Here we are with another week of TV. I watched my regular series and tried out a couple of new ones. We're getting to that season where curling up with a good book or binge watching a show is just the thing.
NCIS: Origins Last Rites
This week belongs to Mike Franks and an old case he solved. Solved the case, never found the body.
A husband who killed his wife and lover in a grisly mess then buried their bodies in separate locations is on Death Row and due to be executed in two days. At some point in the past, Franks promised the woman's twin he would find the body. He became obsessed with it, and attacked Hope, the killer, in prison.
Anna's sister was contacted by Hope to get "absolution" and then he would reveal the location of her body. Franks worked the case alone in the past, but now he has Lala and Gibbs and Randy to help. It turns out Hope murdered yet another person, giving the team a pattern to the burials which leads to Anna's body.
Franks is out of control in several scenes, and even fights with his wife Tish over the case. At the last, he races to the prison where Hope is getting lethal injections just to let the man know he won, they found the body.
Survivor
This week's episode featured that fan favorite The Survivor Auction. After scrabbling in the morning for tubes in the jungle that contained money, the players had to spend down their money as fast as they could. The person who had the most money at the end of the auction would lose their vote at tribal.
For once, the food was really great stuff. It didn't look to me as anyone was just really digging in and eating, though. Don't they know once the auction ends your food is gone?
Just two gross things this time around: those giant fish eyes that are the size of a small cake, and live wriggling grubs on a plate. Gack.
This week there was a male and female who were immune: Sue and Kyle (his third in a row). Lots of scrabbling before and at tribal. A tie between Sam and Sierra resulted in a re-vote and Sierra left in tears.
Matlock Episode 5 Claws
Olympia's team is working on a class action suit for prison inmates who were in particularly gruesome conditions before recent changes at the prison, including a new warden.
The key witness is a former inmate who works in a beauty salon as a nail artist. Before she can testify, she relapses and begins taking drugs again. Matty recognizes she's high and tells Olympia the girl can't be a witness. They talk to several other potential witnesses, but once they hear Katya has relapsed, they're afraid and won't testify.
Matty goes to a drug house to find Katya to see if she can identify her dealer, maybe he was a guard at the prison? This is a huge horror for Matty and her husband who have been to places like this before looking for their daughter. It's almost more than they can do.
No luck there with Katya, but back at the beauty salon, Matty asks to see the tape of the day Katya relapsed, in particular a woman who was with Katya a long time and was disturbingly rude. Matty recognizes the woman though she's wearing a hat.
Matty and her husband are trying to keep their grandson out of the cases now so he can have a normal school life. It's tough without him!
On the other hand, Matty's office mates Billy and Sarah are starting to feel left out of the action as Matty shines in every case. It's as if the writers don't quite know what to do with them now.
The Great British Baking Show: Dessert Week
This week it was meringue, spotted dick, and a tiramisu showstopper. Aside from a few cracked meringues, it was all spectacular stuff from everyone. I confess it's been a rough week, so I made it to the part where they said One Minute Left! on the showstopper, then I opened my eyes and the credits were rolling. zzzzzzzzz.
Dylan has been really working hard each week and he got star baker. Sumayah was done in by a mix of lemon curd and coffee that didn't go over well with the judges.
Her work is spectacular, but the talent this time around makes it so hard to eliminate anyone.
Christiaan's Showstopper
Yellowjackets
I've heard about the show for a long time, and now that it's on Netflix, I watched the first episode, which was its pilot.
The Yellowjackets are a high school soccer team that gets a spot in the Nationals. They're getting a ride to the Nationals on the private jet belonging to the parents of one of the girls. Diverted to airspace over Canada to avoid storms, the plane crashes.
The show is split into two timelines: 1996, the year of the tournament and airplane crash, and 2021 where the survivors of the crash carry on with their lives and dodge a reporter who wants the real story of what happened during the nineteen months they were stranded in the wilderness.
Each timeline features a teen and an adult actress for each character.
It isn't clear what goes on after the crash, though there are a few scenes from that time showing the girls dressed in bizarre outfits as if they were primitives. It's pretty clear there's cannibalism.
There's quite a bit of character reveal before the crash. There's a lot of competition and cruelty in the girls as a group. Everyone seems to have a terrible home life. Lots of sex. I can't say I liked a single character in the past or present.
Because of that, I will leave my viewing at one episode, and not watch more.
Territory
Not having seen any version of Yellowstone, I was curious and thought I'd start with a fresh new series that features a family and its challenges running a cattle station in Australia. I have seen the first four episodes, and will watch the last two.
When the heir apparent to Marianne Station is injured after falling from his horse, and then is devoured by dingoes, the Lawson family is thrown into a scrabble for who will be next to run the ranch. Everyone wants the job, nobody seems capable.
I don't understand why patriarch Colin Lawson doesn't just step back into the role, polishing his apparently rusty skills a bit. While keeping the place afloat, he could be training in several of the family members vying for the role. He could see who is actually capable.
Nah, he decides a ne'er do well grandson who doesn't want the job is his new heir. The kid is a thief and allows himself to be a lackey for a truly slimy fellow thief.
Here's another show where it's hard to find likeable characters. I like granddaughter Susie and think she's a much better bet than Marshall, her half brother. I liked Emily, wife to drunken Graham, till she revealed her ruthless nature. I was really rooting for her. I also like Nolan Brannock, an indigenous cattle station owner who wants to compete with bigger cattle stations but keeps having bad luck and bad people coming his way. Colin the patriarch is a monster, let's just say.
Even so, beautiful country, fascinating culture, I hope something good happens in the last two episodes.
