Rainbow Sensation? Cheap Shoes and Cleavage Returns? Empire Strikes Back! #Empire #Fox

Rainbow Sensation? Cheap Shoes and Cleavage Returns? Empire Strikes Back! #Empire #Fox

All pictures courtesy of FOX  

A week into its triumphant return, Empire (#Empire) continued its surge of ridiculously juicy TV by continuing to follow the script of 1980s show Dynasty. Minus Cecil Colby (for you kids out there, if you don’t know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout, look it up online and do your research), but with plenty of cojones behind her, Cookie yoked her oldest and youngest son into following her into creating their own record label to rival Lucious’ Empire. Starting with that bald-headed Betty from last season that we saw in the first or second episode, they begin stocking their client list with Empire castoffs or stolen talent. Brace yourselves people, because it’s about to get real dirty.

With Lucious still in jail and still sick, he desperately needs his meds but the ADA—the lady lawyer wearing wayyy too revealing outfits around and looking like New York from Flavor of Love’s momma—is withholding such medication in order to get a confession. Not only that, but she has one of her own uniformed goons played by Ludacris threaten Lucious. My question at that point was how many guest stars are they going to have on the show that Lucious is clearly going to have to kill at some point. Listen, I love all the guest stars but they can’t all be enemies, can they? On top of that, how many musical artists are they going to have on the show that don’t sing or rap while on the show (yes, I’m counting Chris Rock. He could’ve hit us with a 2015 rendition of No Sex in The Champagne Room and don’t act like you don’t remember that). Now Luda’s playing a prison guard trying to punk Terrence Howard? Dude, didn’t he already whip yo’ ass when you refused to listen to his demo in Hustle and Flow? Come on now.

While the ADA lady is presumably winning as Lucious gets weaker, outside Jamal is dealing with the whole family trying desperately to game him. His father wants Hakeem back on Empire and Hakeem wants to release his album. The youngest one also wants to create a girl group of a Black girl, White girl and Latina girl that he’ll call Rainbow Sensation, completely neglecting Asians, Indians and Native Americans (he must be one of those colorblind Negroes everyone’s always talking about, cause all the colors ain’t in his rainbow). Naturally, he goes to Tiana to see if she wants to lead this group after only finding Latina young ladies that can sing. Side note: Did anyone else think she was butt-naked from the waist down? Tiana had on not just a tight nude-colored body suit, but the way they filmed it was risque. Maybe it’s just my TV’s color but damn!

Tiana turns Hakeem down in more coded ways than one which ends him up in a Jacuzzi with one of the singers he found. Not the only dumb decision he’d make, he also decided to leak his Empire album online and risk a lawsuit from his brother and father, thereby refusing a return to the label. As Hakeem lays his claim to the new record label, Andre’s wife pleads with Jamal to try to get him re-hired at Empire, while Andre does the same to his father. A brief flashback with Kelly Rowland playing Lucious’ mother and staring off into the distance lets us know that Lucious has a thing about mental illness, preventing him from forgiving and accepting his eldest son.

Back to the prison, Lucious finds himself not only struggling without his medication but yearning to spit a verse or two and release a song while still locked up “a Lucious Lyon joint from the joint.” To do that, he runs into a new crooked lawyer supposedly better than his current one. Now, this pastel purple brotha pops out of nowhere and not only gets him a makeshift studio in a janitorial closet in prison, but manages to get this single released to radio stations and get Lucious out on bail after some explicit BDSM pictures of the judge surface as “evidence.” Oh yeah, cheap shoes almost threw her wig across the room when she learned he’d be getting out. The saddest part: Cookie and Hakeem wanted their label up and running long before Lucious got out, but won’t even have the floor in their new space properly swept before the emperor returns. It’ll be hard for them to take down Empire, but they believe they can, for the Lyon Dynasty has just been born. #LyonDynasty

What do you think? Did you like Lucious’ song from prison? Did you even notice that was Petey Pablo? Do you even remember who Petey Pablo is? And how do you think Cookie and Hakeem’s new label will do against Empire? Will they both implode or will one defeat the other for the top? And who do you got: #LyonDynasty vs. #Empire? Let me know what you think in the comments below. 

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right side.

Until next time, "it be a whole lotta 'B***s' jumpin' ship!”

P.S. Hustle and Flow reunion? Where’s Paula Jai Parker, DJ Qualls and Elise Neal. We already know Anthony Anderson has his competing show on ABC, so he probably won’t appear in the studio anytime soon. Oh, I forgot this was supposed to be a sign-off. My bad. It’ll be better next time.

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Well... Do Something! #AgentsofSHIELD #PremiereWeek

Well... Do Something! #AgentsofSHIELD #PremiereWeek

All pictures courtesy of ABC

So it seems the little engine that could keeps on chuggin’ along and the ride seems to be getting better and better. With a premiere a week later than most of the networks, Agents of SHIELD (#AgentsofSHIELD) came back with a bit of a bang. So where will this season go? And did they include an Ant-man reference anywhere in there? I know, you probably go to the movies but you don’t watch the show because of the beginning of the first season. Well, you’re missing a lot but let me catch you up in my Agents recap.

When last we left off the agents wound up on a huge ship that was previously there’s but had been taken over by some evil (OK, misguided) Inhumans. Their leader, Daisy/Quake’s mother wanted to infect as many people as she could with the Terrigen mist to either kill people or turn them into Inhumans. What is the Terrigen mist you ask because you don’t watch the show? Don’t worry, you’ll understand what that is when the Inhumans film comes out in two or three years. For now just know that it activates some dormant mutant-like DNA (I said mutant-like DNA, 21^st Century Fox Films. Don’t sue me). The finale had us believing that because the crystal fell into the water, then the water was populated by a bunch of fish which were caught by a boat and pressed of their oil, which in turn produced the fish oil supplements you and I take everyday, everybody would be infected, right? Right?

So, fast forward to this season and we open with a shot of some fish oil that someone has taken and has subsequently gotten powers. I guess somebody’s buying all of those dusty bottles of fish oil I see on the shelves because the newly made Inhuman runs around the street for a while trying to figure out why every time he touches metal it melts. No control over his powers, he runs into a containment group that is NOT from SHIELD and almost gets killed when the agency finally swoops in and rescues him. In isolation, Daisy informs the man that he’s an Inhuman and can never go back to his old life and he has the natural reaction of freaking out. That gets Quake to think that her love interest from last season should be here because he was way better at helping people transition.

Meanwhile, one-armed Coulson chases after this new power woman who is in charge of the opposing containment group. Apparently, as is hinted at in the final minutes, this new group answers directly to the president... or vice versa? Interesting. But neither Coulson nor the new lady knew that someone else was out there killing off Inhumans at an alarming rate. This mystery killer might have been found by Daisy, Mack and last season’s love interest as they had to fight a large indestructible porcupine-man in a hospital. I’m gonna let that last sentence sink in for you. This guy can apparently melt walls or something as he came, absorbed a few bullets, put his hand to a wall, made a big hole and escaped. The suspect actually looked more like this: 

(Good job ABC. This is the second time you’ve created a character reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog)

Oh, and what about that whole black obelisk thing that swallowed Simmons at the end of last season? Well, Fitz went overseas to get something he thought might solve the mystery of what it was and how to get her back if she was even still alive. Coulson gave a rundown of the crazy theories Fitz had chased after, including thinking she had shrunken into the micro-verse (there’s your Ant-man reference!). His latest idea was that the thing was, in fact, a black hole. Not even thinking about saving Matthew McConaughey’s Interstellar character, Fitz runs to the obelisk and orders it to do something, anything, but it does nothing. He even hits it—the standard fix for TVs and 90s VCRs and it still does nothing. But in the end, he is proven partially right as we see a glimpse of Simmons running around, presumably chased, on what looks like another planet judging from the skyline’s display of unfamiliar celestial bodies. Hence, she’s traveled through space and probably time to get somewhere out in Guardians of the Galaxy/Thor territory. Crazy, right?

So, what do you think this will mean for the show and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do you agree with me and believe this may take the show farther into space and have them explore stuff possibly on other planets a la Stargate? Or do you think this will be resolved quickly and she’ll be back on earth? Or do you have a theory that this is earth but in some other time, perhaps the future or the far past? Or do you just not care at all? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, “if you think that’s somethin’ you should see the other guy.”

P.S. Yes, that one was old but it’s a good send-off for readers. No? You don’t think it is? Fine, I’ll come up with another one, but I’m running out of ideas here.

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XY, XX, Castle and Beckett separating? What’s going on here? #Castle #Caskett

XY, XX, Castle and Beckett separating? What’s going on here? #Castle #Caskett

All pictures courtesy of ABC

OK, so the season opener of Castle was really a two-parter not listed as such with each part telling one side of the same story from a different vantage point. As you probably guess by now, yes the views were from male and female viewpoints.

With Castle seeing the mayhem produced after his wife disappeared on her first day as police captain over her old precinct division, XX is Kate’s side. Pushing all the way back to her brief stint working in DC, she gets a distress call from a local FBI agent in town because of a database search she did years ago. The search was on her mother’s murderer and how or if it connected to Senator Bracken. Long story short, it did connect to Bracken but she had already put him away for conspiracy to commit her mother’s murder last season. But there was even more dirt to be uncovered.

Suddenly, Beckett found herself in the middle of a theatre shootout where she had to kill three people, got shot herself and narrowly escaped with the FBI desk jockey who sent out the SOS. On the run, she made sure the diabetic got his insulin shot and did a little patchwork on herself as she listened to his story. What is essentially another overwhelming mystery for Kate to obsess about, the series gave vague details about what is happening, only telling us that this is even bigger than Bracken as it has the disgraced, imprisoned senator scared for his life—worthy fears as he is murdered in solitary confinement shortly after.

There are also two teams of people looking for Kate and this special agent just to make a clean sweep of anything linking them to Bracken’s death and the death of the three other agents in the theatre. But things supposedly aren’t all they seem as Castle and the crew find out that the guy Kate’s protecting lied to get into the FBI and is supposedly a mole/traitor. That is disproven when the guy saves Kate from a shooter in an air hangar. Then, it is discovered that the woman who brought an FBI team to the precinct to catch whoever was chasing after Kate and the supposed traitor was, herself, the turncoat. But when they go to arrest her she is already dead from an apparent suicide leaving the mystery of who was behind all of this wide open.

There were a few side stories/pop-ins from extraneous characters that really didn’t add much to the story in my opinion. Just as the new black detective lady (a new series regular from what I’ve read) added little to Castle’s point of view, Castle’s supposed mother-in-law/spy added little to Kate’s. What they did say was how both Castle and Kate can no longer be the way they once were as they embark on new careers semi-apart from each other. Even more to the point, Kate couldn’t start obsessing over this new mystery as she did her mother’s murder—the thing that drove her to become a cop—if she wanted a happy married life. And what did she choose?

In a terrible twist of the show, she chose the case... her work... again... like she’s been doing for the last couple of seasons. This time, she didn’t even give Castle the benefit of truly weighing in on her decision (unlike when she chose to go to the FBI or not run for senate or become a captain). While I understand this might actually be the natural progression of the character, I don’t find it that enjoyable. I wanted to see them become more of a Bones kind of couple where they still manage to find happiness when their work intertwines rather than become a real life couple where work overpowers both the relationship and the individuals. All in all, it was a good episode, though we will see if viewers are satisfied with the changes.

What did you think? Did you like the extra guests on the show to help both Kate and Castle on their individual journeys? Do you think this new mystery will enliven the show? What about the changes? Do you think Castle’s PI business will thrive or will something happen to make Kate get a demotion and the two of them wind up as partners again? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, “We have met the enemy and he is well-dressed.”

P.S. Ha! I got you this time. Not a direct quote, but a modified quote. Hey, who doesn’t love a well-dressed enemy. I’ll keep thinking of something.

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Dark Swan is in the town, there’s some evil goin’ down, The Wicked Witch is wearin’ a frown and, uh... you know, some other rhyming stuff. #OnceUponATime #DarkSwan #PremiereWeek

Dark Swan is in the town, there’s some evil goin’ down, The Wicked Witch is wearin’ a frown and, uh... you know, some other rhyming stuff. #OnceUponATime #DarkSwan #PremiereWeek

All pictures courtesy of ABC.

OK, it’s taken me a while to come down off the Once Upon A Time (#OUAT) high I’ve been on and that’s not counting out the rush that I got from Blood and Oil (get it! Because it’s black gold. Gold rush?) and the mind freaking I got from Quantico (again, I’ll be doing a review of the first three episodes together for new shows but they had to kill the Mormon guy? Really?). No, OUAT made its triumphant return in a big way, and giving us plenty of flair and mysteries to solve for the first half of the season or longer. So let’s rewind the tape and figure out where we left off last.

For viewers that remember (and here’s a refresher post I did last year), we left off with the apprentice—not Donald Trump’s latest chosen celebrity minion but the sorcerer’s—lying in bed after a tussle with the dark one/Rumplestiltskin and the writer along with the other three villains of the season. Rumple didn’t come out of that too well as he was already dying because of the blackness in his own heart finally catching up with him. He subsequently fell into a coma. A little bit of shifting back and forth with Regina caused Emma Swan to have to take on the gravity of the infamous dagger of the Dark One. She was then magically consumed by a dark smoke and disappeared as her name emblazoned onto the blade as the new dark one equal in evil with Rumple. Dun! Dun! Dunnnnnnn!

OK, we all set? That wasn’t everything but it was enough of a jumping off point. In the land of fairy tales and make-believe crafted by OUAT, everything has a past, a story by which it came to be what we see it as. The dagger is no different as it was revealed that back in the day it served as the tip of the legendary sword in the stone. That’s right, the magical blade that only the chosen one could touch had its tip broken off before being plunged into the stone, and somehow wound up as the only controlling string to puppet the most malevolent force on the face of the earth. Questions? Hells yeah, but we’ll move on for now.

We found out that Emma wound up in the other realm of the fairy tales, somewhere very near to Camelot but in the middle of the woods. It’s the enchanted forest. Everything is woods. She runs into that redheaded girl from the movie Brave a few years back. Merida or Mereda—don’t really know as I didn’t care much for the movie. Just know that her name sounds like somebody started to say Meredith but then added a duh on the end to make it sound like some cool high school cliquish diss from the late 80s early 90s, which, frankly makes me wanna gag on a spoon but I’m getting off track. She says some stuff about a war amongst the kingdoms, her brothers have been kidnapped, her father’s dead and people don’t like it when women rule in her land. Then she grabs hold of this magical wisp thing that will show her the way to whatever her heart most desires if she whispers into it what she wants at what looks like a makeshift Stonehenge (it was in the Brave movie. Don’t worry about it). Problem is, you can only use this thing once and Emma needed to use it to find Merlin to free her from the curse of being the dark one. Still keeping up? Good.

As Emma weighs her options of if to kill the girl and steal the blue wish smoke or not, back in Storybrooke her clan of goody-two-shoes followers plot on how to find her and help her. Not as good as they think they are, Hook (her love) and her son Henry (she has a thing for guy’s with names that start with H) plot to make the wicked witch of the west (yeah, Dorothy’s witch) open a portal to another realm they can Stargate into and end up back in fairy tale land. Foolishly, they let her escape where she gets the wand given to the do-gooders by the apprentice to open the realm, because opening portals to other worlds isn’t easy.

Tricking the wicked witch, they get her to open the portal, re-capture her, jump through and stop Emma from making her second terrible mistake as the dark one as she decided to kill redhead. Regina the evil queen who is no longer evil nor a queen along with Snow White and Prince Charming, a few dwarves granny Robin Hood—everybody, really—wind up invited to Camelot when King Arthur rides up on his horse and goes all Bill and Ted talking about some prophecy Merlin made and how they had been waiting for them to arrive. Merlin there? Nope. And so the quest begins, right? You’re wrong again. That’s two for two. As would be expected with any show that is clearly already confusing enough, they jumped ahead six weeks to reveal the gang had returned to Storybrooke wearing Camelot garb and Emma had embraced her role as dark one. She showed up all Neo from the Matrix-like with tightly bunned hair and lines like, “I’m the dark one.” Honestly, it made me a little hot. It’s also 75 degrees in my house right now so... yeah.

Loaded episode? You bet, buddy! And I didn’t even mention the fact that Regina had charge of Emma’s dagger for two seconds, Snow White and Charming took the baby with them into the forest (because that’s the perfect place for a baby), Emma’s dark side manifests itself as Rumple to make her look crazy talking to herself and Black Lancelot is back (#BlackLancelot). It’s going to be a crazy season and just like everything else I get excited for, I can’t wait. If only the Super Blood Moon had been this satisfying rather than the cloudy sky blocking it out for me. Sigh!

What did you think? Did you expect the six week jump? Are you excited to see Dark Swan? Do you think she should have killed Mere-duh? And what’s with that whole Excalibur’s tip being the dagger’s blade thing? Mind-bottling, right? My mind was literally put into a bottle. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, don’t hate Emma. As we all learned from Joe on Bachelor In Paradise, Villain’s gotta Vill, man. Villain’s gotta Vill. ”

P.S. Alright, admittedly I used up just about all of my cleverness quota for the week on that Empire recap, but that sign-off totally works here. I’ll keep working on it.

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DVR REWIND: From Detective to Captain to Detective Again? Myteries of Laura is Back! #MysteriesofLaura #PremiereWeek

DVR REWIND: From Detective to Captain to Detective Again? Myteries of Laura is Back! #MysteriesofLaura #PremiereWeek

All pictures courtesy of NBC unless otherwise sated. 

OK, so with writing and editing and gardening and exercising, not to mention all the premieres that happened this week and the books I’m trying to read, some stuff naturally has to get pushed back to a day when I don’t have as much stuff to watch. Case in point, Mysteries of Laura wound up on the tape delay. Note: I won’t always be able to cover every show every single week as some nights are stacked (Mondays, Thursdays, Sundays). For those nights, as in this case, I will have the DVR REWIND (#DVRRewind) for anything I’ve missed and wanted to cover.

When I started watching Mysteries of Laura season one I wasn’t jazzed about yet another procedural (I think I made my feelings very clear on my premiere week post about the inundation of cop and case-of-the-week procedurals). They’re nice, but get boring after a while. I like new kinds of dramas but always find myself lured in by at least one or two. So when I started watching this show, I thought it similar to Castle in that it focused more on humorous aspects rather than the seriousness of the cases. Her ex-husband is Detective Laura Diamond’s captain, they have small twin sons, there’s a wacky wasp guy with a trust fund that plays as her gay bestie, the two minority detectives have a thing for each other and then there’s a whole bunch of cases and stuff. Again, the humor drew me in so when I came back to the premiere, I wanted to laugh as I did last season.

And... I kind of didn’t. I know it was the premiere of the second season and they had to have some riveting case to draw new viewers but it felt almost as if they either switched showrunners or decided to tone down the humor in the episode in favor of tension. Listen, as a previous stand-up comedian, I can tell you that tension can help in humor but isn’t always the most laugh-inducing drug (unless you’re a veiled psychopath). What I can say is that tragedy and strange circumstances make for great comedy. Thankfully, Mysteries had a great circumstance with her ex being her new captain.

Until the premiere episode. Last season, Jake got shot while in the field working a case with his team. He went on medical leave and decided to come back a week early to poke around the office. Well, as was revealed to him, as a junior captain he didn’t have seniority to pick his post. The captain serving in his stead does have seniority and decided she’ll stay. The hard-nosed, hard-butt she is, she and Laura differ.

As with any new changes and characters to a show, I always try to give it three weeks to see how well it goes but I can tell you I don’t like her already—not the character, nor the actor playing her. I’ve seen this actress before and while she was good in other stuff, I don’t think she fits here. She’s a worse fit to me than the female captain they had on Castle for the last few years and, thankfully, got rid of. Nothing against females in a captain’s role, I just don’t like how the writers treat them (the one on Castle always wanted to be called sir, rather than ma’am or Madam which just got annoying as hell). They need to write them far better. I felt because of this new boss, she essentially sucked all the humor and fun out of the show, and frankly, I really couldn’t care less if they solved the case after that. Oh, and they got rid of that over-the-top blonde woman they added late last season. While I thought she was a little too ditsy to be a detective, I did want to see how she would fit in for a full year.

Oh, the case! Right. Well, the case was an abduction thing which started off as a murder. One of the abductors changed his mind, was run over by the two other would-be cohorts and died on the scene. The abduction was of a young boy who the detectives discovered had been secretly and illegally adopted. They quickly closed that side case as both birth parents had died a while ago and the only living relative the boy had they arrested for child abuse. Excusing the parents’ crimes, they also had to rush to find the boy as he was diabetic and needed his insulin shot before sundown.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly Magazine

After flubbing the money drop/child’s return (something that was totally the captain’s fault) they finally discovered the boy’s sister (the parents’ birth daughter) semi-knew the dead guy from earlier as they attended rehab together. He told of a place he used to hideaway when getting high and bam! They found the kid in that place. It was an OK case with plenty of twists and turns but ultimately, the case is not why I watch the show. Hell, this is a show sold to the audience last year as having the young twin boys peeing on each other in public as a competition. This was the slapstick of a single parent working with an immature ex as boss. Now, he takes a voluntary demotion to be a detective in the same department again? Hey, I see the awkwardness there but I also think something is lost in the show. I hope they get him back into the captain chair by the end of the season or sooner because I don’t like this new woman. It brings too much seriousness to the show and I don’t want another Law and Order: SVU (by the way, that premiere was quite good).

What do you viewers think? Am I overreacting and being too hard on the show? Did you love the first episode? Did it have you laughing just as much as last season or did you sense a change in the show as did I? Or do you have faith it’ll get right back to the super awkwardness of what it always was? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, “woop! Woop! That’s the sound of da police.”

P.S. Yes, I may have hit you with a little old school KRS-One lyrics from his “Sound of Da Police” song, but Laura Diamond is a policewoman. Didn’t you read the post. I’ll keep working on a good sign-off.

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My Bonnie Lies... and Kills and sleeps with younger man, while Annalise Likes the Older Ladies. The Insanity is Real. How To Get Away With Murder is Back #HTGAWM #PremiereWeek

My Bonnie Lies... and Kills and sleeps with younger man, while Annalise Likes the Older Ladies. The Insanity is Real. How To Get Away With Murder is Back #HTGAWM #PremiereWeek

All Pictures Courtesy of ABC 

Wow! Along with Empire, How To Get Away With Murder's (#HTGAWM) premiere was probably the best. There was a whole lot of drama, sneaky, twisty, turn-y goodness that I’m sure a lot of us fans didn’t see coming, and some stuff that is sure to send a few long-time viewers into a tizzy and earn Viola Davis at least another Emmy nomination. We’ll see if the writers can scrounge up some love come this time next year.

To start, everyone wanted to know who killed Rebecca. Cute little grunge rocker Rebecca caused so much trouble last year for Annalise, her team and her students that anyone within the group could have killed the girl just out of spite. And that was exactly what happened. After Annalise and Frank spent half the episode trying to figure out if Wes or one of the other kids did it, Frank finally made his decision that it was his past girlfriend/bunk buddy Laurel who killed her. But by that time, Annalise had already figured out the real killer was Bonnie. We all should have known that this quiet little white woman always giving everybody the side-eye and looking like a defective model of the Stepford Wives was doing dirt just from the fact that she slept with Asher. I mean Asher... really? And she had kissed on Sam once before. And I thought that swerve Asher gave her was a thing of wonder and beauty. Whatever they did that night must not have been too impressive to him or he knew she was screwed up because he did not want to go to her house for more.

Why did Bonnie kill the girl? Because she was an inconvenience. She knew too much, they couldn’t keep her on a leash and Wes would end up doing her bidding like the little errand boy he is. Speaking of Wes, he got all bold and hostile with Anna last night when he showed up late to her class, then told her he wanted her to pass him over on a question. He searched for old dead girl but still couldn’t find her, giving that up after he and Annalise talked.

Apparently, all that teenage angst he showed served no other purpose but to get Annalise even more hot and bothered for him than she hinted at being last season. It culminated in her rubbing down his body in a club. Listen black kid from Harry Potter, she’s too old for you, you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to get hurt. And I’m not just talking emotional scars, either. Mrs. Keating looks like the kind of woman that will have you bring a pack of red bulls and make you do your stretches before you come to her bedroom. Enter at your own peril.

As if Annalise had just one place to turn for satisfaction, the producers threw a wrench at us all when they had Famke Janssen arrive as an old law school friend. She was called to defend Annalise’s ex-cop boyfriend from having to go away for Sam’s murder—secret lover vs. jealous husband always plays—but refused to take the case when she learned of Lise’s set-up of the man. But everything was made alright when Anna went to visit her and they explored some wounds left behind. Apparently, they were more than just friends and put each other to bed circa J. Holiday 2007. Now, I’m well and fine with LGBT characters as I have some in my own books, but just so we’re clear, can we get a solid history sheet of each character on the show? I mean, is everybody gay or bisexual? Or is it just the minority characters? Also as a side note can you believe Famke is going to be 51 and Viola is 50. Yet Hollywood has a problem. Check my article later about what Anne Hathaway said a few weeks ago.

Finally, there was the case of the week which will turn into the case of the season as two adopted children are charged with killing their billionaire parents a la the Menendez brothers. First, the gang had to get their current lawyer thrown off the case by leaking him footage so clearly doctored they shouldn’t have even bothered. Then Annalise took over. And finally, we saw a shot of the real big mystery of the season as Annalise lay dying in the very house of those children a few months down the road and Wes running away like always.

Who stabbed Annalise? What craziness will this season bring? Who is going to wear the other out in the bedroom first, Annalise or Wes? And were you shocked by the whole Annalise is bisexual twist they threw at us last night? Do you love it, do you hate it? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, “you is kind and you is important.”

P.S. Words from the movie The Help? Yes. Remember, without it we probably don’t have this show. We can all use a little help sometimes. I think it fits. Oh, so you don’t like that one either? But... but... fine. I’ll think of something else.

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At Last... Scandal is Back! #Scandal #PremiereWeek

At Last... Scandal is Back! #Scandal #PremiereWeek

                                                                          All pictures and media courtesy of ABC

Rolling in the sheets. Skin against skin. Black against white in the sweetest of ways. Flirty kisses and a little tongue action. Yeah, Scandal (#Scandal) came back tonight and it started as expected—with a hot, steamy, sexy, good love scene.

Picking up not far after the season finale, the opening moments of the show found Liv and Fitz, uh... Living and Fitzing all over the place and in the White House? Goodness gracious. From there, the show took a meandering turn down setting up the rest of the season.

Like the premiere of Gotham, to me Scandal returned with a quiet episode. While it did hold true to what Shonda said in a recent interview about getting back to the basics of solving cases, white-hatting and putting out the flames of scandal, it didn’t have as much punch as I wanted. For starters, I might have enjoyed more love scenes between Liv and Fitz. Hey, they didn’t do much with each other the last half of the last season. They should be hotter than the devil’s cornbread in July. Now that was country as hell, wasn’t it? Just made that up but you know you can imagine Colonel Sanders saying that on those new KFC commercials. Back to Scandal, while they did have their moments, I craved more.

Much of the episode focused on the “where are they now” that any new season of a show with a massive cliff-hanger does; however, I felt it went on a little too long. Why would Olivia not tell “Red” about her on-again relationship with the president? She couldn’t have thought it would undermine her job because she made moves that undermined the woman’s job anyway. And while we know why Elizabeth jumped from the first lady/new senator’s cabin to the president’s, what was the point in him not communicating with her his plans? I know they’re probably trying to build tension between the two, but it didn’t feel right. And what about Cyrus? He was in, what, two scenes and didn’t do much other than turn Mellie down. I get it. Huck is broken, the USADA is still trying to white-hat, Sally is still being an overly-conservative nuisance, Abby is still bad at her job at the White House, Mellie still thinks she and Fitz have some chance of working things out and the only person who really has their stuff together is Quinn. Oh and Jake is... well, not being Jake from State Farm. I’m sure he’ll help Huck become Huck again real soon but until then, we’ll have to wait for their side story to develop.

The case to be solved for the week happened to be a murdered American princess married to the prince of some country that Fitz wanted to build a military base in after throwing a dinner for them. Why he’s throwing this dinner now after 3 years of marriage, I don’t know other than the clear political move. But in a scene that mimicked Princess Diana’s death, she was found dead next to her toppled dignitary car in a tunnel. A very obvious case, I guessed immediately that the killer was someone in the family, most likely the mother. Few suspects stood out otherwise. She had the woman killed because she discovered the young lady’s affair with her bodyguard had led to a pregnancy and couldn’t have this chick Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner-ing all up in her monarchy. She got away with it because of diplomatic immunity but her son made her abdicate the throne to him as punishment. All said and done, the case took about 12 minutes actual show time and wasn’t that involved. Hopefully we’ll get better as the season progresses.

Wow, this post is almost over already? Seems short. Well, I told you it didn’t have much to bite into as far as I saw it (How to get away with Murder was a different story). Now, next week’s episode looks to be explosive as Sally has shot the first arrow into exposing Fitz and Liv’s secret White House relationship. Can’t wait.

What did you viewers think about this episode? Did you expect a little more? Or did it completely blow your mind and you can’t understand why I’m so demanding (I’m not trying to be. I’m sorry)? Do you think Fitz will actually divorce the first lady or no? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Hint: click where it reads “no comments” to comment.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is coming LATER TODAY! All other 14 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, “if I ruled the world. Imagine that. I’d free all my sons. I love ‘em, love ‘em, babeyyyy! ”

P.S. More song lyrics? Yes. Don’t blame me for this one though. S.M. Dahman @twistedgreenz on Twitter totally put it into my head and I was singing it all day. Go to her Blog and blame her.

P.P.S. Sorry, Dahman.

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Why I am offended by Ellen Pompeo’s response to why Grey’s can’t go on without Derek. #GreysAnatomy

Why I am offended by Ellen Pompeo’s response to why Grey’s can’t go on without Derek. #GreysAnatomy

Pictures Courtesy of ABC

A few weeks ago, in late August sometime, I read an article on The Wrap (thewrap.com) entitled "Ellen Pompeo Is Offended Fans Think 'Grey’s Anatomy' Can’t Continue Without Patrick Dempsey’s McDreamy." In summation, the actress defends the long-running show’s (of which I have been a fan since day one) decision to kill off Dr. Derek Shepherd. For those not in the know, in the most controversial part of last season, Shonda Rhimes decided to murder one of the lead and favorite characters of the show when contract disputes and other behind-the-scenes foolishness went on with Mr. Dempsey. Naturally, fans were upset as this was not the way we wanted to see this heart-wrenching TV love end, especially after investing 11 years in their courtship, marriage and the trials and tribulations of raising a young family. Even worse was the way the show decided to get rid of him—by having him narrate his own death and dying alone, devoid of any other characters interacting with him on his deathbed or any long goodbyes. They didn’t even have a scene of ghost Derek having hot sex with Mere. Then, they skipped ahead a year so they could sprint through the grieving process and, apparently, take on a lighter tone as has been hinted at by the actors this season. Mind-boggling!

These changes left many viewers (including yours truly) sick to their stomach. Don’t get me wrong, Grey’s has a history of killing you off the show if you want to leave. However, the way in which they treated McDreamy felt dirty, callous and just plain wrong. Cristina had a complete farewell season, stocked full of teary-eyed moments and recalls of how great the friendship between her and Mere had been. George got to appear in his military uniform and at least got to be around his friends when he died. Little Grey was surrounded by “family” in the calamity of the plane crash. McSteamy got a whole episode where he talked to everyone he loved and cracked jokes. This is not to mention some of the other more controversial exits of Katherine Heigl’s Izzy and Isiah Washington’s Dr. Burke who talked bad about the show and/or their fellow castmates and got to live for a possible future return.

No, McDreamy was made a bastard for wanting to go to D.C. to cure Alzheimer’s! He was told he wasn’t needed and basically that he was a hindrance to his wife’s proliferation. Then, to try to redeem him in the last second, they gave him half an hour of heroism before a jumping-the-shark-worthy death narration. This felt like a dagger to the heart, a dramatic Shakespearean twist that left you dissatisfied and your literary professor saying, “you just don’t get Shakespeare.” No, I got it, I just didn’t like it (note: I actually enjoy Shakespeare quite a bit and did take a course on it in College to revisit some of my high school favorites).

I thought, wow this was a real disservice to the fans but maybe there’ll be some redeeming quality in the show for the season ahead. And then came this article.

In it, Ms. Pompeo argues that Meredith is perfectly capable of carrying the show all herself just like the two other Shondaland shows How To Get Away With Murder (#HTGAWM) and Scandal (#Scandal). In it, creator Rhimes also makes a psuedo-argument for feminism in some way, saying that

“Meredith could evolve as a woman, independent from a man.” 

What the hell? So much wrong with this.

Side Note: As an author I am always challenged whenever I write something on just how my work will be used, interpretated and consumed. My episodic novella series The Writer (#TheWriter) this summer was meant to explore that very thing. However, I also realize that artists at some point are expected to cater to their fans as the work is no longer theirs. It is for this reason why this phrasing from these two women upset me.

Making this into a feminist move and declaring this as an opportunity for Meredith to grow is missing the essence of the show and why fans fell in love with it in the first place. Grey’s, unlike Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, was always meant as a coming-of-age love story (or at least viewed that way by the fans). That is how it was presented to the audience. Coming-of-age for adults (baby meds as I called them, fresh from med school) into fully-formed people, doctors, life-savers, and how they navigate those waters. The love triangle was between Meredith, Shepherd/McDreamy and Cristina to see who was going to love and be there for Meredith the most to help form her into the woman she would one day become. It was a romance that also tested the bonds of true friendship and sisterhood. Hell, the very first episode, the very first scene sets up the love affair between Shepherd and Grey. It went from being a fling, to a forbidden love, to a complicated love, to a disdainful love, to a sacrifice everything love, to a real adult love, to a family love to a people will write about us kind of love.

This is what we tuned in for week after week. The people. Not the cases, not the drama with who would be chief, not even to find out who would next be living in that trailer in the woods. No, we tuned in for the McDreamys, the McSteamys, the Averys, the Dennys—and this is coming from a guy. Some of us also tuned in for the music, but mostly the relationships. Shondaland’s other two shows, however, are different.

Both Scandal and HTGAWM were always solely about the one woman and not the group around her, but even when you did remove the forbidden love triangle from Scandal, the show veered into something it wasn’t per Shonda’s own admission. Scandal turned into Alias. Sidney Bristow, where the hell are you (probably still chasing Rimbaldi artifacts). They were completely different. They didn’t rely on love. Grey’s did.

Now, Cristina (one part of the triangle; the best part of friendship) is gone. Shepherd (the other part of the triangle; the yin to Cristina’s Yang (see what I did there; holy crap a parenthetical in a parenthetical. You're breakin' the rules, man!) that balanced Meredith) is gone. This is a love story devoid of love, replaced with, what? Independence? Hmph! Well, OK. That’s fine in the end, just don’t try to make fans believe and rally behind something the show never was. I once looked to Grey’s to have my true love and friendship fantasy satiated. I guess I’ll look elsewhere for that from now on.

What do you think fellow Grey's fans out there. Am I overreacting to her comments? Do you like this new direction the show will go in, moving away from the love that once bolstered the show? Do you think it'll be the same show without Cristina and Derek for Meredith to balance herself off of? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Oh, and don't construe this as me never again watching the show. I will watch, but I have to wait and see if I like it anymore as last season disappointed in so many ways. Hint: click where it reads “no comments” to comment.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is coming this Friday. All other 14 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, "... then I'll know how to save a life. Ba-doo ba-doo ba-doo ba. Ba-doo ba-doo ba-doo ba. Ba doo doo doo." 

P.S. OK, so that may be lyrics from The Fray's "How To Save A Life"--a song made even more famous by the early days of the show--but I think they're good lyrics here and they apply, especially since I so hope Grey's doesn't need saving after this season of upheaval. 

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#FreeLucious, Chris Rock is a Bad Guy, Kill Him and Make it Loud and Make It Long and If You Don’t, I’m Tellin’ Momma #Empire #EmpireSeason2 #PremiereWeek

#FreeLucious, Chris Rock is a Bad Guy, Kill Him and Make it Loud and Make It Long and If You Don’t, I’m Tellin’ Momma #Empire #EmpireSeason2 #PremiereWeek

All pictures courtesy of FOX 

Whoa! So. Much. Drama! Empire returned for its season two premiere tonight, bringing more drama than your high school theatre teacher. More drama than that one time you took your cousin’s favorite toy from him because you thought it was going to be a hilarious joke and he ended up breaking your favorite CD/mixtape of romance songs, and you were the one that ended up crying. You know you loved them songs. Your first crush made that tape for you. Now you’re all in your feelings talkin’ about how he overreacted. Yeah, it was that intense.

First off, as if the night couldn’t get any more racially-charged with Black-ish doing their thing over on ABC, these fools right here had Cookie hopping around in a cage dressed in a gorilla costume. I just almost lost everything. They’re lowering her down onto a summer jam-esque stage so she can make some BS speech about how they need to free Lucious because he didn’t kill this guy she knows he clearly did. After that, they ran through a string of cameos that showed everybody from old, crusty Pimp Reverend Al Sharpton and his graying slick-back to a meatier-looking Don Lemon who took time away from his busy schedule of being yelled at in the streets by ticked off black people. To top it all off they brought out the new Aunt May, Marisa Tomei, to play a lesbian hot for Cookie’s drawers. And that was all before the first commercial break. I mean... I just... can’t!

Then we switched into prison where Lucious is apparently enjoying himself. Nothing bad has happened, he looks like he’s eating good and he’s even watching TV, catching the concert given in his honor to get him out of jail. Yet, he still has all the venom and piss of a rich black man behind bars as evidenced by his meeting with a future black attorney general. Not distracted by her overwhelming cleavage, this negro went after her shoes. Cheap shoes? You really had to point out she had on some cheap shoes? That’s a low blow, bruh. Side note: You know those shoes was cheap as hell. They didn’t even show them, so you know she got her some of those two dollar Payless shoes, the same kind Star Jones used to lie and say she wore. She knew dang well she wasn’t wearin’ no Payless shoes, especially when she was heavy. Those shoes be exploded right off her feet the moment she stepped out of the store, leave her leaning sideways like Gumby’s head.

Meanwhile, as Jamal is trying to run Empire Records and his brother is preparing for his album release, Cookie has been secretly plotting to buy a majority stake in the company and lined up a secondary investor in Tomei’s character to fork over 250 million. Why they think Lucious won’t find out, I don’t know. Naturally the deal is undercut by Lucious who makes her a better offer to stay in charge of Empire, thwarting the hostile takeover. He’s still running everything from the inside. This fool should have gone to prison a long time ago.

Then, this business with Frank Gathers, the big dog, the feared one, the man that runs the streets... uh, Chris Rock? Wait, you mean Everybody Hates Chris grew into a gangster? OK. I thought it would be comical that he was supposed to be the big baddy, but you know what... Chris actually... really didn’t convince me I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, he did a great job but I just couldn’t fear him, not that I can never see him as anything other than a comic, I just couldn’t see him as a non-whiny Pookie (New Jack City reference? Check.) On top of that, he was apparently supposed to be a cannibal. Yeah. Take that in for a minute. Any lip-licking and crazy-eyed stares weren’t just because he was mad, but because he was hungry. Last time I checked, the main thing other than real food that they eat in men’s prisons is—you know what? We don’t even have to go there. I’m sure you can figure it out.

With this fool sending Cookie people’s heads in boxes from prison, something had to be done and Lucious had to do it. And do it he did. After hearing old boy’s daughter rapping at a prison visit, he promised not only to sign her to Empire records but give her his magic stick too. Damn! Will he won’t. Won’t he will? Ha ha ha, I have no idea what the hell that even means, but it’s definitely some words they used tonight.

The Lyon he is, Lucious bothered not with cheap roaring words but beat the cannibal to the first bite, ordering him to be killed “loud... and long” in what had to be the prison cafeteria. Fare-thee-well Frank Gathers. We hardly knew ye.

The takeover failed and the family safe from harm, Jamal acted like a true don (read: new puppet of his father) when he kicked his entire family out of Lucious’ house and his mother gave him the two-slap for good measure. And to top it all off, Empire finally upgraded their Becky wig budget. Thank god, because those raggedy wigs they had been giving her looked like they were Miss Piggy rejects. We all need to hold on to our wigs, because this season looks to be an electrifying and exhilarating ride.

What did you think? Did Empire near wear you out with all the drama tonight? Will you still have enough left to get through Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder tomorrow? Are you still loving the cameos by every black star currently walking the face of the earth? Or do you find yourself already going through withdraws and it’s only been a few hours? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Hint: click where it reads “no comments” to comment.

As always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for Halloween scares check  #AFuriousWind,  #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or #ThePowerOfTen). For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The final episode of season one of The Writer is coming this Friday. All other 14 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.

Until next time, Miss Boo Boo Kitty gets an A for effort.

P.S. OK, so that is not a perfect sign-off for every single post I do, but it works here. Man, has that light-skinned Betty’s hoe-ishness reached critical mass yet? But she can still walk around in all that white and pastel colors like she on her way to her virginal wedding night or a Memorial Day barbecue? Girl, stop.

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