DOA ON TV

Playing catch up this week!




Monday

Manifest

Last week it was revealed that 11 passengers whom "no one would miss" were taken away by some unknown agency to a farm.  They're being experimented on, it seems to be pain tolerance from what we see, though that makes no sense.  Cal is connected to a detainee named Marco, and as Marco is tortured, Cal is as well.  Marco appears to be very ill, with a fever, and so is Cal, to the point of being hospitalized.

This gives us some insights into the problems Cal's illness had on the marriage of Ben and Grace in the past, and threatens what they're rebuilding.

Ben tries to tell Grace what has been happening to those on the plane, after she says she can believe anything after the miracle of their return, but she shuts him down immediately.   Grace isn't much liked on social media.

Michaela has better luck with Jared, as he helps her track down the farm which turns out to be a "government black site" that they're warned away from by armed troups.   I think he's still credulous, but he's trying, and he can't deny she has insight into events that can't be explained.

In this week's episode, Ben gets a job as a low level accountant at a company that may allow him to get access to information on the bad guys.

More creepy Danny smarminess.

Vance of the NSA has Ben's cell phone texts up on a wall in his office, and he intercepts data Ben has stolen that might help find the missing passengers.  Vance's second in command is a total weasel who seems to have his own agenda, but Vance circumvents the weasel and looks into the missing passenger info on his own.  It looks like Ben has a new ally.


The Arrow

I gave up on The Arrow mid season last year, but decided to see how it is this season.   I dreaded the whole Oliver Queen in jail drama, but it has been a solid, and even suspenseful storyline.

The other crime fighters have started new lives, and they're all interesting moves forward for these characters.  Even Felicity, who has gone off the rails to get revenge.



Tuesday

The Flash     News Flash


It turns out that the Thinker's Enlightenment affected some technology.   A selfie obsessed rival to Iris named Spencer Young gained technology in her phone on the night of the Enlightenment that lets her affect people and events creating news stories which she scoops.

She has an App that delivers her news to adoring fans (three times the followers Iris has, sneers Nora).    Nora is immediately smitten with Spencer when she meets her in person, and forgets to check to see if Spencer is a meta.   Iris bursts in and breaks things up, reminding Nora of her task.

After several bad scenes between Iris and Nora , it's revealed Nora has only had her powers for six months.  Prior to that, she'd had her powers blocked by a chip inserted by Iris of the future.  No wonder.

Ralph has some good scenes trying to out-detective Sherloque.   Between them, they figure out some new facts about Cicada.    I love Sherloque calling Ralph "Baby Giraffe".

My favorite thing in the episode is Barry playing baseball.  He get's the right field spot though he hates it and is unable to catch the ball.   He's no good up at bat, either.

No Flash last week.



This Is Us    Kamsahamnida

Toby remains depressed though back on his meds.   He's afraid Kate will eventually leave him because he's this way.  In a powerful Pearson-All-The-Way speech she lets him know she will always be there for him.

Kevin helps Randall campaign in a Korean area of the District, since Soloman has such an unshakeable hold on the area where William's apartment building is.   It turns out The Manny is wildly popular in Korea at this time and everyone's excited to meet "The Man Baby" as he's known.

Kevin and Zoe are off to Vietnam.  I found it interesting Kevin tells Randall "she gave him her necklace".  I was right, it was hers, and I still think given to him not out of love, but something else.  Apparently the letters themselves, of which nothing is revealed, answer no questions.

Poor Beth snaps while unsuccessfully trying to help the girls sell Girl Scout cookies.   She'll be joining Randall's campaign.


No This Is Us last week.




Wednesday

Survivor

A merge is always fun, and there are unexpected alliances which may or may not hold.   I am sort of tired of one tribe dominating the whole thing, staying "strong" and just picking the others off.

Dan the Swat Guy immediately reunited with his crush Kara, and stupidly tells her he has a second idol.  Bonk!

Angelina tries to take command of the game's strategy, and should have gotten voted off, but Elizabeth went.   It appears Elizabeth had a back injury prior to the game that has come back and she's been in a lot of pain, causing her to gert no sleep, so bad decisions and shrieky  moments did her in.

Elizabeth was my pick, though I really, really wanted Angelina to go.



Thursday

The Good Place


Things are a little turgid on The Good Place, with another Eleanor-centric episode.  She has to be shown "clips" of her and Chidi falling in love by Michael to prove she's a worthy human.   I hoped it was Chidi's turn to have his life examined, and that there would besome person to be saved in his behalf.



Murphy Brown

Centered around a banquet in honor of a past season character "Jim Dial" who I don't find interesting.   It was all sort of a love fest.  Loved Tyne Daily who thought she was Dial's date.   Loved John Larroquette (who I miss in The Librarians!) as a judge who finds Murphy interesting and who gives her his card.   Loved Bette Middler as a gold digger who now owns a large share in the network.    Katie Couric had a nice bit with Corky, who I don't think I care for much.   Avery introducing a new girlfriend to Murphy was sort of silly.  He needs to get his own place, but then there wouldn't be those great heart to heart talks with Murphy.

I love Murphy's living room with all those books.



Friday

Van Helsing

Vanessa, Scarlet and Axel are in San Francisco to find the creepy "B'ah" Elder.   Artificially plot wise, Scarlet is sent into a deep slumber after a fight with Vampire Ninjas (the ones from the old Chine episode a few weeks ago).   Alex goes off with some military guys.  Vanessa is left to face the B'ah alone.   The three of them together would have easily defeated the group, but no.

In Denver, Julius, Flesh, Doc and Jolene arrive, are processed, and begin new lives in this "free zone."

The standout among them for me is Julius, who was turned into a vampire in the 1930s, so the world has very much passed him by.  He has no idea what a microwave does.  He's uncertain how to respond to his new boss.   Doc and Jolene are in a romance, which should be a lightening of things, but both are gnarly and uncertain, and also affected by mandatory shots given to new citizens.   Flesh tries to kill himself, but apparently can't...no I don't think his jumping off a building with his head going splat is the last of him.


Doctor Who   Demons of the Punjab


This weeks episode may be my favorite ever.

We haven't seen much of what makes Yaz tick.   Despite the Doctor's wariness, they travel back in time to 1947 India to see something of Yaz's grandmother's past.

Yaz's beautiful, smart, warm, remarkable grandmother is getting married the next day to her lifelong friend Prem.    They're in a remote rural area, and will be married by a holy man who is walking to the wedding.   Yaz is rather horrified, because she knows from photographs that Prem was not her grandfather.

Yaz explains they're family and she hugs her grandmother, who she loves so much in the present.  It's amazing the group, in their odd clothing, are so readily accepted in.   But they are.

It turns out the next day is also the day The Partition of India and Pakistan takes place.   I had never heard of this before, and reading about it, and hearing the Doctor describing the chaos and loss of life that came with it...it's so awful, so incomprehensible anyone would think of dividing a land and people in that way.   I don't know why I've never heard of it, it's only seventy years ago.  Such upheaval, it should be so prominent in modern history for everyone to know about.

The show handled so well showing the effect on families in even the most remote area.  Prem's younger brother has joined, in secret, a group of angry young men who embrace the division of Muslims and Hindus and everything that now gives them power to get rid of people "who don't belong here".

This being Doctor Who, there are aliens, who the Doctor recognizes as a race of assassins.  She tries to keep them away, but she finds that they are now a race who are dedicated to witnessing the loss of life and honoring and remembering souls.   And they're here for Prem.

All that goes on, but a young couple in love follow tradition, and stand right on the new borderline and say their vows, officiated by the Doctor.    She says Love in all its forms is the most powerful weapon we have. Because love is a form of hope. And like hope, love abides, in the face of everything.

DOA On TV

Monday

Manifest 

The episode "Connecting Flights" explored what it was like for the people left behind when Flight 828 disappeared.

6 months after the event,  Grace isn't coping, and goes to grief counseling where she was immediately leached onto by Danny.    Not the time, not the place, guy.    Jared and Lourdes are sharing memories of Michaela.

Two years after, Danny's over for dinner (I guess his smooth moves didn't pan out so quickly), and Lourdes congratulates Jared for making detective with a smooch at a bar.

Everyone's all settled into their new lives at the 5 1/2 year mark when unexpectedly the flight returns, upending the lives they've made.

It turns out that icky Danny was essentially living with Grace and Olive, and had taken on a role of a father to Olive, and had to awkwardly back out of his cozy nest once Ben, the actual husband and father came home.  We can see I don't like Danny.

As of this episode, it has only been two weeks since the return of the flight.  It seems longer, but given that timeline maybe some things are a bit more understandable.

Except Danny the slimeball wails that he can lose Grace, just as (sniff) he lost his wife, but (sniff) don't take Olive away.  Just back out that door, creepy guy.

In today's timeline Ben and Cal have a day out at Coney Island, flipping a coin to decide what they'll do, what they'll eat, etc.   As they're heading home on the subway, Cal, who has seemed like a nice little kid, suddenly hops off the subway at a stop that isn't home, and he runs away from his father, leading him on a hectic chase into the bowels of the station, where he somehow finds Thomas, the stowaway, in his lair.   This is such odd behavior for any kid, let this one.   Then he has a seemingly clairvoyant knowledge that someone is coming down the hall to the room where they're hiding.

For the first time, he's exhibiting powers of some sort that aren't like those experienced by any of the others.   A final scene back in the aircraft has everyone sleeping but Cal, who sees something in a bright light outside the plane window.  He intones "it's all Connected."

No episode tonight, the 29th, but back next week.



Tuesday


Flash The Death of Vibe

Cisco didn't die at all, though he was attacked by Cicada (chirp, chirp).   Any episode with lots of Cisco is a good one.



A new version of Wells enters the scene, a "brilliant detective" who has tracked Cicada in numerous incarnations named Sherloque Wells.    He's a seedy Poirot clone with a supposed French accent.   Luckily I always end up liking Wells in all his alternate Earth forms.   Predictably, Cisco pretends to hate the new Wells and wants nothing to do with him, but of course they'll end up fast friends.

I like a side mystery with Caitlin and Ralph trying to find Caitlin's father who may not be dead after all.


This Is Us


A packed episode that showed Toby's childhood and lifelong battle with depression.   He's trying to get back on his anti-depression pills without Kate knowing he went off them, but his behavior is becoming erratic.

Kate had a gig dressed as Adele, and belted out a song.  She looked and sounded amazing.   And she's pregnant!

Teen Kate had a glowering episode as Miguel brought in a piano for the Peason's apartment.  Her dress made her look pregnant...eerily mirroring adult Kate's story.

Kevin and Zoe traveled to see an old war buddy of Jack's to try to unravel Jack's war time story.  Kevin did not notice a clerk's rude treatment of Zoe at all, so absorbed was he.   Kevin has improved greatly, but I don't think he's good enough for Zoe.

Randall's prom was ruined when his date's father couldn't tolerate his daughter dating a young black man.  His sweet face, poor Randall.

A bit of softening toward Miguel, who is shown promising Jack he'll look after his family if anything ever happens to him.   So, Miguel bringing over the used piano and fixing the Pearson's fridge was him honoring Jack.

Jack's war buddy shows up at Kevin's hotel as he's checking out to hand him several letters he received from Jack while Jack was still in Vietnam.

In one is a picture of Jack and the woman from the Vietnamese village talking to one another.  The woman is wearing Jack's necklace, which Kevin now has.

The woman was wearing the necklace in the first episode she was in, while Jack's troop was just moving into the village.  So somewhere along the line, Jack befriended her, and I think just friends, and he ended up with the necklace.

My theory is the woman was previously involved with either one of the Viet Cong tied to the village, or another serviceman.   I think Viet Cong is most likely and somehow Jack saves him, let's him escape, or tries to help in some way as he is prone to doing.   Perhaps she gives Jack the necklace to honor his assistance to the ones she loves.  That sounds like Jack.




Survivor


Breathe a sigh of relief, Natalie got ousted at tribal.   I've never seen anyone try harder to be disliked, yet be more impervious to everything around them than Natalie.   She's fascinating, yet painful to watch.

Meet the Brochachos!   Swat cop Dan and wrestler John take Christian the robotics scientist into the fold and call themselves the Brochachos.   May be spelled differently.

This worries Gabby of course who is once again shown moaning off to the side.   Dan and John do indeed thinks she's a weak link and want to boot her when the chance arrives.   SwatDan found his second idol of the game.   Lots of folk know he has the first one, but hopefully he'll not tell anyone about the second, particularly with Carl's game advantage in play.

Dirt Move of the Day:   Angelina decides she's cold and wants Lyrsa's jacket.  She decides to talk Natalie into getting it for her, so she doesn't have to get her hands dirty.  What?  Unbelievably, Natalie goes right for it and asks for it, when turned down, she tries to bully attorney Nick into giving her his.

Possible Tribal Targets Gabby, Kara, Natalie    Natalie was voted, both because she was painful to be around, but she took a lot of bad pub for trying to get the jackets.   It must have appeared to the others that she'd gone mad.  She never said Angelina put her up to trying to get the jackets, and Angelina never confessed.

Unbelievably, Angelina kept asking Natalie for her jacket as she was heading out, in increasing louder and whinier tones.   So much for the thin veneer of civilization.



Thursday

The Good Place   The Ballad of Donkey Doug

It appears the crew is going to try to save those they know best first.  So we meet at last Donkey Doug and Pillboi.   OMG.  Donkey Doug turns out to be Jason's father.  Pillboi dispenses meds in a nursing home.   The two are planning to steal the ingredients to make some odd concoction they think will make them rich.

The Team tries to get Donkey to go back to Electrician's school to save his soul, but Douggie Daddy is having none of it.

Not a great episode.  Jason's character needs to be dispensed in tiny doses.  Having three of him---oh, the horrors!



Murphy Brown

Murphy had a line on a whistle blower, but had to wait for approval from above to fly the guy in for the show.

Although this was all supposed to be super secret,  everyone from the copier guy to the group at Phil's seemed savvy to the story.

When the Wolf Network had the man on their show the very next morning, a round of finger pointing made for hard feelings.



It turned out a piece of tech that was Murphy's new assistant was misinterpreting voice commands and was sending all the info from the newsroom right over to Wolf.


Friday

Van Helsing

After the two great episodes the previous weeks, the show returned to the "current day" and a painful to watch story line with Sam (awful serial killer turned vampire) hunting down victims and trying to teach Mohamed to be a nasty serial killing vampire like himself.

Sam was a good character early on when you didn't realize he was a serial killer since childhood.  Horribly, the episode showed some of Sam's early days.   He was never anything but a real monster.




I actually turned the sound down and browsed the Net in the scenes with Sam, of which there were quite a few.

Looking up reviews after the show, as I do, I saw there was a big Twitter campaign to encourage people to watch Friday's episode because the show is struggling in the ratings.   And then it's the worst episode ever for the series.


Sunday


Doctor Who   Arachnids In the UK


Why did it have to be spiders?   After getting the companions home to Sheffield, The Doctor is reluctant to say goodbye, so she takes the invite to tea at Yaz's place in a flash.

There's a neighbor encased in spider's webbing.

There's a newly built luxury hotel Yaz's mom was going to manage before being summarily fired by the big ugly American businessman who owns the place.

It's turns out the place is Spider Central, with literally the Mother Of All Spider's nesting below the building.

Despite the fact that the big momma had encased at least two, maybe more people in the underground mines beneath the hotel, the Doctor was sympathetic with it's situation and wanted to offer some solution where it could live peaceably.  Eeww, eeww.


In the end, Ryan, Yaz, and Graham decided they'd like to keep traveling with the Doctor, because, who wouldn't?

DOA on TV

Monday

Manifest

The main mysteries connected with Flight 828 are in the background this week.  Ben meets his "replacement" in the hearts of Grace and Olive, a scraggly fellow named Danny.  Betrayal city, Olive gets caught shoplifting and calls Danny to break her out instead of her dad who has been working so hard to be her dad again.  Ouch.

Michaela is side-winded by her partner and ex-love Jared tricking some extra time with her on a stakeout so he can figure out what is going on with her.   She was soooo close to telling him everything when he said she'd end up in a psychiatric facility if she kept acting as she was.   Close call!   Zipped lips, I got nothing, la la.

Saanvi works with the stewardess from the aircraft to help a stowaway(! ) from Flight 828 find his old love, the stewardesses' nephew, in New York.  The NSA is right on their tail, looking for that stowaway.


Tuesday

This Is Us

A completely Jack-centric episode that shows his life over time, from his meeting up with his brother Nick in Vietnam, all the way back to Nick's birth in 1948.   Given the family's terrible life, the drunken, abusive father, it was a rough episode.  I think it would have been better spread out over the season.

It was promoted as the episode that shows how Jack became Jack, but I don't think it did at all. Nor did it give any real personality to his brother Nick.

The only good thing I took from the episode was that there was a time, way back at Nick's birth, when Jack's father was a good guy who didn't drink.   For a time.   Jack's grandfather visited the hospital, providing a mirror of what Jack's father would become.  Poor little Jack, his face when his grandfather came in.   Then to have his father turn into that man and worse.


The Flash

Yikes, I missed the first return episode Nora the previous week.   I want to like the girl, but I don't think I do.   She's a big fan girl of Barry's and is really just cold and dismissive to Iris, who I love, and who you don't treat that way, kid or not.

I think it would be awful to meet your child who's in their mid-late twenties and you missed all the dreaming of what they might be.  All those sweet baby moments and the wonderful years of childhood.

Barry apparently disappears forever, is the excuse, and she wanted to see him for herself.   That I can understand, but she's just not very nice.

Blocked was the episode of the week, with more Nora, and trying to train her in the speed force, trying to slow down her enthusiasm and thoughtlessness.

Enter a new villain called Cicada who makes cicada noises (really) while killing people.  Chirp, chirp, you're dead!

The interesting thing there is that he and Nora seem to know each other.



Wednesday

Survivor

They could call this the Twist Episode.

Bi who has torn her MCL (? ) voluntarily leaves the game so she doesn't injure it further and put her career in jeopardy.

Planned anyway, they say, was a split of the tribe into three new tribes.  The twist here is one person (Carl) got no tribe, and he'd go to Exile Island for now, then at Tribal he'd get the spot of whoever got popped.

While at Exile he found an intriguing new advantage in a coconut that will allow him to block immunity for a player who is going to play it at tribal.  So he needs to be sure the person has an Immunity Necklace, then has to vote against its use on his voting turn at tribal.   If he's wrong and none are played or a different person plays theirs, it's gone.


Not Cut Out For This Game:    Gabby

Tossed Opportunity In the Dumper With An All New Tribe and New Start:  Natalie

Favorite:  Christian

Most Likely to Go:    I could not decide between Gabby, Natalie and Elizabeth.   Shocker:  Natalia of Mean Girls International got the boot.   An understandable but stupid move that means the former David tribe members now have the voting numbers to control the vote in their tribe.


Thursday


The Good Place

Michael and Janet,  caught red handed with the inter-dimensional doorway, go ahead and explain everything to the four erstwhile unsaveable humans.

Eleanor, who is most on top of things with ideas to salvage the situation in every incarnation of their Good Place/Bad Place scenarios, decides that since they are busted and they can't even get points anymore to ever get to the Good Place, they'll use their time on earth to help others make it to the Good Place.  Kinda touching.

Chidi with no shirt on!  Holy moleans, Rocky.   


Murphy Brown

Murphy's station wants her to interview an extremist politico who wants to go head to head on her show.   The ratings will be great, but Murphy decides giving him airtime would be a mistake and she declines the interview.

He waylays her at Phil's bar and has the conversation he wanted to have.  I was all admiration for the way she handled it.  She told him exactly what she thought of him and his ideas, in calm voice, very smooth.  Off he went, steaming.

At home, her son is watching a video someone at the bar captured on their phone of the confrontation.



Friday

Van Helsing

Vanessa is in 1896 Hong Kong, trying to find out why the East India Company is involved with vampires and the B'ah Elder herself. 

The episode has rare light moments as Vanessa walks through the ancient streets, actually smiling as she takes it all in.   Seeing her in Victorian dress, and fussing uncomfortably with her pinned up hair, was such fun.

I loved the Governor's helpful wife, a Seward by birth.

Master Tsui, who tried to help Vanessa train to fight the B'ah in the short time they had was patient yet blunt with her.  She countered with withering remarks about Yoda and "wax on, wax off".

Lilly's husband, who seemed supportive in the previous episode, was completely different here, having no patience with any talk of vampires.  Until he was surrounded by them.



Sunday

Doctor Who     "Rosa"

The Tardis directs the Doctor and her companions to Montgomery, Alabama in 1955.   There are some mysterious signatures/readings that shouldn't exist until the far future in the town, so they decide to see what the cause is since the Tardis won't return them to Sheffield, England, their home.

The villain is some prisoner from the future who decides that the Montgomery Bus Boycott is where the timeline started to go bad.   He can't harm Rosa because of restraints in his brain, but he plans to force small changes that will undo the event.

The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz work to find Rosa's schedule, where she works, and what bus she'd be taking, so they can be there to make sure history isn't changed.

Rosa Parks as played by Vinette Robinson was so smart, dignified and elegant.  How could anyone stand up against such a lady?

I've liked Ryan's character from the start, and I loved that he got to meet Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.   I think he's a really thoughtful young man, and his experiences on the Tardis are really going to shape him into a remarkable person.

DOA On TV

Monday

Manifest

This week's mystery involved the woman who was shot at the end of the previous episode.  Though she wasn't killed to shut her up, the NSA did take over the crime scene and took her body away to a creepy government facility where masked and gowned surgical types awaited her.

The medical researcher Saanvi is ahead of the feds, searching young Cal's blood for answers to what might have happened to the passengers and crew of Flight 828.  She finds a marker that turns out to be in her own blood now too, that may indicate everyone was near death and brought back.

Tuesday

This Is Us

The highlight for me was a dream sequence of sorts with all three Kate's together, with Jack stepping in after a bit.  The actresses playing Kate are all so wonderful.   The teen is so angry, while the youngest version is so sweet.

Huge: Beth loses her job just as Randall decides he's going to run against the North Philadelphia councilman who won't act to clean up the rec center.  So, they're moving from New Jersey to Philadelphia?  Does Randall plan to move into his apartment building?  Lots going on there.



Wednesday

Survivor

Worst Judgement:  Jeremy

Favorite this week:  Mike

Toughest to to take down: Natalie

Most likely to leave by episode's end:   Natalie or Jeremy.    Jeremy!  He went right off the rails out of nowhere, was paranoid, was accusing people of talking about him.  Yikes.  It happens sometimes that people just crack.  Too bad, what a good guy.


Standout moments:

David wins Immunity!  Goliath goes to Tribal.

Mike was pretty interesting and surprisingly emotional.

Natalie was just impressive going to everyone and stating her case.  She's definitely a powerhouse, but hasn't shown it much, but she was there tonight.

Bi hurting her knee is bad news she's really a tough physical resource for the David tribe.  Odd little vibe, her laying on the raft with her head in Nick's lap.

Not a merge but a mixing of tribes next week.  That's not going to go well.



Thursday

The Good Place  

Any worries about how Michael and Janet could make their way on earth with no skills, no monies, no idea of what they are doing here were quickly put aside.  Michael and Janet just use Janet's infinite knowledge base to win the Lottery by picking just the right ticket from a roll for Eleanor, and likely are doing the same for themselves.

Things just seem to be meant to break the group apart though, Tahani meets old friend Larry and plans to go back home and marry him.

Despite Janet's cautioning against it, Michael wants to sneak into the Judge's chambers!!!! and reboot things once again for the group.  That's going to go well.

Even more bizarre, Michael summons a door way in the basement but before he and Janet can go through, they see Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason standing watching them.  Oops!   How much did they hear, how is the glowing door explained, and what on earth are they all doing down in the basement?



Murphy Brown

Murphy has a pretty good episode with the MeToo movement as it's base.   Some awareness training at the station on appropriate behavior in the workplace brings up lots of conversations, and some hard memories for Murphy.   She has a good scene with Tyne Daly at Phil's talking about how women put up with a lot of behavior as part of "bad dates" back in the day.   Then, at home Murphy talks to Avery about an experience at college with a professor she's carried with her ever since.

Murphy goes to confront him, and his home is like some terrible stalker trophy den, complete with an award she won on display.


Friday

Van Helsing

My favorite episode of the series, it was spooky instead of gory.  It took a step back into the past with ancestor Lillian Van Helsing going undercover in an asylum called Renfield House.

There's a graveyard, a mad scientist, and a new type of vampire.

To top it off, The Elder psychically sends Vanessa back to Lillian's time at the end to experience an encounter from Lillian's time, as Lillian.

Next week should be great.

Sunday

Doctor Who

The Ghost Monument

At the end of episode one, the Doctor and her three new companions were floating in space, just floating in nothingness.

This episode has the Doctor and Yaz aboard a ship with Epzo, hurtling toward an unknown planet that isn't were it's supposed to be.   There's much Doctor Who-ish  technical back and forth with the pilot about how to land without crashing.

In another ship, Ryan and Graham are with pilot Angstrom who thinks they're bonuses to help her win the race she's engaged in against pilot Epzo.

The pilots began the race with a huge competitive field and they're the only ones left, and the planet they've landed on contains the last leg of the race.

The pilots were both really interesting, and though you really had to be rooting for Anstrom to win, with her whole family at stake, I liked the shared victory at the end.

The Doctor's reaction to finding that the Ghost Monument at race's end was the Tardis was fantastic, as was her reunion with the newly self-remodeled ship.

DOA On TV

Monday

Manifest  

There appears to be a mystery of the week aside from the larger mystery of the time traveling aircraft.  This week it was a touching story of a father from the plane trying to get help clearing his son of robbery charges.  The father had been on the plane for a single day trip to play with the Philharmonic.  He'd left his thirteen year old son with a trusted neighbor.  Then he disappeared for five years of his son's life.  Played by a real life father and son, they were a heartbreaking pair.

The episode ended with one of the survivors of the plane being shot while she proudly watched herself talking about the plane and the security circumstances on TV, though the government investigators had told all the passengers to talk to no one.


Tuesday

This Is Us

Kate and Toby try in vitro fertilization despite only a ten percent chance of success because of Kate's weight and Toby's long use of anti-depressants.      Incredibly Toby tosses his pills down the toilet without thinking out how to safely come off from using them.  He soon develops some odd twitches and behaviors, clearly going down a rough path.

Randall tries to save the world again by getting a local politico to help fix a local (North Philadelphia, where the heck does everyone live in this show?) rec center.   I was horrified he just dropped Deja off there to mingle with some kids he thought she might identify with.  He was gone driving around like the whole day, leaving her there.  There weren't any consequences we saw, but that girl is really in a tenuous place still, and abandoning her anywhere is a terrible thing to do.

The story lines come together at Kevin's film premier as Kate and Toby's effort to be the" only ones who can pass Jack's genes and self along by having a baby" insults Kevin and deeply wounds Randall, who is truly the best of all of them, and the most like Jack.


Wednesday

Survivor

Favorites:  Elizabeth  and Christian

Most likely to leave by episode's end:   Jess or Natalie   Jess!

Standouts:

Jeremy   went through Dan's coat pockets where he found Dan's idol, then went out and found his own!

The Goliath "power girls"    Kara, Natalia and Angelina  figure they have the "boys wrapped around their fingers"  so they're all set.

Natalie    Tries to promote herself as harmless and old, and thus a silly target.  That argument could work later in the game, but not this early on.





Thursday



The Good Place

Bad Place crud ball Trevor reaches earth and sets out to tear the foursome apart.  He is hilariously obnoxious.   They go out to dine at a horrible "American restaurant.

Ha!  The Judge catches up with Michael and Janet, really telling them off for their interference and describing their upcoming well deserved ill fate.   Somehow they escape back to Earth.

Murphy Brown

The second episode has Murphy trying to get into the White House press room because her son has gained access via a campaign trail alliance with Sandra Huckabee Sanders.

She is so competitive with him.  She miraculously gets in with a ridiculous disguise, which she sheds in a planter before going into the press room and castigating Sanders and everyone in the room before being shown out.

I thought she should have kept her disguise on to have at least a few moments of journalistic credibility, but she just plowed in and tried to take over the room.   This was a terrible choice, and if she is buffoonish like that all the time, my dislike of sitcoms having people do outrageous things to get a laugh is going to play out.

I hoped the show might get in some actual commentary on our society and politics, but that might get tossed aside to play to the laugh track.




Friday 

Van Helsing

The uber grisly and grim vampire hunter is back.  The season last year ended oddly with little of Vanessa Van Helsing in episodes because she was pregnant in real life and couldn't do all the stunts and fights.

Vanessa is in fine form, and two big bads from last season were quickly dispatched by Vanessa and her sister.   Two more to go!

A show not for the faint of heart.  I'm borderline myself.



Sunday

Doctor Who!  

A great day for Who fans.   Great cast, enjoyable episode.   I like seeing the emergence of a new Doctor.

DOA on TV

Despite not having a nice list of new shows to try this fall, I'm finding plenty to watch.


Monday

Manifest

A new show where a plane takes off in April 2013 and lands in November 2018.  I thought the concept would be hokey, but the actors really pull off the shock of how it would be to have this happen.    The changes to the lives of everyone they knew and loved makes sense, but is just incomprehensible to the travelers.

There's a hint that there is a divine hand in things.  It's really well done, the pilot in any case.  We'll see how tonight's episode goes.



Tuesday

This Is Us

I love it so much.  My husband loves it too.  So much happens in an episode.  This cast, in all the time periods they write, are so incredible.   Heartbreakers!



Wednesday

Survivor  David vs Goliath

I can't resist this show most seasons.  Lots of good characters this time.  I'm not going to recap it this time around, because by the third episode everyone seems pretty mean, and I feel mean talking about them.  I thought I'd try a new format.  Just a few questions each episode.  For episode one:

Favorite:   Christian the Robot guy.

Most likely to leave:  Natalie or Pat    Pat left with a medical injury, oh so awful, seemed to have cracked his back on a rough boat ride back to the island from a challenge.

Least favorite:   Natalia   Mean Girl personified.

Laziest:  Tie Nick and Natalie

High Self Opinion   Natalia

This episode's pick for season winner:   Christian

David Tribe in Five Words or Less This Week:  Nicest tribe ever?

Goliath Tribe in Five Words or Less This Week:  Every person for their self.



Thursday

The Good Place

It is hard to say why this show is so appealing.  They actually had a full hour episode.  All the characters are exactly who they are meant to be, no matter how many ways Michael the Demon tries to change how things go for them.   They're an endless fascinating experiment in what it means to be Good.



Murphy Brown

I have never seen an episode of Murphy Brown till this week.  I never watch sitcoms anymore, though I used to.   To my surprise, I liked the show, I liked Murphy Brown.   We'll see how long I watch given my dislike of sitcoms, and politics.   I particularly liked her interactions with her son.  I'm not so sure what I think of the others on her crew.   I liked Hillary's cameo.



Sunday

Fear the Walking Dead

After a great third season, in season four they came back, tossed everyone out who might outshine Morgan's crossover character in any way, and it's a mess.

Even the introduction of new truly interesting characters doesn't make up an iota for the loss of the Madison and Nick characters.  I only watched the second half of the season because Aaron Stanford from 12 Monkeys, the hero and heart of that show, was going to be on.  Of course they wasted his talents and made him a selfish, whiny character nobody liked.  Not only that, they never mentioned him on Talking Dead, every single time crew was asked about the new characters, they went on and about about everyone else, but never said a word about Aaron.  They'll be back for season five, but I will not be.


Netflix 

Just looking around for something to watch with a cup of cocoa, I watched a couple of shows that have been on my list.

West Wing

I watched two episodes.   Too many people, I only like the President.  Might watch more, might not.




The 100

Interesting enough concept.  An ark in space made up of space stations from numerous countries who had one when the world was destroyed by nuclear war.    Overcrowding is now a problem because the life support systems are going down, and they're desperate enough to see if the planet is habitable only 97 years after the holocaust.

They send their teen children, 100 of them who are prisoners for minor infractions, down to the planet with life sign monitoring wrist bands to see if radiation kills them and how quickly.

Things go awry with the craft and it lands not where it was supposed to and communication is dead.

The kids go Lord of the Flies immediately, and are wild and and whooping it up, and acting like crazy people.   No thought they could be drawing down harm upon themselves.  No survival instincts.   Bad acting.   Might watch more, might not.

DOA On TV: Short Takes

Welcome to Binge season.  We're still in the mid-season doldrums where most fall shows haven't returned.  Some nights you just want to zone in front of the lighted box and be entertained.


This Is Us (NBC)

First we binged Season 1 and the first half of Season 2 "This Is Us".   Totally not a genre show.  Completely the sort of "watch and weep" show my mother used to live on.  Even so, it is smart, well written, with what I call "zingers" in every episode.  Each episode is packed.  The characters appear in their past and present incarnations.  The child actors in the past and present are spectacular.  Everyone is so likeable.    The show returned for live episodes this week and we're in heaven.


Blindspot (NBC)

This has had good buzz since it came out and I wanted to to start with episode 1 season 1 but it wasn't working out for me to do so. So I tried episode one of season 3.

I only liked the main character "Jane Doe" played by Jaimie Alexander.   Everyone else was annoying.  The deal breaker was Sullivan Stapleton as Jane's love Kurt Weller.   OMG.  The closeups of his mouth and that askew tooth on the bottom.  Shudder.  Nope.

The Good Place (NBC)

Lots of authors I enjoy speak highly of The Good Place.  Though it is a sitcom, which I never watch anymore, I watched the first season.   Somehow, though Kristin Bell's character was a truly awful human being, she seemed to improve somewhat over the course of the season.  Redemption is good.  Not a fan of Manny Jacinto's slacker Jason Mendoza character, but loved William Jackson Harper's Chidi immediately, and Jameela Jamil's Tahani grew on me.   Ted Danson's Michael, always interesting.   The characters from The Bad Place were a hoot.    I wasn't going to watch season 2, but now I want to.  It isn't on Netflix where I watched season 1 so will have to track it down.

Travelers (Netflix)

Time travel of a sort.  The Travelers are from the future.  I've only seen the first few episodes.  They take over the consciousness of current day people seconds before the death of those people.  In theory their bodies are back in the future, but for the nonce they're in the current day trying to stop various disasters.  Odd communications come from The Director back in the future via short takeovers of children and others who spit out a message then return to themselves.   There are a vast number of teams of five Travelers sent back with missions to accomplish.   I liked all of these characters immediately, so whatever they're up to, I'm rooting for them.


Agents of Shield  (ABC)

Back for their new season in December, they're having another great season.  They're in the future somehow where earth has been all but destroyed, and a small gritty society ruled by Kree overlords makes for misery.   Great stories and acting from everyone.


X-Files  (Fox)

This season isn't starting off strong, last weeks opener had me not paying much attention.   I'm not crazed about the Scully /Smoking Man twist, but I don't believe anything he says, so perhaps that's why.   Hopefully better tonight.


The Librarians   (TNT)

They're having a great season with super creative episodes.   The episode "And the Silver Screen" where Baird and Flynn get trapped in an old movie was hilarious.   One of their best ever episodes.