Tag: review

Stumptown Season 1 Episode 5: Bad Alibis Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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This week on Stumptown, almost everyone is trying to please a tough superior. Grey is forced into working for Kane to pay off his debt. Dex has a PI cerification interview with a licensing  official. Tookie’s cooking is reviewed by an influential food critic. Miles tries to convince Cosgrove that his intuition about Grey and Kane is on point.

After all sorts of confusion at the bar, Ansel is taken hostage by one of Kane’s men. Never fear, Dex’s brother is the glue that holds this episode together and he knows just what to do.

Recap

Dex puts on a blazer and button up shirt for her interview with Janet Withers, the PI certification official from DPSST. No one is sure what DPSST stands for. Ansel thinks she looks funny. Dex says she had to buy him the pumpkin poptarts that were on sale this week instead of the blueberry ones that are his favorites, but when she’s licensed she’ll make more money.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 5: RDZ9021 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

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In episode 5, Emergence explores the aftermath of the attack on Benny and April. The episode title is a license plate number which belongs to their attacker, but it sounds like it could be Piper’s serial number. Or maybe it’s the hitman’s serial number.

Piper has more visions, which lead to new discoveries about her AI subconscious. Ed’s health deteriorates, putting Piper and Mia at risk. Kindred and Jo face off again, which escalates the determination of each to bring the other one down.

The sometimes deadly combination of family, love and risk is the theme of the week, along with the question of what or who is worth fighting and dying for. Whenever Kindred is involved, the concept of love vs control also comes up. Kindred buys, steals or manufactures love and family, ensuring there’s no risk to himself. He is the symbol of the modern industrial lifestyle and in opposition to Jo’s open family, who put in the hard work of being there for each other through good times and bad.

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Charmed Season 2 Episode 2: Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead Recap

~ Metacrone

In Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead, the Vera-Vaughn witches and Harry continue to cope with the loss of their powers and the demons’ war on witches. This week, a dream about the demon with Harry’s face leaves Macy troubled, Maggie discovers that everyone in Hilltowne thinks the sisters died in a house fire, and Mel struggles to bring a sense of order back to her life. They all deal with trust issues.

Macy and Harry go on a mission to rescue a witch from the demons. Maggie decides she needs to work on growing up more by taking on more responsibility and facing hard truths. Mel tries to reconstruct spells from the Book of Shadows to start bringing their magic back. They all find some success and a bit of their individual powers shine through in the process.

Recap

It’s night and Macy is wearing a silky, low cut nightgown and robe as she walks toward her bedroom mirror. Harry appears behind her, also wearing a robe. He says her name. She startles and turns, telling him he scared her. He asks if she’s happy to see him.

Macy closes her robe tightly around herself and asks what Harry wants. Sexy as this all is, even in a dream, she’s subconsciously figured out that it’s not the real Harry.

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Charmed Season 2 Episode 1: Safe Space Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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The CW’s reboot of Charmed reinvents itself again for season 2, thanks to new showrunners Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro. The Charmed Ones, Macy, Mel and Maggie, along with their Whitelighter, Harry, and their magical house, are whisked off to Seattle to be placed in the witch-ness protection program for their own protection from the latest round of evil that’s declared war on them.

This reinvention takes the show fully into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer realm of supernatural fantasy fighters. The witches may have a secret lair in one corner of the coworkspace basement, but you just know there’s a hellmouth in another corner and most of the other tenants of the building are also supernaturals on the run. The everyday, normal aspects of the characters’ lives are relegated to the edges of the show, while their roles as supernatural superheroes who are saving the world from evils large and small become the center of their lives.

With the Elders gone and evil running rampant, it makes sense for the Charmed Ones to put their magical duties first, but I hope they’re able to go back to their schooling and chosen careers eventually. And that they develop personal lives, though I doubt that will take long on a CW show.

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Black Spot (Zone Blanche) Season 1 Episode 1: Stranger Comes to Town Recap

~ Metacrone

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Zone Blanche/Black Spot is a French/Belgian 2 season series, with 8 episodes per season, that’s available on Netflix. The show takes place in the mysterious, isolated village of Villefranche, which is set so deep in the primeval forest that the entire village and its surroundings have no cell phone reception- the black spot, or zone blanche, of the title. People tend to die in the forest, giving Villefranche a high murder rate, but the forest is a living presence which occasionally gives someone back. The villagers are closely connected to each other and to the forest.

Main character Major Laurène Weiss, the chief of police for the village, is one of the survivors who came back from the forest as a young woman. Many years later, she remains haunted by the experience. In present day Villefranche, another young woman, Marion Steiner, the daughter of mayor and business owner Bertrand Steiner, has been missing for months. Laurène spends her spare time in the forest searching for Marion, who was close friends with her own teenage daughter, Cora. Laurène bristles when an outsider, prosecutor Franck Siriani, is sent to investigate the high crime rate in the small village.

Recap

We are introduced to Villefranche using the the 1964 song Mr Lonely by Bobby Vinton. Visuals include the mountainous forest, ravens, fog, and an emergency phone at the village boundary line.

You’ve been warned, Mr Siriani. Enter at your own risk.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 4: Family Ties Recap

~ Metacrone

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The Ghosts of Halloween Past come back to haunt the residents of Stumptown in episode 4, as shady PI Artie banks and corrupt businessman/ex husband Randall Tapper resurface for a second round with Dex and Candace. Miles and Grey’s nightmares materialize in the form of escaped mobster Wallace Kane. Sue Lynn Blackbird and Lieutenant Cosgrove are drawn into the fray as they each work toward damage control.

Recap

Picking up not long after the end of episode 3, this episode finds Dex taking a baseball bat to Artie’s beloved vintage Mustang in retaliation for double crossing her and Candace. In addition, Tapper has hired Artie to act as his watchdog to make sure that Dex and Candace don’t find and use any new evidence to take him down. Dex declares war on Tapper, Artie and the Mustang.

I’d feel sorry for the innocent Mustang, but it’s probably been complicit in a number of crimes over the course of its long life of being driven as a midlife crisis and status symbol car. It’s about time it paid for some of them. I’m sure it’s got a good health plan.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 4: No Outlet Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

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In episode 4 of Emergence, Jo spends the hour trying to solve a dilemma that many parents have faced- is my child the normal amount or evil, or do I need to do something about this spawn of Satan? She mulls over Piper’s true nature with the help of a newly assigned social worker, Lily Salgado, Auger Industries head Richard Kindred and, separately, his former employee Emily; Benny and a hacker friend of Benny’s named April; police officer and right hand man Chris, and her family. By the end of the episode, she’s made a decision, and Piper truly becomes part of the family with the support of Mia, Alex and Ed. But Kindred isn’t ready to give up his ownership claim and Benny and April pay a price.

Recap

Episode 4 begins late at night, with Piper laying in bed, facing the window. Jo has placed a nannycam in the dollhouse, and is watching the feed in the kitchen. From her perspective, it looks like Piper is asleep.

The camera is easy to spot in the dollhouse. It’s not cleverly hidden in a Teddy bear, like a normal nannycam, so Piper knows it’s there.

Jo gets a text from Benny telling her that Emily is packing her things and getting ready to leave town. Before Jo can text back, Piper appears and asks for a glass of water.

This show and the CBS show Evil both love to use their little girls to make references to the original Exorcist film/book.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 3: Rip City Dicks Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 3 of Stumptown, Dex decides to go legit as a PI, so she convinces a respected local investigator, Artie Banks, to take her on as an apprentice. Hijinks ensue. Miles investigates the murder of Grey’s former crime partner, Jack Feeley, which leads him straight to Grey. Grey decides to come clean with the crime bosses about the money he owes them, but it’s not as simple as he hopes it will be. In Stumptown, nothing ever is.

Recap

Episode 3 opens on Dex in the waiting room of iconic local PI Artie Banks, staring at the framed Detective Quarterly magazine cover that says he’s an icon. His bored secretary tells her that Mr Banks will be upstairs soon. Dex allows herself an un-Dex-like moment of hopeful fantasy and imagines herself and Artie as partners in a 1970s TV detective show, Rip City Dicks, complete with her in a sassy white jumpsuit, a funky soundtrack, and great fight choreography.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 3: 2 MG CU BID Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 3 of Emergence, Piper develops a mysterious illness which forces Jo to deepen her investigation into the mystery surrounding her foster daughter. She’s led to a tech corporation, Auger Industries, and its head, Richard Kindred, played by Lost’s Terry O’Quinn. Ed also has a follow up appointment with the oncologist, while Alex tries to sort out the airband radio frequency.

Recap

The episode begins in the early morning, with Jo listening to clicks and beeps on her computer that she tells Alex are sounds she recorded from the pirate airband radio frequency. He offers to use some pattern recognition software to help her figure out what the sounds mean.

They move on to discussing how long he’s going to stay at the house. He’s still worried that the family is in danger, but Jo is worried that Mia will get confused and start to think her parents are getting back together. When Mia comes downstairs and remarks on how nice it is that they’re all together, Alex sees Jo’s point and says he’ll leave today.

Jo goes upstairs to wake up Piper, who’s supposed to go to work with her, since Ed has an oncologist appointment. Just before she wakes up, Piper has a nightmare that the bedroom door knob disintegrates and she’s trapped in the room. Jo discovers that Piper has a fever and leaves to get the thermometer.

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Prodigal Son Season 1 Episode 3: Fear Response Recap

~ Metacrone

 

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Episode 3 of Prodigal Son begins with a nightmare, as all of Malcolm Bright’s days do, but this one is particularly memorable. More on that later.

The episode improves for him, as he has an exciting murder case to solve that involves one of his psychology idols and a unique MO. His mother, Jessica, has also discovered that Malcolm is seeing his father again and she goes to great lengths to disrupt their relationship, as she has with both of her children since Martin’s arrest.

If he weren’t such a notorious psychopath, and she weren’t such a dedicated single mother, the steps she’s willing to take in order to keep her children and husband from speaking to each other might make you suspicious.

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