best performance of the episode was Poison for me. I actually enjoyed all the performances, but Poison was so much fun to watch and Alice Lee did an impeccable job with it. For a character who didn't get much to do last season, it was nice to see her get a nice performance and subplot here. And her sister is interesting. They added some layers to her already, instead of making her one dimensional like they could have. The Mo/Max stuff worked well. I guess it was more Mo's guilt that prevented him from being honest with Max from the start on why he couldn't sign that contract, but it definitely would have been easier to admit it instead of making Max feel like he did something wrong.

So I did and paused it. I think the license says that it expires in 2026 and the photo does look more recent, so I don't think it's a flashback.