Lips Like Strawberries Book Blog Tour 2021

Lips Like Strawberries  Book Blog Tour 

    Congratulations, you made it! First off, I’d like to thank you for coming to my blog. Welcome. If you’re here today, then you’re probably here for the launch of the Lips Like Strawberries book blog tour, starting with me, the author of the new rom-com/chick-lit/women’s fiction novel Michael Stephenson. For you today, I am giving you a peek at the cover of the book and a quick Q&A… with myself. Trust me, I’m not going crazy after the pandemic. I just thought I’d answer a few questions that some fans might have about the book before reading it. Also, check out the tour dates for the rest of the tour this week as well. As a little correction, July 29^th will not feature my book on the actual Chicklit Central website, but on all other social media concerning it. Hope you do join me on this tour. And of course, go get a copy of Lips Like Strawberries over on Amazon right now. It is currently in Kindle format only, but will be coming out in hard copy later this year, so stay tuned right here on my blog or follow me on my other social media for updates on that!

What is Lips Like Strawberries about?

That seems like such a simple question, and yet can be so complex to answer. On the surface, it’s a simple book about a girl trying to get over her anxiety, reclaim her life, re-enter the modern dating scene and find love. Ara is a newly-30 agoraphobe who hasn’t left her house since 2020 (it’s 2023 in the book). She has a best friend she loves, and who always comes over to keep her company. Outside of him, she has little to no connection with the outside world and is suffering through loneliness. But she does have one saving grace: She has a quirky, insane, totally unrealistic “ability” of sorts. Ara can experience the world through someone else’s senses for 12 hours, so long as she touches that person. We’re talking sight, sound, taste, et cetera. She’s been bobbing through life for the last three years using her ability to make faux connections to what’s going on beyond her window, until finally she is hit with one experience through someone else’s senses that she can’t ignore. And that sets her off on this funny journey that will hopefully get her back to normal and help her find love in the process.

That’s the surface meaning. A deeper dive into the book for me starts to unravel one of the few themes in the book. This story is very much about connection, not only between people, but also with ourselves, our innermost feelings, and our own unique physiology. It plays off the old notion that love is more than just how you think about someone or the sweet words you share with them, but that it is a chemical reaction in our bodies. It essentially asks us the question: What is it that draws us to someone and creates a bond with an otherwise complete stranger?

What inspired you to write this book?

Well, as funny as it may seem, the pandemic inspired me to write it. No, not the 2020 pandemic, the 1918 one. Okay, so I’m going to try to sound as respectful to what’s happened in the last year and a half as I can here. I know that the pandemic was extremely hard for a great many people throughout the world, so I wanted to write something that would be uplifting to all of us, be relatable both to the pandemic and to the chaos that is the modern dating scene, and give us all a few good laughs along the way. Well, as it turned out, I realized back in May of 2020 that I had already half-wrote a story that would fit that perfectly. It was entitled the same name—Lips Like Strawberries—but was a period piece, in which a young couple first separated by World War I, then by the pandemic of 1918 had to re-find each other. Total honesty here, I think that version was far more romantic, just because we have flashbacks of the couple before the war and they knew each other and how they felt about each other then. It also had a more heartbreaking feel to it as well, but it had the same mysterious powers at its center as Ara has in this one. So, I took the bare bones of that, changed the races, gave it a modern-day twist, and added in more humor. Adding more humor was a conscious effort because I really believe that in this day, especially with cancel culture, the pandemic and political unrest, we all need things we can come together and laugh about. Humor that can help to unite us.

Hm? Interesting that this was actually based off of a different pandemic. That sounds like it could be a pretty good read all its own. You mentioned changing the races. Why?

First off, thanks me. I always appreciate the self-appreciating compliments. Yes, I did change the races between the two books. The original Lips Like Strawberries featured a black couple, where this version features a white one. This was a conscious decision to flip the races after some of the events of last year. Although I do try to keep it as lighthearted as possible throughout the read, I didn’t want to ignore some of the heavier issues that we as both a nation (the US) and the world dealt with in 2020, and still must confront on a daily basis. And for me, the best way to do that in this book, at least, was to switch the races of the main characters. If I reveal more it might be considered a spoiler, so I will leave it there. As for the other version of the book, I’m toying with the idea of releasing that one as well with the name Lips Like Blueberries a few years down the line. It’s funny because I had already been working on that version for over a decade when the pandemic hit and decided to switch gears and re-configure it into Lips Like Strawberries. So, hope is not dead for that one yet.

Who do you think this book is for? Who’s your target audience?

I think this book is for just about anyone, really. For starters, let me put this out there, it doesn’t have a whole lot of cursing throughout its text. I don’t really curse in my actual life, but I have been known to include cursing in many of my works. Here, however, I wanted to limit the amount of bad words so that even readers who prefer not to read that type of vocabulary could enjoy the read. And while I would say that it leans toward a younger crowd, I believe there’s a high amount of relatability for everyone, including an older reader set, as well as people who are married or not. Again, it’s really about connection between all people, and allowing us to realize that even though what we all went through was collectively bad, it is okay for us all to start having hope in a newer, brighter future again. In other words, I’d say anyone over fifteen could enjoy it. If it were a movie, it would definitely be PG-13.

With the pandemic still going, why did you feel now was the best time to release Lips Like Strawberries?

Good question. For starters, I really didn’t know how long the pandemic might last. The previous one did go on for about two and a half years, but with our current technologies, we got predictions ranging from anywhere between it ending in summer 2021 to 2022. So, me being an optimist, I went with the earliest date. But also, even though we are still in the pandemic, I wanted for people to be allowed to have hope for the future. That’s one of the reasons why I set the book in 2023. Because even though we are currently having variants rise up and we may have to take a step back, it’s still okay for people to look forward to a time when we’ll be able to think of this pandemic as just another event that couldn’t deter us from living out our dreams, finding love and happiness, and becoming our best selves.

Great interview. And where can people find your novel Lips Like Strawberries?

Currently, it is exclusively on Amazon as an Amazon Kindle digital ebook download. I hope to have the physical hard copies out by Christmas of this year, 2021. Look to Amazon for that as well. You can click on Lips Like Strawberries here and follow the link straight to the page. And check out the rest of the tour dates below. It was great talking with you, me, and remember to check out some of my other works as well.  

#LipsLikeStrawberries 

Book Tour: The Ones That Stare

Greetings, everyone. And now... the end is here... No, seriously, though. Today, this very blog post (my first in quite a while) marks the end of the digital book tour for my latest thriller novel The Ones That Stare. If you've been following along this whole time, then I thank you wholeheartedly. I hope you learned something about me or the book on the way, and look forward to your support. You know, artists can't produce these things without your support. So, during this trying time of Covid-19, with many of us staying at home, entertained by copious amounts of books, film and TV, please remember that all of that great stuff you consumed, and that kept you from going completely insane is somebody's job to put together. I know, it seems like a lot to ask you to spend money on entertainment when the general idea is that artists and entertainers should do their job for free, but please buy a copy of things instead of pirating them. The book only costs six dollars in ebook form, less than 20 for a paperback. You'd be helping to create more, even better entertainment.

Now, for those who know nothing about the book, well, here is a link to it on Amazon: http://mybook.to/TheOnesThatStare. You can read the book blurb there. But basically, if you like to read thrillers, or if you enjoy the films of Alfred Hitchcock, then you might like my novel. I have compared The Ones That Stare to such novels as The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It grabs you with a twist at the very beginning of the book, and never let's go after that. You follow Darien Coby, an average guy married to a fantastic woman. But now his wife is GONE, and he's going crazy just trying to figure out what happened to his love. He knows but one thing: one of his neighbors knows what happened, but who? And why haven't they said something to him about it? Now, he must go the extra mile to figure out who knows the truth about the situation. This is the 2020 thriller that you simply can't miss!

Still not sure if you should spend your hard-earned money on an author you've never read before? Then follow me farther down the rabbit hole as I introduce you to one of the main characters in a brief excerpt below. You can meet Bernedette below.

But before that, as for what is next for me, I have another book coming out later this summer entitled blEND (that's the word blend; yes, the capitalization is part of the title). It is a horror novel in a similar vein to Jordan Peele's Get Out. I am currently looking for reviewers with an open mind, who aren't offended by reading about racial and social issues. I also am still planning another season of The Writer and Extraordinary for later this year. And I hope to get the novel blind out as well, come this December. And finally, I look forward to releasing my first full-fledged romance sometime next year, entitled Lips Like Strawberries. Look for that, hopefully, next February!

Well, this tour has been very short but sweet. Whenever I embark on a book tour, I always go into it with as little expectations as possible. No matter how much planning and communication you do with others on the internet, you still never know what you're going to get. I hope that you all enjoyed the little bits of insight here and there and aren't afraid to comment below or leave a review of my book on Amazon, Goodreads or another social media site. I look forward to it all. Thank you for coming today, and I'll see you again soon!

An Excerpt from The Ones That Stare

The clock read 7:35, yet Darien hadn’t returned home. He used to have long days that started in the earliest of dawns and stretched beyond dusks. Lately, he hadn’t had such days. Lately, he had busied himself with getting home to his wife. Now, with her gone, he hadn’t need for punctuality.

Plus, he had other business to attend to for the night. Still, his absence on the street made Bernedette curious.
“Hm? Why isn’t he home yet?” she asked herself as she stopped in front of his house and stood on the sidewalk. She stared through his front window. Favorite program? Not tonight. Tonight: static.
“Come on,” she bade her dogs. They crossed to her house and slipped through the freshly locksmith-ed front door just as a car rolled onto the street.
Kaduunk! A gallon of oily, dishwater-brown rainwater splashed from asphalt reservoir. Nearly hit a jogging Eli. He flinched at the beads of filth flung his way. The driver inside cringed, “Sorry! Sorry! Really sorry!”
Eli chuckled, shooed her and continued his jog—apology accepted.
The woman made a left into Darien’s driveway, parked, exited the car.
Meanwhile, Bernedette undid her dogs’ leashes and rubbed the giant Danes’ coats. Sarah sniffed and scratched at the front door, prompting Bernedette to ask, “What, honey? What’s wrong? We just came from outside. You need to go again? Huh? Does some little doggie need to go again?”
Woof! A no.
Bernedette pushed up erect, like an upright Buckingham soldier. Peeked out her living room window. Her eyes captured what her dogs’ noses already had. “Who is that knocking on Darien’s door?” she mumbled with sleuth’s intent.
It was Hannah, the woman she saw that night but hadn’t met. Her brows arched with recognition at the shape of the woman from behind. Bernedette had once thought her power of recognition a special gift. No matter how bundled-up someone was, or how they stood or walked, or what hair they had, she could recognize them. Face not required. “It’s that girl,” she breathed. Every young woman a girl to her. She let her tongue nip at her lip in salivatory anticipation. She had to know what happened. She had to know why she was there.
Ba-rooo! One of the dogs howled desire. Bernedette kept her gaze on the girl.
At Darien’s house, Hannah rang the doorbell, knocked twice and called, “Hello? Hello? Is anyone home?” No answer fated to come, she waited an over-polite five minutes before walking back toward her car.
“No! She’s leaving.” Bernedette’s voice vibrated against the pane. She hid half-eyed behind the curtains. “Hm? What should I do?”
Woof! One dog responded.
“You’re right. I should learn who she is.”
Woof!
“Alright, I’ll feed you first. Come on! Hurry, before she leaves!” Bernedette dashed to her kitchen and yanked open the fridge. She stopped to grab her heated forehead. Winded. She hadn’t jogged, let alone dashed in over a decade. Wet dog food, out. And into two bowls.
She crumpled the dog-food bag, threw it on the counter, and ran back to the front in time to see the car pull down the street.
The race on, she jetted out of her front door, locked it behind her, and glided to her car. In less than a minute she was in her car, gripping life into her steering wheel. She caught up with Hannah’s car. “How do they do it in the movies?” she asked herself. “Three cars behind. Yes, that’ll do. That’ll have to do. And what will you say to her once you stop? What will you say…?”
Bernedette hadn’t a proper plan. She hadn’t accounted for any scenario other than her succeeding. What if the girl didn’t stop someplace where she’d be able to speak with her? What if she went straight home? What if she caught on to someone tailing her and called the police? A thousand what-ifs—questions left for fate. She only knew she needed to speak to her.
The harder she thought, the fewer good ideas came. She’d have to make chasmic leaps: total stranger, to knowing about the girl’s association with Darien, to interrogating her about Sayen. Were she a social genius, she’d ably manage the transitions. Had she a brilliant light? Yes, once. It shone through from spirit to skin. However, a social genius? Never that. But she needed to know some things and the girl had the answers.
Ten minutes morphed into 20. Twenty into 28. Thirty-five… Forty-two. Each minute cost one strong beam of sun. Finally, it was a mariner’s-blue night. A murky dew spritzed each car. Lefts. Rights. More lefts. More rights. A never-ending drive. It welcomed doubt. Oh, she must know I’m following her, otherwise why the insane driving pattern? She must know. She must. No, you can’t back down from this. Press it, even if the situation becomes tense. What do you say? What do you say…?
More lefts. More rights. As they drove—one safely lagging behind the other—Bernedette let her mind wander to darker twists. Who drove like this, taking short roads and sudden burst-turns to get off main streets? Where was this mysterious girl leading her? Into a trap? A trap of what doing, of what kind? Who was this girl leading her farther down a rabbit hole she so willingly tumbled into?
And then the girl pulled into a parking lot. And Bernedette knew most of her questions would soon meet answers.
Hannah parked in front of a lingerie store and went inside to escape rain’s pattering. Look over her shoulder uncomfortably? Flee helplessly into the store? Feel her neck-hairs stand on end? Hannah did none of that. In all that driving, she hadn’t noticed her shadow.
Bernedette sat in her car for a full minute, waiting. Through storefront glass, she watched Hannah browse. “Come on, Bernedette. What the hell are you gonna say to start a conversation?” Nothing came. How do you politely coax someone into an interrogation? Maybe you couldn’t. “Oh, just do it already!” she commanded herself.
Out the car! Into the store. Darker inside than what it appeared from outside, the store had medium-dim mood lighting, mimicking lingerie-wearing conditions. Bernedette spotted Hannah perusing along the right wall, drifting toward the rear. The old woman then looked to the left to see the cashier ringing out another customer. The cashier welcomed Bernedette to shop the scant-fabric-ed wears.
With one scan of the store, the aging dog mom knew this store wasn’t for her.
They call this clothing? Wouldn’t even cover a toothpick, she thought, rubbing her hand over a thong. Years, decades even. It had been so long since she felt… She was the type of woman who knew she’d never love another man after her husband. She hadn’t the strength to start over, be so vulnerable with someone again. One was more than enough.
“Don’t lose focus, Bern. Keep your mind on task,” she instructed. Eyes up, she scoped the store. Hannah’s eyes focused solely on the wall racks in the purple and black-coated store. Bernedette saw opportunity. Little time for stealth. She bypassed the mid-store displays—aromatherapy and massage oils—and traipsed to the back. She feigned looking at the wall-hung bustiers and leather garter belts.
“Come on. Closer. Closer,” she willed Hannah, hoping to bump into her to break ice. Just a little...
Bump!
“Oh! I’m so sorry. I should’ve been paying closer attention,” Bernedette apologized.
Reciprocated smiles. Hannah slid around Bernedette, saying, “It’s OK. Aisles are pretty tight.”
“Ha!” Bernedette stepped back but kept eyes on Hannah. She made sure the girl could feel her gaze tickling her neck and behind her ear. Her best acting job in years. Bernedette waited for the girl to turn back toward her. Then, she squinted, saying, “You look familiar. I’m sorry, but have we met before?”
“Um… I don’t think so,” Hannah shook her head. She stopped flicking through clothes and stood dead-faced with Bernedette.
“Pretty sure I know you, or I’ve at least seen you somewhere before.”
“Well, I do some acting. Maybe you’ve seen one of my commercials? I was in a gum commercial a few years back. Oh, and I’m in a Prilosec commercial. I also do some stage—”
“No, that’s not it,” Bernedette said, her façades more convincing than Darien’s. “Wait, I know. I saw you at my neighbor’s house a while ago.”
“Your neighbor’s house?”
“Yes, 8495 Stillborn Street. You know it, right? Sure you do, you were there,” Bernedette led.
“Hmph,” Hannah hummed, neither offended nor defensive. Bernedette intrigued her.
“Yes, it wasn’t too long ago. I saw you dancing with him, through his front window.” Her smile evaporated and turned into an observant Colombo eye. She edged razor-close to creepy, witch-like.
Hannah grinned, replied, “So you like to spy on your neighbors?”
“Oh! Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! I apologize if I made you feel intruded upon. I happened to be passing by at the time and saw you inside… in rather familiar clothes,” Bernedette backtracked.
“It was a joke.”
Bernedette chuckled, then added, “Bernedette, by the way.”
Hannah looked at the old woman’s outstretched hand. Shake it. Eh!
Changing her mind, she smiled and said, “Hannah.” Hannah believed Bernedette had a diary face. The kind of face that made you want to spill your secrets even when you hadn’t known her for any time. Beyond matronly, motherly kindness. She had a warmth about her that reminded of a roadside inn in a torrential storm. Her spirit a safe haven for wayward travelers caught in weather’s fury.
“Hannah, it’s nice meeting you. So, you spent some time with Darien? You know his wife, too?” Bernedette resumed faux-browsing.
“Darien? Hm? So that’s his name? I thought it started with an M. Anyway, no I never met her,” Hannah explained.
“You didn’t know his name?”
“Couldn’t quite remember. It was foggy.”
“Hm? No offense, but it seems like you would know the name of your date,” Bernedette led the witness. Come on, honey. Confirm it was a date.
“Date?”
“Sorry, it looked like a date, what with the dancing and all.”
“No. No, it definitely wasn’t a date. He… I probably shouldn’t tell you this,” Hannah said, resuming perusing.
“It’s fine. I guard secrets.” Hollow, ghostly words. For a brief second, Bernedette sounded guilty of something heinous. Like she already knew what happened to Darien’s wife. Like she needed to hide her own secrets. “Well, he hired me for a job. God, now that sounds sketch. He didn’t hire me for that kinda job. I’m not a woman of the night or a street vixen—”
“A hoe?”
Taken aback by the old woman’s blunt verbiage, Hannah pointed at her and nodded. Bernedette then asked, “Then what are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“An actress. Plain old actress. He hired me to act like his companion for a few hours. Didn’t wanna be alone.”
“Alone. Hm?”
“Said it was for some therapy. Looked a little depressed and I had sympathy for him, so I did it. Money helped, too.”
“What about his wife? What’d he say happened to her?”
“Not much. He simply said she was gone.”
“Gone?” Bernedette said with a smile and a lilt in her voice.
“Yeah. I got the feeling she was dead.”
“Dead?” The word saddened her into a new low. My god, Darien, what were you thinking? Three minutes of standing silence. Contemplation overtook her muscles. She ran through every scenario that could lead to Darien’s expressed status about his wife. She had suspected ill of Darien. This helped cement her feelings.
Bernedette stood in that catatonic state for so long that she didn’t hear Hannah’s calls to her. The girl finished shopping and departed with one purchase. When Bernedette looked up again, she spotted Hannah exiting into hard rain. “Wait.” She sprinted after her.
Hannah stopped in the thundering wetness, keeping dry beneath her umbrella. Her older counterpart had no covering. It didn’t matter. She needed only answers. She asked, “Those clothes, they weren’t yours, were they?”
“No. They were his wife’s. He wanted me to wear them.”
“Why?”
She held up her hands and did air quotes as she said, “‘To be more convincing’ – His words. I guess he wanted me to look like her. Sorta wanted me to act like her, too.”
“To look and act like her?” Bernedette mumbled to herself. It made no sense. None of it made sense. She’d think about it all the way home.
At home, she stood on her front stoop looking across to Darien’s house as she saw one light on in his bedroom. What had he done? What hadn’t she done?

To Be Continued In… 

The Ones That Stare 

Out now!

* * *

It’s Finally Here!!! #TheManOnTheRoof #TMOTR #BookBlogTour

It’s Finally Here!!! #TheManOnTheRoof #TMOTR #BookBlogTour 

It’s finally here, people. This Friday, June 22nd, my psychological mystery-thriller The Man On The Roof will release in ebook Kindle format on Amazon Kindle. It’s been in review for a few months now and, I’m not gonna lie, some people are loving it. I have been comparing it to Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train meets Big Little Lies. Others have seen hints of the once-popular TV show Desperate Housewives. It has complex male and female characters and a narrative that draws you deeper and deeper into its mystery. It will captivate you. 

Currently, I am on a book-blog tour across a slew of lovely book blogs on these-here interwebs! If you join me, along the way you will be gifted with author Q&As, interviews, guest posts, book excerpts, and reviews. And the tour doesn’t stop on June 22nd. It keeps going into July. After the main launch tour ends on July 6th, I have a special Spoilers Q&A planned for July 22nd, and another interview on the 24th! You are going to want to be there. 

You like a good book. You love a good mystery. Hell, you love good TV and film based off of good books, which means you’re probably anticipating HBO’s Sharp Objects coming out in July (post on that later). But sometimes you feel that you’ve seen it, been there, done that. How many drunk women are going to solve a murder? You want to be entertained this summer, right? Not just to be entertained, but a bonding experience, something that will get you talking with your fellow readers. And chances are high that you’re going to risk your time and pocketbook on buying some over-hyped book that comes from the bigger publishing houses and that will cost you near 30 dollars, then regret it when you can’t get into it. A digital copy of my book will only cost $7.99. That’s about as much as you’d spend on two specialty burgers at a fast food place, only my book lasts longer and doesn’t give you high cholesterol. It's even cheaper than the digital copy of that $30 book (12.99 to download a file? You're kidding me, right?) Is it self-published? Yes. But, at one point, so was Fifty Shades and Andy Weir’s The Martian. When you buy my book instead of that other expensive book, one day you’re gonna look back and say that you were part of something great before anyone knew about it. And you want to be part of something great, right? 

Then take the risk. Order my Kindle book. Be entertained! Solve the mysteries! You're not just buying a book, you're buying an experience. You are buying a bond with others who have read the book. And if you don't like it, you'll still have $22 left to buy that other, more expensive book. But I think you're going to feel glad that you got your own copy of The Man On The Roof. 

Well, what the heck are you waiting for? The book is currently on preorder here: The Man On The Roof. 

You’ve read the comparisons: Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, The Girl on the Train, Big Little Lies, Desperate Housewives. Mysteries await! Go buy a copy. 

Still not convinced? Then start following the tour! It’s already started. Click on the tour graphic to make it bigger. Catch up by clicking one of the links below! 

13th: Duffy The Writer blog interviews me here: DuffyTheWriterBlog

14th: Jan's Book Buzz gives you a cool review: JansBookBuzz

15th: Snazzy Books has an interesting Q&A: SnazzyBooks

16th: Reel Literature Should be THE blog for film & book lovers: ReelLiterature

17th: Princess and Pen has an interview for you: PrincessAndPen

20th: Sarah Rieveley has an interview for you here: Sarah'sBookCorner 

Until next time, see ya! 

P.S. Oh my god! You haven’t blogged in so long that... Did you forget how to blog? Michael, you were supposed to have a quirky, ridiculous, humorous, referential, eye-roll-inducing sign-off for your readers. Why didn’t you reference any cool pop culture in a sarcastic way? Frickin’ Ted Cruz just beat Jimmy Kimmel at basketball. You’re wasting that opportunity!! “Uh... I’ll come up with a better, more creative sign-off next time, maybe?”

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Farewell, Gladiators! #Scandal #ScandalFinale #seriesfinale #ABC #Shondaland

Farewell, Gladiators! #Scandal #ScandalFinale #seriesfinale #ABC #Shondaland

All pictures courtesy of ABC and Shondaland Productions 

It's rare that I get to write one of these. I think the last time I wrote one was for the short-lived, but twisty-good (in my opinion) series Revenge, another ABC show about backstabbery, betrayal, lying, cheating and rich people problems. In the TV-landscape it is quite rare to encounter. A TV show is very akin to a new restaurant or business, in that over 90% of them fail their first or second year out, and often close up shop without warning. For years, fans have lamented about their favorite new shows suddenly being canceled or put on long, indeterminate hiatuses often without proper conclusions. I think the most flagrant example and probably the one that started the cancellation trend of unsatisfying ends was that of Alf, the 1980's sitcom about a bizarre-looking alien that comes to live with a family in suburban America. It is now not only known in pop culture as one of the strangest shows with a cuddle-ugly alien thing to possibly ever exist, but is infamous for its final episode's final shot showing Alf gazing into the sky while a spaceship, presumably from his home planet, is beaming light down on him. Does he ever get back home like E.T.? What happens to the family who cared for him for four seasons? And what about the government agencies that have chased after him? Fans will never know because the show ended on a huge cliffhanger in hopes of the network keeping them on another season, only to be axed a week or two after the finale aired. All of that long opening paragraph and out-of-the-blue Alf reference simply to say this: It's a big deal when a beloved, long-running scripted series gets a series finale.

President Mellie Hardly Factored Into This Episode If You Ask Me

B
ut did we deserve this finale? Eh! Let's first recap for any of those people who just like reading my words or like to experience things over again. With Olivia having told her clan that the only way to get out of their current predicament—on the cusp of being taken down and Mellie's presidency being de-legitimized due to charges of treason—was to go over the cliff and actually... tell the truth (gasp!). The truth about everything, but mainly about B6-13. Our finale, aptly titled “Over The Cliff” opened with them readying to testify about their involvement in and/or knowledge of this organization. Everyone from sitting president Mellie, to Fitz, to Olivia, to Huck and down the line were going to testify. They'd do this all to prevent Cyrus from taking over the white house. But first, in order to even get the clout and grand hearing that they wanted, the guy that was looking into Mellie's supposed treasonous attempt to bring down Air Force 2 had to do something drastic. See, he was threatened by Jake and saw no way to prosecute B6-13 without also incriminating himself and bringing everything down. He was a true white hat who only ever wanted to be in a position of power to push strongly for gun control. He asked one thing of Olivia: that she make Mellie act on gun control as one of her first agendas after they got their hearing. The promise made, he then shot himself, which triggered a shift of power back to David Rosen.

David, the long-suffering white-hat lawyer who saw himself stripped of his position a few seasons ago, only to come back and claim the seat as the USADA, was now taking over the investigation into B6-13, which held a higher priority than the treason against Mellie, from which he had to recuse himself. Cyrus' plan to take the oval has gone awry. So while David briefs Olivia's brood on what to expect during their testimony, telling them to give as much of the truth as possible, Cyrus goes to Jake and tells him that they need to get rid of David. Frankly, he wants a hit out on almost all of them at this point. Jake doesn't actively agree, but does go to find Rosen and tries to intimidate him out of continuing the investigation and bringing charges. He reminds him that he shot Cyrus' husband in the back on the street right in front of Rosen, and even raises his gun to him. But David, in his own glorious impersonation of the old Olivia Pope, gives Jake a serious talking to about being good and decent, and actually believing in something for himself and no longer being the puppet of everyone around him. It saves him and Jake disappears.

Jake goes back to Cyrus and tells him that he didn't do as “ordered” because he didn't want to, and that Cyrus can't say a single word to him about it because he isn't strong enough to do the killing himself. At this point, I got a little confused because I could have sworn that we did see Cyrus kill at least one person before through some means. I digress. Cyrus takes the criticism to heart and calls Rosen in in the middle of the night, while Rosen was cuddled up with Abby, so that he can sign a confession and make a deal that will absolve him of any future charges.

David (L) is the stupidest, most trusting lamb on the show. Why meet Cyrus at night? 

It's a trap that tries (and fails) to be rather Shakespearean in nature when he offers Rosen a drink of poisoned wine. Rosen falls to the floor as he is choking but is still alive. It takes too long for Cyrus, and he grabs a pillow and suffocates the man, but only after showing us the many faces of horror that we are to believe have changed him. He can't believe he's killed someone for the first time. After all of those orders to kill, all that bad-wolf bloviating he's done through the years, agony is writ upon his face as he must kill the most honest, upstanding, white hat probably on the entire show.

Meanwhile, as the group awaits a final decision about each of their testimonies to come in, and they all know that they will go to jail based on what they've said, Quinn and the group go to prison to visit Charlie, and perform a solo-visitation-room wedding officiated by Huck. It could be their last chance at tying the knot and Quinn wants to commit even if she'll never see Charlie again. Redhead Abby struggles not to cry and break down now that David is dead because they need to see this over-the-cliff thing all the way through to the fiery crash at the bottom, and if she starts mourning now, she'll never stop. Olivia goes to her father and asks him to stand in the sun with the rest of the group and also testify, to which he says that he is retired. They argue back and forth about the kind of woman he always wanted her to be and her fulfilling that destiny only for him to still say no and say that he is escaping the country. Olivia then hops over to Fitz and challenges him either to fight with her about their past bad decisions or make love to her on their potential last night of freedom. He chooses the latter, but Shonda then fails to give us one last great love scene.

And then they get the call. The call comes in that the decision has been delayed because of a new witness with new testimony. Yes, it is Papa Pope, Eli or Rowan as was his kill name, come to testify before the slew of white men looking at the facts concerning B6-13. In one last great speech for Joe Morton, he pulls out an epic white male privilege speech that sees him gloat about how he, a black man, quietly ran the country for 30 years, deciding presidencies, what laws would and wouldn't get enforced, who lived and who died, and basically every decision and every freedom that most US citizens take for granted, especially the white male ones. He was the true ruler, and he was the architect of such an organization that became bigger than the US Federal government itself. He was command, and you can't take command... But you can give it away. He appeals to their racist/racial bias bones and tells them that while he is command, the author and finisher of the American fate, they don't have to give the US public him. He doesn't have to be the face of this organization which surely must be dismantled and prosecuted. Instead of giving the public a black face in charge of everything, he (and they) sacrifices Jake, the current command. Jake is arrested and thrown in jail (I guess we were supposed to assume that the trial already went down) and everything is then pinned to him and his secret organization. The treason charges against Mellie quietly go away and Olivia tells her that she, too, is going to go away and let Mellie rule how she wants to, instead of being in her ear the whole time. Mellie respects that.

From An Earlier Season. Also This Finale Episode Felt Like Morton's Time To Shine Most

Olivia then goes to Jake in jail and talks to him one last time before he is set to be shipped off to Federal Super-max prison in Indiana (it might have actually been Illinois, but I watched the Cavs-Pacers game right after and my fury at its outcome may have soaked my memory). She asks who he might've been had she left him on that island a few seasons back, left him to stand in the sun and not dragged him back to DC. Like how many licks it takes, the world may never know.

Finally, Olivia calls Cyrus into the oval before officially packing it in and hands Cyrus his resignation papers. He starts talking about how he was never charged with anything and how he is clear and free. But then he shifts and asks Olivia if she can still enjoy a drink. Not a reference to David per se, he insists that after having finally crossed that mad line by killing David, he can no longer get the insanity and brutality of what all they've done over the years out of his blood system no matter what he tries. He can't even enjoy a good drink without thinking of the blood shed. Maybe it is time for him to finally go. He signs the papers and does just that.

We end with Charlie getting out of prison, Huck standing around with no real meaningful ending, Abby finally breaking down into tears because not only are they all not going to jail after their testimony was all redacted in order to charge Jake but Rosen is still super-dead, Mellie signing gun control as one of her first new measures and Olivia meeting Fitz on the sidewalk and doing the old romantic “Hi” thing that every writer has written at least once if they've ever done anything about romance (their, “You had me at hello,” moment). But the final shot is the most curious because it features two little black girls walking through the hall of presidential portraits and seeing Fitz's portrait which is of him behind a window (almost as weird as Obama bushes, but that one had some seriously hilarious symbolism). But then they turn a corner, walk a little farther only to stop and see a portrait of Olivia Pope in a dress that looks very similar to one that Shonda herself has worn before. Some fans have wondered about this ending and Shonda refuses to give the answer, but I think it's quite clear judging from Papa Pope's speech about power and her serving at the pleasure of white people, not to mention her having put two presidents into office and her own love affair with the oval, that this is a shot from far into the future, and she was, at one point, president.

You're A Villain

OK, so now that we're caught up with the recap, I have to say that I absolutely hated this ending. It wasn't satisfying in the least and fell into the trap-trend that I saw possibly developing years ago. First, to talk about the potential trend, I have to mention the wave of reboots. If you look back through some of my posts, I completely called the trend of reboots slowly drifting back into TV now that movies were inundated with them. For certain, if you aren't a cinema/entertainment history buff, you should know that TV often follows the trends set by film, lagging behind by about eight years give or take. Had we seen a few reboots of old shows in the 90s? Sure. But not like what we have seen in the last 15 years with everything from Roseanne to 90210 to Dynasty and Dallas returning to our airwaves in some form or fashion. We are getting reboots and remakes at an alarming rate in a medium that must feed on new ideas in order to thrive. We're also realizing that the actors and actresses we absolutely loved on past series have found hard times after such big success earlier in their careers, leading many of them to be open to come back and retread familiar characters even after saying adieu to them so long ago. And no, hard times doesn't necessarily mean monetary-wise but can be just getting good roles again. So with this, I predicted about two years ago (unfortunately, I don't think it made it on to this blog, so if this is the first time you're reading it, remember where you heard it from) that some popular series of today would start writing series finales that leave a wide berth of story lines and characters to play with for possible reboot or “sequel series” considerations. This series finale completely smacks of that potential future nostalgia-pandering on both ABC and Shonda's behalf.

For starters, for the last two years I have maintained that Olivia was, in fact, the actual villain of the show. Thankfully, she said as much on the penultimate episode. I called that she was a villain after seeing the abortion episode. But note that it was not the act of having the abortion that made her a villain, rather the actions leading up to and beyond it and the way she went about everything in her life at that time that made her the villain. This also marked the show's long-gestating but finally completed transformation into something almost wholly different from what it started as. No, the show did not start as a political spy thriller, which it became in later seasons, but more as a romance/law show. It's crazy to think that while the political theater was always there, Olivia did more lawyering than politics: she helped people escape bad situations, defended the innocent, advocated for proper law and due process, and could try a case in the court of public opinion which would lead to their never being a trial. She and her group found evidence on people that no one else bothered to find, they helped stop terrorist plots and made good on promises to clients who they saw as good and decent people in a bad situation. The White House's role was more as a tool by which Pope could wield clout and get things done for her clients, rather than something she desired so that she could shape the world.

Remember This? Back When We Were All Shipping Olitz and Thinking Side-Chickdom Might Not Be That Bad?

But as the show grew more political in story-line (not in tone. In tone, it was always addressing the social justice issues of today and kicking butt doing it), it shifted away from romance and went full steam with plots focused solely on the white house, even dropping the weekly cases of innocent people in need of help—I think they only had two of those this entire season, if I'm counting correctly and that's even after Quinn took over at OPA.

I said all of that to say that the shift in tone is what allowed the writers to be so lax in writing the finale and have it be perfectly setup for a reboot. See, now they can reboot the show either as the political drama it ended as or as the romance it started as, using the “hi” moment as a jumping-off point for future storytelling involving Liv and Fitz. But I also mentioned the change in the show to highlight the change in Olivia's character from good guy to bad guy, and suggest that the show should have concluded the way I have been suggesting for the last two years: either Olivia Pope dies or she falls on her sword for everyone and is imprisoned for life. We usually demand villains be punished in some way to make a satisfying ending for we viewers. Either that or everything goes back to happy-go-lucky times to give the viewers a happy ending. But I'd contend that Scandal askew-ed both in favor of an ambiguous ending that, again, allows for future stories to go anywhere.

On a show that was not shy about killing off its guest, main and recurring characters, none of the main players died in the finale after doing the most dirt through the seven-season run. Huck, Jake and Eli (as well as the gay secret service dude who killed the president's son) were all known killers throughout the duration of the show over its 11-year span of time, yet they all lived at the end. We also had Charlie and Quinn live happily ever after. Cyrus, the mastermind and right-hand to two presidents, who often communicated with his B6-13 cohorts openly and honestly about whom to kill, got to walk away without a single scratch to tarnish his legacy. The only important person who died was David Rosen, a good guy but someone whose death was, strangely, not felt as much as it probably should have been. Essentially, everybody who did crime and who did the most dirt got away, lived to see another day and lived through the BS. “We all did a bunch of bad stuff and nothing happened.”

The show started as a lovesick woman trying to atone for her past sins (rigging the election) by doing as much good for people that she could while using her White House influence to the people's advantage. But the worst thing is that the series and its finale never fully make this atonement. Yes, B6-13, the long-tentacled Hydra that controlled the government, is gone, but what of the rest of the crimes committed outside of their purview?

Even more troubling than the fact that everyone lived was that we still didn't get that great of an end to the romance. Some can argue that Liv's speech about making love to Fitz answered that question, but did it? Because to me that seemed like an everyday speech they'd make to each other. It wasn't memorable and wasn't a declaration of some higher level of feeling, it was just in the moment. It was far from Fitz's “Slave to you” speech in season 3(?), far from the stand in the sun speech, far from him begging to go to Vermont with her. And as far as it being a “You had me at Hello,” moment, even that Jerry Maguire speech was preceded by Jerry's/Tom Cruise's brilliant commitment plea to her. He had finally decided after all the back and forth that he was in. Here, I feel like they could probably break up the next week.

We Shoulda Known This Was A Different Show When She Went From White Coat to Dominatrix Carmen San Diego

If I'm thinking about it, the same goes for the entire OPA family. Olivia's relationship with the others didn't feel restored to what it once was or even to what it was midway through the season. She still very much seemed lost and without a home at the end of the season, similar to how she found Quinn at the beginning of the series. It would have been great if that was the poetic note to be gotten from the show, but their switch in roles wasn't stressed enough for me throughout the series because Quinn never became white-hat good and strong. Just a few weeks ago she was going to kill Liv. And though we know where Quinn and Charlie are destined, what of everyone else? Will Mellie have her Olivia Pope-esque affair with her own younger black confidante in the one guy (you know, what's his name) or is that done? What about Abby? Where does she go from here after David's death? And why did Huck have that none-ending ending where all he did was basically stand in the background while everyone else got to emote about love, loss, doing the right thing or entering into a new chapter in their lives?

Ultimately, a good series finale is supposed to try to tie up loose ends about the fans' favorite characters. Yes, we know that the characters will probably continue on in their lives in the fictional worlds created by the show's creators, writers and producers, but finales are supposed to feel like the ending chapter in a very long but enjoyable book. But with the amount of loose ends left untied, this felt more like a run-of-the-mill season finale rather than a series finale. And it seemed quite clear from the ending that Shonda is open to revisiting it probably within the next 8-12 years, if only because of how I originally thought the series could end after viewing that electrifying first season way back in 2012: Olivia Pope becomes president. Fitz would be the first man, OPA would still be around and so would Mellie. And Cyrus, after maybe growing used to killing, would decide to resurrect B6-13 out of seeing a need for the organization in the country. And frankly, if this current trend of rebooting TV continues, and Kerry Washington is exposed to the world of so-so roles for actresses (though, the industry is changing and I think she won't have problems finding work, especially now that she's partnering to produce a TV adaptation of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere), she might be glad to come back and do a 13-episode-a-year season for a few seasons. Most certainly everyone else will want to, maybe with the exception of Cyrus. Outside of him, these are the best roles that any of these actors and actresses have ever played.

As a season finale of a show that will go on an “extended hiatus” for maybe a full three presidential terms, it's fine. But as a series finale like what it purports to be, it, without conflation or exaggeration, is literally in my top five shows that had the worst series finale ever. I should mention that I, unlike most people (apparently) think that Seinfeld still holds the place as the greatest series finale ever when you consider the entirety of the show and the rich silliness of the characters. Them going to prison for not helping a citizen being robbed was the most ironic (and thus, fitting) end to a group of people who lived their lives by trying to slip, cheat and obfuscate the system, and unintentionally doing some of the most infuriating things ever. They were regular people but also terrible regular people which is what made it so great for them to be imprisoned for being the regular people they were. They rarely ever tried to be good people, they just didn't want to be bad. I still contend that it was genius, and that it was able to bring back all of our favorite characters in the series in one of the least contrived or overly done (so many wedding finales) that we, to date, have ever seen. The end to Scandal should be considered a partial scandal in itself, because it definitely needed some fixing.

Either She Was President Or They Credit Her As A Founding Mother Of The New B6-13-less Republic

What do you think? Did you watch the Scandal finale? Did you like it? If you did, why? What were your favorite parts? Where do you think the characters will go? What do you think of the meaning behind the last shot? And would you be down to see Scandal get rebooted a few years down the line? Let me know in the comments below.

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 4 coming summer 2018. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary on Amazon. Season 2 of that coming real soon. And look for the mystery novels The Knowledge of Fear #KnowFear and The Man on the Roof #TMOTR coming summer. Twisty novels as good as Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you won’t want to miss them. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, “Well, well, lovers of liberty. You've hung in there for six years and seven twisty, good, OMG seasons. Now, maybe it's time for you—”

'Wait, did we not kill Sally Langston either? And after she got away with killing her husband?'

“We should call somebody about this.”

'Command?'

“That'll work. Wait, what's his number?”

'Don't worry. It's been handled.'

P.S. Wow! Everybody got to live. This is literally the reverse of Hamlet. I have to hand it to Shonda, she said she'd only have the show run for seven seasons, and she kept her word, even though it didn't quite satisfy all the cravings. Even though I didn't like the last two and a half seasons, I stuck it out (I usually do once I commit to a show. Can't wait to finally break up with Grey's and Once Upon a Time some day), and you tried your best to deliver. And sometimes your best is all that someone can ask for. Well done!

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Oh! Oh! Ohh! It's Magic #Deception #ABC #3weekroundup #recap #review #newseries

Oh! Oh! Ohh! It's Magic #Deception #ABC #3weekroundup #recap #review #newseries

 

All Pictures Courtesy of ABC

I am back once again with another super-late review. Again, some shows I'm not even gonna get to review so get off my back. They probably suck anyway. I'm sorry. That was wrong. I shouldn't have written that and then not edited it out. I know we all work very hard to be creative, so saying that something is terrible without even seeing it is something a troll would do. Let's start this review before I get totally off track. So, does Deception bring back that magic feeling or is it a one-trick white guy—uh, I mean pony. White guy. Whichever. Let's find out together!

ABC's Deception is the newest procedural that follows the craze of taking one hardened officer of the law and partnering them with a rather goofy genius of his trade. Before, ABC succeeded in spades with this concept by partnering the quirky mystery novelist (shameless plug: The Man On The Roof on sell June 22^nd on Amazon Kindle) Richard Castle with sizzling, yet dedicated tough cop Kate Beckett on the show Castle. While it had a great run that saw the pair slowly fall in love and eventually get married while solving murders and mysteries together for the better part of seven seasons, it ended rather abruptly after ABC, in a hugely sexist move, refused to pay lead actress Stana (happy early B-Day Ms. Katic) the raise she rightfully deserved, while Nathan got a raise and the idea floated around that the series could go on with just him at the helm. Yes, it's been two or three years and I'm still a little bitter at that non-finale finale that they had (what the hell are we to think about them both being shot and then suddenly cutting to a scene of them as a family with two new kids? Was that a dream sequence? Are they dead or was that real, and they both survived being shot?). I digress. This time around ABC has decided to pair an FBI agent with a magician. Yeah, this is gonna be tricky.

Cameron and Kay 

FBI special agent Kay Daniels (played by Ilfenesh Hadera. Damn, I just bit my lip thinking about her. I really have to cut down on the creepy sexual stuff on this blog if I ever wanna be successful or at least stop mentioning it to you all. Damn, I just bit my lip again. Hey, if Christian Grey and Ana can get away with it...) is magically paired with world-renowned magician Cameron Black (played by Jack Cutmore-Scott). Wait, let me reverse this a little.

It all starts with Cameron's Vegas show he calls Deception. He starts small by talking directly to the camera about a card trick and describing the idea behind a magician's setup, his slight of hand and the prestige. After the trick, he walks to his behind-the-scenes assistants. We first have Gunter (Vinnie Jones) who seems to be the props guy. He builds the contraptions for Cameron to use in his show. We also have Jordan (Justin Chon; happy to see more Asian men getting some shine) who seems to play the techie behind the more advanced illusion parts of, uh... illusions. We round out the team with Dina (Lenora Crichlow; how many beautiful, in-charge women can this show have. Apparently, only three) who seems to be his business manager. He handles the magic while she handles everything else.

The Mysterious Woman and Johnathon

Back to the trick, Cameron moves from the cards to an escape act that sees him hanging above a bed of spikes while escaping binds as a blow torch burns through the rope. Gunter says it's too risky, but he still goes through with it and has to swing out of trouble and crash through a mirror only to...

...end up in New York's Times Square, having completed the illusion for a TV special. The trick and show ended, he walks off and gets into his car with a gorgeous mystery woman played by Stephanie Corneliussen. As they flirt and go back and forth, and she throws herself at his feet in hopes of being his next conquest, he notices that she has two different color eyes. And then they crash. While he is able to get up and walk away from the crash, he finds that she has been thrown from the car and is dead on the road. The problem is that when he goes to check on her, she no longer has two different colors of eyes. It's a different woman and this new woman has been dead for some time. He then runs.

The next morning police come to Cameron's Vegas hotel room/home and try to arrest him for the accident. The only problem, it isn't actually him. Nope, this dude pulled a Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and has lived his entire life with a twin that no one knew about. His brother is the one that ran. Now, his brother Johnathon, is in prison for the murder of that woman. He explains what he remembers about that night and hopes that Cameron can find this woman. Now that their secret is out, Cameron swears that he will do everything in his power to find this mystery woman. And then we jump a full year into the future, and he's made no progress.

Meanwhile, special agent Kay Daniels and her partner Mike Alvarez (Amaury Nolasco) are hot on the trail of a big drug-cartel member. She even is sitting on his private plane, ready to take him in when things go haywire. As soon as she gets off the plane and is joined by her partner and the other agents, the other tactical agents' smoke grenades start going off, sending up clouds of red smoke that fill the plane hangar. Kay and the others evacuate right before the plane explodes, leaving a terribly marred wreckage and zero bodies. This shows on the news. Cameron sees it and recognizes the red smoke as a signature that he used in a trick where he made a plane disappear on one of his specials. A take-initiative kinda guy, he goes to the still-active crime scene and does some charming magician's stuff to tell them that their plane didn't blow up but disappeared, and he thinks that the magician that did it specifically wanted him to know that they did it. He even theorizes that they drove the plane away to another hangar somewhere close in the middle of the night. Kay is naturally skeptical about all of this until Cameron shows her the tracks they used to move the plane and knocks down the false back-wall that was the door through which they snuck out the plane.

And that's it. It's over. But of course it's not really over. Somehow, Cameron believes that the magician that did this trick did the red smoke thing to tell him that they were also the magician that framed his brother for the murder of that one woman a year earlier. So, he devises a plan to dress as the cartel's accountant in order to insert himself into the investigation about this gangster because he wants to talk to the man and ask him who the magician was that he used. The disguise doesn't work and Kay sees through it immediately, but her magic-obsessed partner Mike doesn't see through the disguise and seems impressed with everything Cameron does. They do use the disguised Cameron to fool another one of the low-level cartel members that they catch only after Cameron and Kay find out where the plane went (a chop shop). Along the way Cameron uses small magic tricks to impress people and get them to open up about what they've seen.

The plan changes after Kay sees how convincing Cameron's disguise is to everyone else. He agrees to be used as bait to lure the cartel boss out of hiding because they know that word will spread that the banker has supposedly been talking to the Feds. They kidnap the real accountant and replace him with Cameron, and follow the SUV that takes him straight to the cartel boss. Cameron is tied up and blindfolded and nearly killed when he causes some chaos, knocks the cartel boss's guys out and grabs the wheel of the SUV while still blindfolded. After a harrowing drive through the city, he and the boss escape into an alley where the boss is about to shoot him until he notices that the end of the alley is only a painting. He hasn't even realized that he walked literally right into a trap, a fake alley surrounded on all sides by wood. He's already imprisoned. He still tries to shoot Cameron, and thinks he's succeeded when the magician goes down. But our guy pops back up and shows the bullet he caught from the old bullet-catch trick. Really, he just replaced the cartel guy's gun with a Gunter prop during the chaos in the SUV. Unfortunately, the guy gives him some gobbledygook about a dragon when Cameron asks about the evil magician.

We end with Cameron in a wrap party with the special agents and Kay unveiling a small piece of evidence she found at the scene of the plane disappearance. The trick was exactly like his, except for one thing: a deck of cards was left behind. Cameron takes out the deck of cards to reveal a one-way burner phone. It automatically calls the evil magician who is... the mystery woman that Johnathon had in his car with him that night. The two-colored-eyed mistress set the trick up on his brother as well. In her best Carmen San Diego impression, she stands in a Germany airport in all red as she is a globe-trotting, sexy, magical illusionist. And the game is on, because it seems like she wants to be caught, or at least pursued.

Jordan, Gunter and Dina

Episode two focused on Cameron and his group's attempt to stay working with the FBI. While their expertise proved useful for the first crime that involved a magician's trick aimed specifically at getting his attention, every crime is not like that. Even more, the FBI doesn't really care that much about his brother and the supposed “I was framed” story that Johnathon is telling. But Cameron knows that he needs the resources of the FBI to help find magical Carmen San Diego. And unlike Richard Castle who had a legit reason to shadow the NYPD, not to mention a very close friendship with the mayor who owed him a favor, Cameron has none of that. So, he decides to audition by using magical tricks to impress the special agent in charge. Unfortunately, she is not impressed and while Kay may be semi-open to the idea, she is not about to bend over backwards to get him privileges.

And then another murder happens. This time some criminal lawyer who has worked for the Russian mob for years is murdered during his morning run. At a stop in his run, some young kid (19) comes and shoots him in the face with a water gun, yells “got you” and runs away. The man first thinks that the liquid is just water, but then breaks out with red splotches on his face and kills over from a poison. The mob wanted him dead because he had just recently decided he had enough with criminals after having a child with his foreign wife, and was working on a deal with the DOJ to rat.

Cameron injects himself into this investigation by overhearing the breakdown of the crime, then showing up to the murder scene like he did with the plane disappearance. He explains that while it was not a magic trick, this whole thing—the gotchu, the bright blue and orange the killer was wearing, even the full-framed appearance in a security camera that caught the murder—is all a performance. He surmises that this was not just a killing but a well-planned, staged killing. Kay and Mike decide to see where this could go.

It goes up to a second floor apartment just outside of where the man was murdered. A young boy, who always throws paper airplanes out of the window in the morning, happened to have seen a blue van with a very distinct business decal sitting outside filming the murder. As it happens, they spot the van at a park across town and catch the murderer about to do the same thing to the lawyer's wife and baby. But when they catch him, the kid thinks he's on a reality TV show and wonders if he's won the game. The van gets away and they catch the kid. Cameron thankfully stops the agents from shooting the kid who doesn't even know the squirt gun is filled with a toxin. They take him back to questioning and discover that he only just moved to NYC and was approached on the street by a supposed producer. The producer, as it turns out, is a Russian mobster who works for the big boss. If the young boy can tell them more about this guy, they could maybe get him. The problem: the kid suddenly falls ill with the same poison while in the interrogation room, presumably for having gotten drops of the liquid on his skin after carrying the squirt gun around all day.

Now, the race is on to find the gangster so that they can find an antidote to save the innocent kid's life. Even worse, the special agent in charge has to follow the law which states that the kid is the killer until they can actually get the real killers behind this plot. Cameron and the agents go to the square where the kid was picked by the producer and find a street performer to ID the “producer” he saw trying to get volunteers for the reality show. But they still need the kid to ID the Russian in order to get a warrant for his nightclub.

Cameron, however, doesn't have to operate by the same rules of law. He and his team devise a plan to go to the club and speak to the Russian. Cameron sneaks through the club, uses Dina to help him get into the private part of the club and gets into a place where he can talk to a secret VIP bartender to ask where the Russian is. The old bartender tells him that he shouldn't be there. Still, Cameron pushes farther and discovers where the blue truck is, but is caught by the Russian. He does a magic trick where he breaks the guy's phone in half, then puts it back together before pulling a disappearing act before they shoot him. Kay and Mike finally show after getting the near-death kid to ID the “producer.” There's some gun-play and the Russians get away. But Cameron has a plan.

Kay and the Special Agent in Charge

While Cameron gets sent into the Dunce corner by the FBI, he and his team concoct a plan to not only catch the Russian but also get him to give them the antidote to the poison. The FBI discovers where the Russian is hiding and stakes out his place. Cameron comes and tells them of his plan and begs them to believe in his idea. The decision is left in Kay's hands.

They go and arrest the guy against Cameron's wishes. But then, as they are transporting him, their car is hit by one of the Russian's underlings who, instead of rescuing him, says that the big boss wants him dead, then squirts him and Cameron in the face with the water gun. As it turns out, this is a trick. The underling was a very good mask done by Gunter. The setup is to show Cameron dying from the poison and convince the Russian that he, too, is about to die from it unless he tells them how to combat the poison. He does only to realize that the hospital room really isn't a hospital room but a well-constructed set and that Cameron isn't dead or sick at all. In a moment of severe oversight, everyone takes their eyes off of the dude, and he gets up and holds a knife to Dina's throat. Mike manages to knock him down from behind and Kay says that they aren't going to arrest him, but release him back to the mob who will kill him for sure unless he gives up the big boss. As it turns out, the big boss is the bartender Cameron met, disguising himself as a low-level worker. Cameron has helped them throughout the case and the special agent in charge agrees to keep him on. But he knows that his brother's case will still not be a priority. Luckily, Kay has already started a board for his brother's case and has agreed to help him.

In Episode three Cameron, Kay and the gang had to deal with a Thomas Crown Affair-style heist (the 1990s one with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo both looking maturely hot). For the first time in three episodes, this one doesn't open with Cameron doing a magic trick straight to the camera. Instead, we open with him talking over a young woman walking through a museum (clearly not the NYC Metropolitan) and into a special exhibit wing where she notices something strange around all the paintings. She touches something and suddenly the gate goes down, and she's trapped inside. This is a job for... an escapologist!

Cue Cameron, who we find in bed with a random black woman. This serves two purposes: let's us know that he is definitely single, and lets us know that he likes a little coffee with his cream (see what I did there). He slips out of bed and tells the one-nighter that he's gotta go because the FBI needs him. He gets there just as the person behind this whole trap calls the FBI and demands a ransom of some 125 million dollars or else he's going to blow up the entire room one priceless painting at a time. Yeah, those strange things on the paintings that the woman saw: bombs. So, they have to figure out how to get the woman and art out of the room and/or find the madman behind the bomb threat. The rules: don't touch the gate, he will see (he's got two of his own cameras installed in the room) and if you don't transfer the money within 90 minutes, he triggers all the bombs.

Cameron sees this simply as a bad escape trick, and he's done them a thousand times. All he needs is to figure out a way in, and he'll be good. The exhibit happens to be sponsored by some big-time billionaire businessman who shows up with his adult son to complain about the pictures. Unfortunately, Cameron touches the gate and the guy blows up one of the paintings. Luckily the woman and the other paintings are still fine.

So, time is ticking away, and they need to first figure out a way into the room. The museum director tells them that only one man has ever snuck into that room, but he was caught and is in jail. As it would happen, he's in jail with Johnathon. Johnathon must get the man's secret by promising him a favor. He tells him that there is a secret opening through a floor panel. The next thing is that they then have to figure out how to distract the cameras. Through a simple roll-out mirror trick, they are able to trick the camera into seeing an empty floor as Cameron worms his way across the floor to a camera blindspot (most of the room is in a blindspot). They replace most of the paintings in 90 seconds but Kay sneaks into the room also and grabs the final two paintings that are still in the camera frame. They manage to get out of the room just in time as the man blows the room. We learn that Kay saved the painting because her sister used to be a painter and loved this particular artist. Sadly, we learned in the second episode that her sister died by overdose some years back before Kay became an FBI agent.

We move on to see Cameron meeting the museum woman for a lunch after they are safe, while the FBI have to still find out who was behind the bombing. As it turns out, they discover the guy behind the cameras only to find him shot dead in the head. They then discover that he was the janitor and that this was a total inside job because the woman was also in on it. But she tells Cameron that it's not what he thinks right before they get kidnapped.

Cameron and the woman wake up in the trunk of a car where she explains that the mastermind behind this whole thing contacted her online, and took advantage of her desire to be an art restorer and seduced her with the possibility of money. But he always planned to kill her. She was supposed to take down all the real paintings and throw them into the garbage can where the janitor would then take them down to the dumpster to be picked up later by the mastermind. Well, Cameron escapes the trunk just as the car stops and rolls into the backseat and into the driver's seat. They then manage to dress him as the janitor, go back to the museum and capture the billionaire's son as the mastermind. He stole the paintings because he was tired of his father loving the paintings and his “life's work” more than him.

We end the episode with Dina getting close to Mike, and Kay and Cameron getting closer through her story about her sister's desire to be an artist. It's far from there, but it's getting there.

What's my grade? I give it a solid B+. Yes, we've seen this show before and its name was Castle. Yes, Castle felt somewhat like the originator of this modern wave of eccentric non-police partners with police, and the two leads (hear that, ABC? Both the man AND the woman led the show) had some serious chemistry) but since that show has been taken off the air, this show can serve as a very good child or clone of that one. You have the overly stylish lead female cop or in this case FBI agent with demons in her personal past that motivates her to be in law enforcement. Beckett's mother was a lawyer and was murdered when she was young; Kay's sister had the overdose, although that is a crime that can easily be turned into her having been murdered for some reason in later years. Castle slyly charms his way onto the force and into the good graces of all the cops around him; Cameron ditto, both impressing and mystifying his fellow workers along the way. Castle had a rather complicated but relatable family dynamic in that he was a single dad who took care of both is daughter and, to some extent, his aged mother, and had money to burn in order to do it; Cameron, instead of a mother has a brother who he needs to get out of prison for a crime he didn't commit, not to mention a team of trusted technicians he must care for and pay, still with money to burn after one year away from the stage to pursue his brother's innocence. Speaking of family, we have the highly intelligent woman in both men's lives—Castle had his daughter while Cameron has his business partner Dina—and we have the quirky but dependable sidekick to our lead law enforcer in Mike on Kay's side (you could choose from Havi or the other guy for Beckett on Castle). We have the boss who is skeptical, and we even already have a budding romance between the two side characters that will most assuredly be complicated in Mike and Dina on Deception, and Havi and the ME on Castle, literally mirroring the Latino man falling in love with the black woman. Hell, even the names Kate and Castle, and Kay and Cameron start with the same letters. If you're looking for a carbon copy of that show, I guarantee that you probably will not find another one quite as close as this without them infringing on some copyright or just straight-up rebooting Castle. But with that said, there are some flaws in this setup even if you were a fan of Castle.

First, I don't like the boss. I figured I should just get that out of the way right now. I don't like the special agent in charge. I think she's bland, she comes off as too tough and rather emotionless. Where we had Castle doing some great comedy against Beckett's original straight-man captain, here she feels more like an energy suck if ever I saw one. I'm hoping that she gets better and fits more into the tone of the show, but as someone who has seen that actress before I will say that I think she mostly belongs in harder-hitting political dramas than this one, if she wants to stay in political or cop dramas. But, frankly, she's not a chief concern.

My first chief concern is the charm of Cameron Black himself. OK, so I am not sure that he matches the level of charm that Nathan Fillion had. Don't get me wrong, I like him in the role so far, but he still doesn't seem quite like the lady's man that Richard was and doesn't come off as quite as confident. I think this is mostly due to age and especially his age compared to Kay's (Ilfenesh) age. In Castle, it was not only clear in the narrative but also just from looking at the two of them that Castle was at least a good ten or 12 years older than Kate who he would eventually fall in love with. There was a goofiness and maturity which only came either from age or from being a dad. He was dad-goofy, dad-mature and dad-sexy which made them a perfect match on the chemistry level. They had a playful banter back and forth that I could see evolving into something deeper from, literally the second episode, and made me believe that they could actually be a couple in real life. Here, I can't quite see him ending up with Kay if that is where the show takes it. Are they both single? Yes, but he, so far, just doesn't fit. For starters, he still feels stuck in the goofy stage where he's trying to impress everyone too hard. Yes, Castle was goofy but you often felt that he was really only trying to entertain himself and kudos to you if you came along for the ride. She almost seems too old for him. This might just be my age/male bias because we've seen so many older men with younger women, but something doesn't quite sit well here with their chemistry.

On the flip side, she is not exempt from this criticism. My partial criticism with her has also to do with the writing and her acting. I love me some Ilfenesh ever since really taking a look at her in the disastrous Baywatch film from last year. I think she could be really good if she keeps getting work or is able to have steady work like a weekly show over the span of a few seasons, but here she tends to switch a little too often. From what I've seen on the show, she goes from hardened law enforcer at the beginning of each episode to soft, jovial regular girl at the end of the show. Yes, some of that is because they've usually solved the case and whatnot, but some of it is also how she plays the character and how the character is written. The girl at the end of the show you can potentially see yourself meeting in a grown folks lounge/bar setup and having a deep conversation with. The girl at the beginning of the show seems like she's got kids, a husband, 9 to 5 job and no time for anything outside of what orbits in her personal bubble. She's closed off and often not as charming as Beckett. Again this could be just the fact that the actors are all still getting to know both each other and the writing staff, and are trying to build character so much that they haven't taken leeway to build the small quirks of character, so I'm not saying this couldn't or won't get better over time. But if I'm looking at the original, Castle allowed Beckett to smirk and smile and make snide comments back to Castle, feeding viewers a humor sandwich. He came with the slapstick/goofy/absurd comedy like a classic Steve Martin film; if you didn't like that, she came with the sarcastic/sardonic/cutting humor that felt like her showing her dominance in that field and properly putting Castle in his place when his britches got too big. They played well off each other. Here, Kay and Cameron haven't quite gotten to play well off each other. It feels more like mother or teacher chastising her child or the class clown, than girlfriend and boyfriend joking with each other. We'll see how this picks up.

Oddly enough, everything else feels fine. The pacing is what's to be expected. They actually make the rather whimsical idea of a magician consulting with the FBI work (with Castle, and I don't just say this because I'm a writer, the idea didn't feel as whimsical even if it was rather novel. (A-tee-hee!) He was a crime novelist who had to research ways to kill people to write convincing crime novels). The cast is nice and diverse and each one of the cases has, so far, supplied enough of a wow factor to keep people's attention. It won't blow you away as something new and original, but it could distract for an hour a week.

Should you be watching? If you are/were a fan of Castle and still feel a little peeved at that finale or just want to see the old gang solve more cases, well, unfortunately you're outta luck because I doubt that show is coming back anytime soon (check back in ten years). But if you're OK with satiating your thirst for hot law enforcement woman potentially falls for equally handsome, but very intelligent goofball, then Deception might be for you. But fair warning, they are going to expose a lot of magic tricks throughout the series, so if you don't like knowing how things are done when you go to your next magic show, then this might not be the best show for you. Yes, not watching a show because you don't want to know all the magic tricks sounds crazy, but some of you out there have your reasons. While I think that this show is far better suited in the Monday time slot that was previously held by Castle, or even on Tuesday nights, Deception currently airs on ABC Sundays at 10pm EST.

What do you think? Have you heard of Deception? If not, do you think you'll tune in now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? What did you think of it? Who is your favorite character? Do you think Kay and Cameron will end up together, and if so by what season? And when will they manage to catch Carmen San Diego and get his brother out of prison? Let me know in the comments below.

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 4 coming summer 2018. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary on Amazon. Season 2 of that coming real soon. And look for the mystery novels The Knowledge of Fear #KnowFear and The Man on the Roof #TMOTR coming this summer. Twisty novels as good as Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you won’t want to miss them. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, “The trick is to make hay while the sun is out.”

P.S. Yeah, my mind totally blanked on something good to say there. I couldn't even think of a proper magic joke or a good old saying. Geez, I am mentally out of shape. I've gotta start doing more mind calisthenics. I'll try to think of a better sign-off next time.

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