The Awesomes: “Baby Got Backstory” Recap

Dr. Malocchio gets The Awesomes (minus Gadget Gal) stuck inside the H.I.P.P.I.E.R. an acronym that I can’t quite frankly remember but, basically a holographic simulator. Meanwhile, Gadget Gal is facing her arch enemy, Tomboy, and calls in some oddly named back up.

Origin stories were the order of the day in the H.I.P.P.I.E.R, with the exception of Hotwire, whose story seemed to change up and a bit suspicious. Best telling of their origin story has to go to Concierge, though who was once a pageant participant when she was younger.

And, holy brand dropping, Batman! Concierge mentioned during her telling of her origin story, which was hilarious and all began with a day planner at a pageant, that she was a Maxxinista. I wasn’t sure if that was purposefully placed or if it just fit for the moment because of what Sumo had said.

Muscle Man’s backstory helped see more of Prock and Mr.Awesome’s relationship than anything I could remember of Muscle Man’s story.

As they are sitting around a campfire, Gadget Gal and Tomboy are going at it as Tomboy calls in “the bowling team” to back her up while GG has Impressario’s mom to help her realize what was behind the whole rivalry, Tomboy has had a crush on her the entirety of their 40 years sparring culminating in a very entertaining outcome.

The episode ends with the first sign of actual (can’t believe I said that) conflict when Sumo’s parents walk right up to Awesomes HQ and claims they’re taking him back home.

We’re getting closer to where it all began but, not quite sure if it’s the pacing or the story that is making it difficult to see in a linear kind of way. Some of the characters are likeable enough but, I find myself trying to want to see more of these characters. Then again, I could just be taking this cartoon too seriously.

The Bridge: The Murderer Might Be Closer Than We Think in “ID”

Gina , the little girl, deals with the aftermath of seeing “the beast”, Marco handles the fallout of his personal life while trying to find connections between all of the victims, while Frye and Mendez head south of the border again to get their own answers.

The clock’s running out to figure out whom the murderer is and with every episode, it seems they’re getting closer…or the murderer is getting closer to them. The murderer now seems to be following them and one witness becomes his next target, setting the anxiety levels even higher.

Gina is taken to the station to try and ID the guy who killer her father but, can’t remember. Sonya believes she’s helping but, only comes up against a wall. Marco encourages her to try and connect with the girl to help get more information out of her. It’s only towards the end that Sonya and Gina find some sort of connection but, not in time to save her from “the Beast” attacking again.

Daniel becomes more conscientious as he starts to dive further into the case and gets Mendez’ help as they go south of the border to try and get answers. What they come up against is the remnants of fear that the people have garnered of Fausto and his reach. They find a man’s body knifed to an electrical pole and people just standing by and gawking at the body, which made for a disturbing scene.

They do find out that Marco is connected to the murder of Fausto’s brother and the death house, as he looked over the case and then made it disappear. Marco and Fausto’s history goes way back, as far back as their fathers apparently and Marco’s struggling to make his way out of it, saying that they’ve “taken different paths.”

We also got to see how far back Hank and Sonya go and it goes as far as her sister’s murder. Hank becomes wracked with guilt as he shoots the only lead in her case, which explains why he seems to be protective and tries to help her through things. Almost as if he is atoning for what he did in that case, without Sonya knowing that Hank was the one in charge of that case, which could possibly explain Marco’s visit to Fausto.

Sonya visits her sister’s killer in prison after the day she had, not being able to save Gina and not getting any closer to a positive ID. All that we find out is a pair of creepy eyes that Gina was able to distinguish, the proof of that on Sonya’s desk as she cleans off the rest of the blood off of her shirt. We find him coloring, showing signs of the after effects of a bullet to the head and surviving. Now knowing that she will never get answers, motive, reasoning, it’s a truly disheartening and hopeless scene just imagining being in that position and given that her sister was her last piece of family she had.

Time Warner Cable: Still No Credits for Loss of CBS Stations

The Awesomes Prove Their Worth in “Pilot, Part 2”

The Awesomes go up against their first villain…and, well they’re surprisingly kinda awesome in a unconventional kind of way.

Part two picks up where the first episode ends; the newly formed team goes up against Compost, their first villain together. And, they seem to be failing miserably. That is until Prock starts dictating what the other members of the team should do, leaving me wondering if besides stopping time he has any power that we’ll be able to see when they go up against other villains in future episodes. But, his directives don’t exactly end all that well when Perfect Man annoyingly swoops in and finishes it.

The Awesomes then get invited to do Superheroes Tonight when Prock gets embarrassingly shown up by the host. He’s in for a surprise when Dr. Malocchio stops in and proposes Operation Safe to rid the world of super powers.

They continue to be unable to catch a break as Joyce threatens Prock to hand over their funding to a more capable superhero, Perfect Man. She makes a point that the roster has to have seven people. And, so the auditions that were later deemed try-outs begin. There were some interesting heroes ranging from Crab man, who can sever a limb and make it re grow to a woman who can make anyone gay. That is, until Hotwire, voiced by Rashida Jones walks into the room, and Prock immediately becomes smitten.

She becomes the seventh member of the team as someone who can manipulate anything electrical.

Joyce Mandrake pops in to Awesomes Headquarters paying them a surprise visit  And, for the first time I laughed out loud when “The Animal Kingdom” attacked headquarters.  It caught me so absolutely off guard. In the process of going up against these adorable creatures, Prock proves that the Awesomes are indeed a competent team.

While they are all excited and celebrating their “awesome” success, Hotwire congratulates Prock. In the midst of their conversation, Hotwire’s boyfriend comes by to ask if she was okay. And, who should her boyfriend be other than…Perfect Man, of course.

I just have one question: So, we’re gonna be getting those tags throughout the entire run?

The Awesomes: Starting from Scratch in “Pilot, Part 1”

Superheroes come together to celebrate, and then disband at Mr. Awesome’s 90^th birthday and retirement in the pilot of one of Hulu’s new shows, The Awesomes.

The opening scenes sets up what we’ll be seeing further down the line, a world where Prock, Mr. Awesome’s noticeably less awesome son, is the only superhero left in the world up against Dr. Malocchio. Flash back to six months before, where Mr. Awesome announces at his 90^th birthday.

While Mr. Awesome retires, Prock hopes to take over The Awesomes from his dad but, learns he is second choice to the very aptly named, Perfect Man. He decides to strike out on his own and the other superheroes quit as they hear Prock accept the position.

Meanwhile, in the Maximus Penitentary, Dr. Malocchio, one of the villains Mr. Awesome put away, begins to plot to assume his position once again now that he has retired. His demands once he hypnotized the guards were quite funny “I need a Tom Ford suit…and one of those expensive smart phones.”

Prock then learns that his funding is being pulled, from Joyce Mandrake, a stoic member of a government committee and I couldn’t help but equate her character to another certain government agent trained to work with another set of superheroes. I hope we see more of her. He then asks the last member of the staff, who they end up just calling concierge, to help them reassemble a roster of superheroes to get their funding back. That roster includes Frantic, a somewhat unstable version of the Flash, Sumo, an 11 year-old who seems unassuming enough until you get him upset and a member of the original lineup, Gadget Gal.

Rachel Dratch’s voice got me really excited and happy, playing government liaison, Joyce Mandrake. And, Kenan Thompson lends his voice to Impresario, a superhero with mom issues. And, of course, Dr. Malocchio voiced by Bill Hader was great. Loved that there were SNL alums joining this project.

There were a lot of moments that made me snicker but, none that really made me laugh out loud. And, the censoring is interesting considering it’s on Hulu and there really isn’t a strict need to adhere to these rules. Also, thought the tag was kind of funny in that it recognized what it was, a plug for a product.

And, now on to the next episode.

 

Orange is the New Black: Piper Goes to Prison in “I Wasn’t Ready”

I’m late but I’m jumping on the Orange is the New Black recap bandwagon, one episode at a time. I’m starting with the pilot and I really forced myself not to just keep watching and writing after the fact. So, here it goes.

Piper is sentenced to a year in prison (not jail) for a year and has to leave her fiancé and life behind. What for, you may ask. Well, apparently for something she did once ten years ago.

The opening scene before the initial introduction of Piper shows her in the prison showers while being teased by one of her fellow inmates about her creatively made flip-flops. From that point on, we get thrown between some moments from her past and present day as she enters.

We get to see how she ended up getting sentenced to prison. It all started with a girlfriend she had when she got out of college who happened to be involved in a series of international drug deals, which was funnily described. We get more insight into their relationship as well as Piper’s other relationships with friends and family and Larry, the fiancée, through these flashbacks that, at first were somewhat disorienting but then start to seamlessly fit into the narrative of the episode.

Flash back to present day and we get to meet some of Piper’s fellow inmates and they are quite an interesting group of ladies. This group of women includes a yoga-loving inmate, an intimidating red-headed Russian cook and a protesting nun. And, while at first the people all seem really nice, save for the sleazy security guard, Piper puts her foot in her mouth when she  insults “Red” the Russian prison cook, who honestly looks a little imposing (and that is an understatement).

This offense results in a bloody tampon sandwich and a rude awakening for Piper. After being laughed out of the cafeteria Piper runs outside, which had me questioning if she was able to do that, as I am always bogged down by the minor details. But, that minor detail becomes forgotten because we come face to face with a woman we had only seen in flashbacks until this point, Piper’s ex-girlfriend that put her there in the first place.

It would be interesting to learn more about the inmates and see the dynamic between them all, especially the dynamic between Piper and Red. Jason Biggs who plays the adorable fiancé, Larry, who seems to be taking the whole prison thing in stride and I’m wondering in which direction will they be taking Larry in. I have my own predictions but, we’ll see.

There were many good lines but, one of my favorites had to be early on in the episode as Piper and Larry wait for her to self-surrender and she says “Oh my God. By the time I get out, there’ll be like 20 generations of iPhones.” I loved that was one of her thoughts as she was about to submit herself to a one year prison sentence.

One down, twelve more to go and I’m trying so hard to watch one episode at a time. But, when you have all these episodes in front of you, it’s so hard to stop especially with a show like this.

The Bridge: The Bridge Butcher Takes it to Another Level In “Maria of the Desert”

The search is on for Maria, Charlotte makes a deal, and we see more to Sonya in this week’s episode of The Bridge.

In a race against time to find Maria, Sonya and Marco try to find Daniel who was the one that has been communicating with the serial killer, for any new information he may have as they find him completely wasted at a woman’s house.

There’s some friction between the detective pair and the FBI that have joined the task force, with differing points of view on how they’re going about solving this crime and finding this girl. Daniel is brought into it again and starts to see the killer’s point of view not before of course; the serial killer contacts him for a drop point.

Charlotte has to deal with the aftermath of her refusal of keeping the tunnel open, which resulted in a gruesome visual of a horse being hanged upside down. We learn how Charlotte became the second wife, through her continually rough interactions between her and her step daughter. The step daughter also throws the gauntlet when she tells her that Tina found Marco’s wallet in the guest bedroom.

Steven continues being creepifying as we see yet another body in his car, this time in the back seat. Continuing down the ever confusing plot line, he brings the body to what one can only assume is a religious ranch. He tells ranch owner, Bob that the woman has come to change her life. Turns out he’s actually trying to help her hide from her pimp, Hector. What’s great about that scene, was while I had thought it would have been a slight possibility that he was going to help her, it seemed more and more likely that he was giving her over to some bigger evil.

Meanwhile in Mexico, we see a glimpse of two men speaking about how many loads they have missed and how much business they’re losing. They eventually ask the help of the woman who is insisting Charlotte keep her tunnel open. My guess is that they lost their “loads” to the serial killer.

Marco finds himself in some shady business when the man who approached the woman about the tunnel comes to him and offers him the ransom the killer asked for. The conversation ending in a very ominous “I know where to find you, Marco Ruiz.”

As they’re preparing for the drop off, Sonya cracks the location of Maria wide open saving her, all because of a simple shadow. Her obsession to find this woman and her need to avoid all else actually endeared her a bit to me as we see a bit more of her emotional side, which we got especially from her conversation with the sheriff.

And, in a turn of events that many could have seen coming, the serial killer has Gedman drop his ear piece and cut communications with the team as they start trying to look for him, Frye’s phone strikes again as he finds some appalling thing in the dumpster. My idea, nothing good could come from it, assuming it’s someone’s body; while Marco gets attacked by what we assume is the serial killer.

What the killer leaves at his side as he knocks out, is the suitcase of money and a video of Gedman and a woman, ending the episode.

Is anyone bothered by the Charlotte storyline from the home? I just can’t seem to bring myself to care about her step daughter, or want to look further into her story. The one compelling point is that the tunnel just happens to be on her property that she inherited from her husband. I know we’re only four episodes in and a lot can happen in a few episodes.

The Bridge: It Gets Dark and Twisty in “Rio”

With no sense of enlightenment in sight, things get twisty, and chock full of dark and creepy, in this week’s episode of The Bridge.

Karl’s funeral opens the episode which went along normally enough, until a mysterious woman who we later in the scene find out is the woman Charlotte spoke with during the pilot.  They go toe-to-toe and find that she is also the client the lawyer referred to in last week’s episode.

Steven, or the strange man that took that woman from the club, is at the trailer again. While the mysterious man, that picked up the woman that got away who we learn is named Maria, is driving off and we still have no shot of any discernible features to find out who he actually is.

Charlotte’s predictably rocky relationship with Karl’s daughter is showcased in part at the wake along with some strange interactions with some of the guests that were co-chairs for a charitable organization. The scene felt strange to watch and almost disconnected with everything else that happened in the episode, like it sort of came from a different kind of show. For most of this episode, I was still unsure of how she would fit into the broader narrative but, most definitely figured it out towards the end, not just tied by her husband’s name and fortune, but some other rather predictable late night events.

Marco and Sonya end up actually finding Steven’s trailer and the ominous trash can. But, they only seemed to have found women’s clothing. Which begs the question, does this mean he helps the killer with disposal or was he seriously only trying to help this woman out?

They bring him in for interrogation and possibly shed some light on what his character is actually up to, especially when he’s saying things like “I’m just a people person who helps people.”

Sonya doesn’t stop being annoyingly stringent with the rules and extremely lacking in compassion, which is why it is still difficult for me to completely like her. Then again, maybe that’s the point of her character, no matter that she’s the lead. Either way, at three episodes in, it’s hard to see where a character like that is going.

Daniel and Adriana venture to Juarez to try and get more information about Maria and who she was while he gets a phone call the killer asking for money, a million from four different wealthy Texans including the late Mr. Millwright. And, there’s our connection to Charlotte.

While there, Daniel gets a taste of the dark side of Juarez as he witnesses a man getting shot point blank in the head, which was shocking and done so matter-of-factly that it was more jarring than I thought.

Marco pays Charlotte a visit and in a predictable turn, the late night visit turns into a late night booty call. I wouldn’t have been so bothered by it if it didn’t feel so unexpected; no hint, nothing. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Daniel and Adriana have a late night heart to heart about what helped her get out of the place where she grew up.

Paul, Sonya’s awkward one night stand from last week, makes an appearance at the station in a hilarious and awkward moment in an attempt to get Sonya to go out to dinner with him, and gets rebuffed.

In between shots of light and somewhat humorous we definitely saw the darkness behind this strange murderer especially in the final scene where they find Maria, in a way as the killer streams from her location live from the middle of nowhere in the desert.

At the end of it all, I really want to know what’s up with Steven and if he is at all connected to this killer, what’s going on with that woman that Charlotte approached after the wake, and is she connected by any chance to the horrifying hanging horse she sees in the darkness of the barn?

Guesses, anyone?

A Murderer with a Point to Prove in ‘The Bridge’

From the minute the show opens, my interest is piqued. With a series of strange occurrences at the US/Mexico border, including a power outage and cameras being cut, which we attribute to the man in the car, he drops a body and then drives off. And, then the story takes off running.

That’s where we meet two very different detectives from different sides, literally. Sonia Cross, a tightly wound and socially inept El Paso detective comes to the scene where she meets Chihuahua state police Marco Ruiz and instantly butts heads over who the body belongs to. We later find out that the body, for the most part, belongs to a Texan judge.  We get to see how Cross is at crime scenes, rigid and somewhat tactless not even letting a woman pass with her husband who is having a heart attack.

We then get a glimpse into what we can assume at this point is the killer and his very creepy way of waiting for women in dark alleys, pushing them into his trunk, passing through the border without a problem frustratingly enough, and leaving them stranded in a padlocked trailer in the middle of nowhere.

We also see Ruiz on the other side of the border in Mexico with his family and dealing with the cartels and trying to keep his son away from it all. It’ll be interesting to see if we go any further into his side of the story and spend more time on that side of the bridge.

Sonia Cross instantly reminded me of a mix of the social ineptness of Brennan from Bones and the obsessive mind of Carrie from Homeland. And, for the most part I eventually came to like at least one of those characters so we’ll see how this goes, and if it’s attributed some way to her sister’s death or some other traumatic incident.

The stories are somewhat seamlessly intertwined because of the connection to the initial incident but, after Carl’s death, we kind of lose touch with where Charlotte’s story goes in connection with everyone else’s. Although, I really want to know what her husband was hiding in that basement and I assume that’s where I’ll get my answer because, there is no way anything good can be behind that really sinister door.

By the end of the 90 minute premiere, we meet one of the first suspects according to Cross and El Paso Police, a jerky reporter named Daniel Frye, who finds himself trapped in his car with a bomb and a countdown timer. And in a heart stopping moment, the timer stops at 00:00 and the car unlocks. A phone is found attached and in that message, you learn the murderer is after more than just killing random people. This guy’s motive is some sort of social justice, which is interesting and different from my usual crime drama fare.

I really liked how it was shot and perfectly mirrored the dark and gritty tone of the pilot and I assume the rest of the series. While it set a lot of the story for the series, I still had a few questions and made me look forward to next week.

Community: Body Switching and History Banners in “Basic Human Anatomy”

Better late than never, I say!

In this week’s Community, Troy and abed think they switch bodies through a Freaky Friday DVD Troy gives Abed for their five year anniversary. Meanwhile, Britta and Troy are REMINDED of their one year anniversary of their first date by Shirley and Annie while planning their history project that Jeff iterates needs to be only “passable and doable.”

The “body switching” bit leads to Troy and Britta actually talking about the things he tells Abed regarding their relationship and the fact that he just wasn’t ready for their relationship. About how he doesn’t want to ruin the friendship and we get to see it from both sides as we see the anniversary date go down at Senor Kevin’s while “Abed” and Jeff start looking through the lost and Found for the Freaky Friday DVD that started it all. It was great being able to see it from both points of view.

While Troy and Abed are seriously committing to the Freaky Friday bit, the Dean joins in as he thinks he switched bodies with Jeff exhibiting some very “Jeff” like behavior, which makes him more willing to help Shirley and Annie find out how Leonard became number one in the class. There were some moments between Annie and the Dean that made me laugh and cringe at the same time, like when the Dean rips his shirt off and Annie instantly reacts.

As this is all happening, we see at the end of the episode Pierce, who was in maybe two minutes of the episode (which I’m totally okay with) ends up finishing the project making it much more than “passable and doable”, which surprises the entire study group and the audience.