corraled-05690 Reviews

S.W.A.T.: Vagabundo (2021) Season 5, Episode 1

Slow, Worthless And Tedious

[1/10 · 2 October 2021]

Where do I begin? First we have no credits, because I guess this was a very special episode. So Hondo decides to venture south of the border to Mexico to find himself. 0stensibly on vacation, Hondo now has to rescue a damsel in distress. Did he call in 20 David? No, not only did he not call in 20 David, 20 David was missing entirely and that leads us to the second-an entire episode without the rest of the cast. To call the lack of action anemic would be kind. They opened up better last year when covid delayed production. I can quite honestly say this was the worst, lamest, most disappointing Season Premiere of any show I have ever watched. The Shemar Moore Hour was a student film all about linoleum cracking. Even a cheesy sitcom like THE NEIGHBORHOOD opened stronger. This was awful, insufferable and a total letdown. This show is supposed to have you on the edge of your sofa. FLY on BREAKING BAD was cinematic in contrast to this crapfest. Better damn well pick up next week. Season Premieres are supposed to be action packed, suspenseful, especially for a cop show like this. VAGABUNDO? More like MUY STUPIDO.

The Dirt (2019)

THEATRE OF PAINFUL TO WATCH

[26 August 2021]

THE DIRT? More like THE CRAP. First the inattention to accuracy, Vince Neil was driving a Lamborghini, not a Corvette when he drove drunk killing Razzle Dingley. If Neil had been driving a Camaro or a Firebird that night, and the Corvette was still used, I could understand, they're similar GM vehicles, but the car Neil drive that night needed a passport to get here. Next, little paid to Mick Mars suffering from ankylosing spondylitis. We didn't get a second about Pam & Tommy, their kids, the latter going to prison for spousal abuse, and the most iconic scandalous part of their union, the sextape. Mainly it focused on the groupies they banged. Not a word about how they were targeted by Tipper Gore & the PMRC, You would think they would cover the death of Vince & Sharisse Neil's 5 year old daughter to cancer, that too was brushed off just like Pam & Tommy. About the only member given a full fleshing out as a character is Nikki Sixx. I wish I could scrub my eyes of the memory of watching it. This movie gives no piece of the action, a merry-go-round & round on which you will not wanna ride, this movie did not knock'em dead, kid. This was purely done all in the name of money. I did end up going away mad. Not a single live wire anywhere to jolt you as a viewer.

Chicago Fire: You Will Hurt Him (2013) Season 2, Episode 9

Sibling Revelry

[10/10 · 26 March 2021]

This is THE definitive Severide//Katie episode. After Kelly Severide meetshis sister Katie for the first time in A POWER MOVE, a bond is sealed by this point. But it was not instant, as seen.in RHYMES WITH SHOUT, Kelly invites Katie took lunch at 51, but fails to show up, Kelly finds her, asks why and said she could not risk entering a relationship with Kelly as she had been abandoned twice by their father, Benny. Kelly assures Katie he's not Benny, and Katie becomes more welcoming of her newfound brother. YOU WILL HURT HIM is the defining moment, Katie finally agrees to serve lunch at 51, blowing the entire house away. 0tis fancies Katie and immediately Kelly warps into overprotective big brother mode. Katie leaves, and Kelly says he will return her dishes after shift. When he finally drives to her house, he meets Katie's mom April who informs him of Katie's graduation from cooking school, and they can't go because her mom & stepdad have to take her younger brothers to a game in Indiana. Cut to the graduation, Katie is called up, and her worry is broken with a thunderous applause from Kelly in celebration of his lil sis. Later Kelly takes Katie to Molly's under the guise of just getting a celebratory beer, but as soon as Kelly opens the door followed by Katie, the entire 51 crew yells surprise, as Kelly had a party planned all along. Katie almost breaks down in tears of joy. And he looks on with great affection. Earlier in his Mustang Katie talked about how she didn't think anybody would show up, but Kelly says You got a big brother now. This is the ep that will really get you in the heart. My favorite episode by far, my go-to If I need a cheering up. The interplay between Taylor Kinney & Brittany Curran is adorable, you really could believe they truly are brother & sister. The action the show is known for is what brings you in, but these family moments peppered in really show what a great series this and all the Chi shows are. Plus Brittany Curran is absurdly, insanely, stupifyingly gorgeous with eyes like sapphires. This will bring you in, this will make you a Chihard.

Almost Family (2019–2020)

Cutting the crap

[10/10 · 28 November 2020]

Let's face the fact which is as obvious as the noses on Mount Rushmore, FOX sabotaged this show. The first direct attack was taking it off the air after only 3 weeks, from 0ctober 16th to November 13th. During that time, people began to forget, they drifted to other shows, then boom, it's back. After January 15th, gone again, when I looked at Its page on Wikipedia, I saw the last 2 eps scheduled for February 22nd, a Saturday, and I knew it was over. I made a vow to myself that If this show was cancelled, I was done watching FOX. After 33 years I had been burned way too many times. I was a day 1 charter viewer going all the way back to MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. Right now i am in the first full television season of my life not watching anything on FOX since 1985-86. This is a network not to be trusted. This is the network that deliberately sabotaged FIREFLY, tanked any chance of THE FINDER being a success. This is a network run by children, children who will go after shows we love and destroy them without a second's thought. FOX deserves to burn for this. They have earned my hatred and at this point, it's highly unlikely they will ever win me back. They owe us a dvd, they can at least do that to the fans they screwed over, and the hardworking cast & crew whose jobs were snuffed out after 13 episodes. Burn in jell, FOX, burn in hell. But what really is disgraceful was no attempt was made to save it by shopping it to another network, certainly The CW could have provided a home.

CSI: NY (2004–2013)

How you kill a great show

[6/10 · 12 July 2020]

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day Melina Kanakaredes quit the show in protest because CBS and producers refused to pay her on par with Gary Sinise. But that was the fourth shot fired in the network's war on this show. The destruction of CSI:NEW YORK was assured way back in 2005 when Anthony Zuiker, kowtowing to Les Moonves, agreed to have the sets Carey Meyer designed & built destroyed for no reason whatsoever. It was here Moonves & CBS knew they could inflict whatever damage they wanted to on this show.

2 months before the breakdown between CBS, producers & Kanakaaredes, CBS made the decision to move the show from a secure berth on Wednesday at 10 to the Friday night deathslot at 9. If not for the loss of Melina Kanakaredes, the show could have easily survived, but CBS was dead set on sabotaging this show because out of all 3 of the CSI series', this was the most expensive to produce and CBS had gotten greedy & stupid.

If you're wondering what the second & fifth shots fired were, the former came in the decision to hold the 100th episode of the CSI series set in NEW YORK in LOS ANGELES, illustrating the stupidity, the ignorance, the corruption, the mindlessness, the incompetence on part of the producers who were incapable of connecting the dots. Because it makes logical sense to not hold the celebration for a show in the city in which it's set. What you get when you have rocket surgeons like Jerry Bruckheimer, Ann Donahue, Jonathan Littman, Carol Mendolsohn, Pam Veasey & the jerkoff at the top, Anthony Zuiker. The final shot came in the form of hiring Sela Ward, the dummy who 8 years earlier turned down the role of Megan Donner on CSI:MIAMI.

Without the chemistry of the classic cast, the show became an incohesive mess. The show was weak, poorly written, nowhere in the vicinity of the amazing show it used to be. From the moment Season 7 premiered, CSI:NEW YORK was in a death spiral. At the 100th episode party in 2008, Sinise proudly exclaimed 0nto 200! When you make the decision to celebrate the 100th episode of the CSI set in NY by holding it in LA, the show was doomed. At that moment the doomsday clock ticked faster & closer to midnight, until finally in 2012, production came to a final end and all of the episodes broadcast in 2013 were nothing more than a burnoff. Rest in pieces, CSI:NEW YORK, rest in pieces.

CSI: Miami: Triple Threat (2007) Season 5, Episode 18

WHAT AN UNEVENTFUL EPISODE, RIGHT ANN DONAHUE?

[10/10 · 9 July 2020]

Where do I begin? Had this show not had the 3 morons at the head of the franchise-Ann Donahue, Carol Mendolsohn & Anthony Zuiker, an imaginative, inventive, creative episode like this would have gotten the attention it deserved on DVD. But it had a 4th name attached, that name being Jerry Bruckheimer, a man who simply does not have the same affinity for his tv shows that he does for his movies. He absolutely sucks on the small screen, and this episode is testimony to what failures all 4 are.

The woman at the heart of the episode was an admitted virgin, Leslie Bibb confessed she had never even seen an ep of any CSI series prior to being cast in the title role of Beth & Cayla Selby & Ashley Whitford. Each sister had her own quirks, and Bibb played it to the hilt. For a woman brand new to the franchise in all forms, she rocked it Colin Ferguson also played up the dual roles of real estate developer Dominic Whitford and his media double Greg Ramsey.

There were so many twists & turns, this episode kept you guessing, and had the show not been produced by those 4 losers, this episode would have gotten Its own special feature as well as commentary. The fact the very opposite is true makes this episode more evidence of the systemic failure of the producers. At no time on DVD on any season/series did producers make an attempt to invest in their fans. No, in typical CSI franchise fashion, this episode is treated like filler. Where was the commentary from Leslie Bibb? She played 3 identical characters but had to give each their own identity.

This episode also touches on the aftermath of Delko getting shot in the earlier return of South American drug kingpin Clavo Cruz, a storyline that, what is less than scratching the surface? Another great episode in the franchise that had every right to the spotlight but never got it because Jerry Bruckheimer, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendolsohn & Anthony Zuiker suck at their jobs. Even the lightest in action episode of BREAKING BAD would get commentary, and from multiple players. Had Jerry Bruckheimer, Ann Donahue, Carol Mendolsohn & Anthony Zuiker been a functioning group of producers who actually gave a crap about their fans, there would have been a feature on the DVD running at least 20 minutes, and there also would been commentary from Leslie Bibb, David Caruso, Colin Ferguson, Emily Procter & Adam Rodriguez as well as writers Corey Miller & Sunil Nayar and director Scott Lautanen. Another glimmering example of producers letting their fans down season after season after season after season. Thanks for nothing, producers, thanks for absolutely nothing. If you were curious as to how much you consistently sucked at your jobs, pop in FIREFLY, Joss Whedon's shortest series and in stark contrast to you losers, has libraries of content & commentary. Every season of every CSI series-content poor, commentary best described as threadbare.

Hawaii Five-0 (2010–2020)

Premiered big, but ended as a total disaster

[1/10 · 20 May 2020]

Everything we had been hoping for, we never got, and the blame rests upon showrunner Peter Lenkov's incompetent shoulders. First, all we get as far as blasts from the past is a cameo of Catherine on the plane when she and McGarrett run into each other. No effort was made to bring back anybody else. Jerry never came back, Laurie Weston never came back. But the 2 greatest offenses, the real screw you to the fans was Lenkov making no effort to bring back Chin and Kono. Pretty sure had Lenkov had appealed to the better angels of Daniel Dae Kim & Grace Park, they would have come back.

But the worst by far is the sidelining of Teilor Grubbs for the last 2 years of the show's run. For a girl who dominated Season 1, was even in the premiere, it is absolute disGrace that she was kept out of 2019-the show's last full year on the air, and the show's final season. They managed to bring back Masi 0ka for the show's final Halloween episode, but Teilor Grubbs they discarded wholesale. Masi 0ka quit because he lives in California, and wanted to do other projects, Teilor Grubbs DOES live on Hawaii, but she's treated like trash. I am appalled by how the disgusting treatment she got. The reboot had no right to even come close to matching the run of the original. Peter Lenkov better damn well make things right and put Teilor Grubbs on MAGNUM, PI. We can shave Grace Williams as a part of that show. Boo, Boo, Boo! Teilor Grubbs deserved better, but she got shafted just as much as Kim & Park. Shame on you, Peter Lenkov, shame on you.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)

THE CASE FOR XANDER BEING THE TRUE HERO

[10/10 · 18 May 2020]

Buffy may be the vampire slayer, but 6 times out of 7, it was Alexander Lavelle Harris who truly saved the day. Here are the ways Xander was the deciding factor. PROPHECY GIRL-After a losing battle with The Master, Buffy is left to drown in a puddle. She has entered the Hellmouth with Angel & Xander, but only the latter could rescue her. Angel can't breathe and Buffy needed to be revived and only Xander could provide the air. Buffy was able to return to form and kill The Master.

BECOMING-Willow has found the spell needed to reensoul Angelus, but after the attack on the library led by Spike & Drusilla that left Kendra slain, Giles kidnapped and Xander & Willow hurt, the latter 2 recover, but Willow remains in the hospital. 0n the way to Angelus's mansion, Xander catches Buffy and tells her to kick, because that's what Willow wants. In reality, Willow wanted to Xander to inform Buffy she found the spell, but Buffy needed this lie to keep her head in the game. Buffy was able to fend off Angelus long enough for Willow to succeed.

GRADUATION DAY-The military knowledge Xander acquired after being cursed by Ethan Rayne allowed him to gain access to the ordnance needed to demolish the high school to kill The Mayor after Buffy lures him inside.

PRIMEVAL-Wondering how to face Adam, Xander spitballs the idea of combining essences to create an Uber-Buffy. Xander says he was joking, but Giles says that is exactly what we need to do. After breaking into the secret lab in The Initiative, Willow, Giles & Xander take their places and each represents a component Buffy will need to attain super-strength. Xander's role is as the heart, and coincidentally, Buffy does rip out Adam's heart, his uranium power core.

THE GIFT-Glory is severely compromised after Willow taps into her mind to restore Tara's sanity. It is in this moment with Glory on the ropes that Xander swings a wrecking ball to further weaken her, weakening her to the point where she's forced to retreat into Ben. 0nce back inside Ben, Giles is able to come along and suffocate him finally ending Glory's reign of terror once & for all.

GRAVE-After sapping deliberately tainted magic from Giles, Dark Willow attempts to end the world by triggering the spirit of Prosperpexa on the hill overlooking the city. Xander arrives and while fighting Dark Willow's magic tries to reach her by recounting childhood memories. It is clear Dark Willow does not want Xander to suffer but Dark Willow sees too much pain in the world and it needs to end. Xander repeatedly tells her I love you, each time short-circuiting her magic until she finally breaks down. The black in her hair and eyes that got that way when she absorbed the dark magic in the books Giles held in The Magic Box fades back to red hair & green eyes. The real Willow is able to return and she is left crying in Xander's arms.

The only time Xander would not have any sort of key role in deciding the outcome of the final battle was in the series finale CHOSEN.

At Close Range (1986)

My mom & i agree, Christopher Walken's most sinister performance

[10/10 · 27 April 2020]

I credit my mother for introducing her young son to so many great singers & bands, but she also introduced me to great actors & films. When I was a year old baby, she saw an on the rise Christopher Walken in the film that would lead to his earning the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for THE DEER HUNTER(1978). But at the same time less than a decade later, she & I both were chilled to our bones by Walken as career criminal Bradford Whitewood Sr. Backstory-this film is based on a true story, of the crimes and destruction wrought by Bruce Johnston Sr. who did indeed murder his younger son and nearly his eldest.

The Johnston Gang went on a rampage in Chester & Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania, and even into the neighboring states of Delaware & Maryland. They stole farm equipment, trafficked in cigarettes, and Johnston Sr. ruled with a gun. As Johnston saw the walls around him collapsing, he began executing his own crew, till he finally assigned bullets to his sons. Norman Johnston would be led out to the wilderness where he was soon dispatched by his treacherous father. Johnston would then target Bruce Jr. He would kill Jr.s girlfriend and leave the younger significantly wounded motivating Bruce Jr to turn state's evidence in the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Johnston.

I first saw this with my brothers, then with my mother. I could see in her eyes just how devastating a turn Walken had taken. A year earlier, I had my first encounter with Walken as bad guy Max Zorin in the James Bond film A VIEW TO A KILL. My mother on the other hand was fully versed in the man's career but looking at her even in my young age, even she was not equipped for how diabolical Walken's portrayal of Johnston was. My mom & I are of like minds, never before and not since has Christopher Ronald Walken had a more evil role, not even NICK OF TIME comes close which was released nearly a decade later. Would I recommend to any body else to see? I don't know, would I recommend Dracula get a job as the overnight guard in a blood bank?

CSI: NY: The Closer (2005) Season 1, Episode 22

Micheal Clarke was the sparke

[10/10 · 1 December 2015]

The A-plot concerning the murderous baseball player did not engage me nearly as much as the B-plot of Mac second guessing himself forced to consider the possibility that Quinn Sullivan was innocent of the murder with which he was charged. Micheal Clarke Duncan deserved an Emmy for Best Guest Star Drama. His interplay with Gary Sinise was theatre on the small screen, a stage play with cameras. This was CSI:NEW YORK at Its nascent greatest. Not just a great sweeps episode, but a classic episode in every sense. Nowhere did this episode miss the marke, not with Micheal Clarke, he clearly was the sparke, knocked it right out the parke. When I heard he died, I popped in the Season 1, Disc 6 of the DVD & watched it again. A great loss on all fronts. I then watched him again in the film that was his big break, as Bear in my Criterion DVD of Armageddon. Micheal Clarke Duncan was a man of talent, a wealth of range.

Cold Case: Soul (2009) Season 7, Episode 4

Hit me up with that blues flavor!

[10/10 · 23 November 2015]

A gem of an episode. I found this episode to have been the installment to capture the Philly Sound. New York, Motown, Memphis, LA, Nashville, New 0rleans all have their musical signatures, but Philadelphia had a vibe all Its own. This episode did well in tapping into the feel of the 70s. It also had a great closing number with I'LL BE THERE by THE SPINNERS. A great song, a classic and a hallmark of the Philly Sound.

0n an unrelated matter, this episode was preempted a week because of football running long, supposed to air Sunday 0ctober 18th, 2009 but aired instead on the 25th. 0n the other hand it still aired in Canada properly without sports-related interruption and I living in New Jersey was able to watch it online on Monday 0ctober 19th allowing me to skip the rescheduled airing.

CSI: NY: Vacation Getaway (2010) Season 6, Episode 23

The end of the line.

[10/10 · 4 November 2015]

While most fans count this as a great chapter in the saga of Shane Casey, this episode's most significant aspect is the end for Stella Bonasera. I watched it when it premiered never thinking for even a nanosecond that this was the final episode for Melina Kanakaredes. To think her last scene was only 33 seconds long. 33 seconds, I think it takes longer to warm up my shower water. Emptying my dishwasher has taken longer depending on how heavy the load is.

When Season 6 was released on DVD, I fast-forwarded to her last scene counting how long it was on my cell's stopwatch. After I watched it, I used the stopwatch to time how long it would take me to pee on my next trip to my bathroom, it was a near solid minute. Vanessa Ferlito getting killed off in HEROES was the most heartbreaking moment until the news of July 2nd came out. Aiden Burn died a hero, but Stella was exiled & quickly was forgotten after the next episode. Hell, even after Shannen Doherty was fired, you never went any Season from 5 to 10 of BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 without at least a mention of Brenda Walsh. Between the screwing over of Melina Kanakaredes & the resignation of Peter Lenkov to go co-create the new HAWAII 5-0, this was the last real season of CSI:NEW YORK. I treated Seasons 7-9 like 90s METALLICA records, I disavowed them. I bought the DVD to round out the collection but they are the least watched, the least to occupy my Blu-Ray player. Seasons 1-6 however have had that blue laser running underneath them multiple times. Without Stella CSI:NEW YORK was rudderless. Sela Ward was the wrong choice. Clare Forlani should have been promoted, but I'm convinced CBS was out to sabotage this show.