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Stella is a girl with big dreams. She wants to be a jazz singer and perform at Broadway. And for one short moment it all seems possible. But sometimes fate has an ugly surprise in store...

This movie lives and dies on the shoulders of Paula Beer. Not that it isn't wellmade and written in general, but Stella is objectively a difficult character to portray. A Jew who turned into an informant for the nazi? How do you keep the audience from not only getting too weirded out, but also finding the humanity in an individual who you'd justifiably see as a victim, but also understandly view like a monster?

Well, Beer succeeds. You get to experience everything through her acting. The small glimpses of hope, the rousing excitement of forbidden passion, the misery and stress of not being able to live a fully honest life, the ruse as you find yourself in a high position after getting kicked down one too many times... She turns Stella into a fully well-rounded human being. Even as you feel disgusted and appalled by her actions, she never becomes one-dimensional or nothing more than a stone-cold villain. If anything the evilness of her deeds adds to the tragedy, since you've seen beforehand this is not who Stella was. She was passionate, full of life and showed great empathy for others. Absolutely not without flaws, but certainly not even close to the infamous figure you'd imagine she would be known as.

Adding to the complicated morality is the fact that her unrelenting love for her parents never dies. Hell, she even refuses to give up her friend Aaron and spares him from potentially being escorted to Auschwitz, after already giving up hundreds of other Jews. So is Stella truly a different person after her actions or is she still that hopeful little jazz singer inside who never got to spread her wings?

Like all the best bio pics as well, you don't think about the fact that you're seeing bits and pieces of a story as much as just getting absorbed into what's being unraveled. Some of the violence is legitimately gutwrenching, one particularly harrowing moment being when Stella hides from the nazis and has to witness a friend getting executed right in front of her eyes. I also struggled watching Stella get beaten to a bloody pulp in the interrogation room, which is even sadder now knowing it's what pushed her in the direction of helping commit evil deeds in order to escape an even worse outcome.

And at the end of the picture, the loneliness, trauma and irreversible condemnable actions has left this once playful and happy woman empty. And I kinda felt an emptiness myself as I realized although she survived the war, her soul also died in the process.

Ross's ex-wife makes an unexpected visit to announce something which results in complicated emotions, Monica feels inferior when her parents come to visit and Rachel bookends a failed relationship.

There are already signs of improvement in the series' second outing. For example there's a better balance between the characters. Everybody gets at least a few funny lines, including Phoebe and Rachel who were on the weaker side comedically the first time around. I love Phoebe's response when Monica is trying to find her engagement ring. It's the kind of answer that makes sense, but at the same time is obviously not the one she was asking for.

Joey also continues to be his lovably dopey self, while Chandler proves to be so charismatic and witty I can definitely see how he became such an everlasting character. He was amusing in the pilot, but here he steals the show every time he speaks. Him excitedly telling everyone "Let's dig in!" as they all go looking for the ring in the lasagna, the sad revelation that his parents liked his imaginary friend more than their own son and his sarcastic remarks towards Monica as she's cleaning frantically are some of the moments that stood out. I don't want to make this too much about one actor, but there's definitely something special and likable about Matthew Perry's performance.

Monica gets some solid character building as we're introduced to her OCD as well as shown how her parents treat her with a minimal amount of respect at best and scathing criticism at its worst. Jack does make more of an effort to be nice, but Judy's only compliment is the pot of curry tasting like curry. You feel so bad for Monica, while simultaneously laughing at the parents' bizarre quirks. Even when Ross steps up and tells about something that happened to himself, Judy still berates her daughter for keeping it from them! I can tell I will have a lot of fun whenever these two appear.

The main story centers on Ross, who gets to deal with a lot of anguish when his ex-wife Carol announces that she's pregnant. What's interesting to note is that besides one slightly ignorant comment towards the start, his main problem with Carol isn't that she's in a lesbian relationship, but rather that she and Susan are having a baby together he was never told about. Not to mention they've already decided on a name for the child, no matter if it's a boy or a girl. It brings a level of nuance to his characterization, since the feeling of being left in the dark is something that is easily relatable. The debate he has with them over the first and last name is hilarious, and the kind of convo that edges on being ludicrous, yet at the same time you can see where he's coming from. And we get a rather sweet resolution when the doctor broadcasts the sonogram, which stops the three of them dead in their tracks as they observe the wonder of a life in progress. What could possibly be more important than witnessing your offspring about to make their first leap into the world?

The subplot with Rachel is a continuation of the first episode, where we saw her leave husband-to-be Barry at the altar. The added context really helps give a full picture of the situation, and as she visits the dental clinic to give back the engagement ring it becomes apparent that he wasn't such a catch to begin with. Not only did it take little to no time for him to move on, but he has already remarried with Rachel's best friend Mindy, who was her maid of honor at the wedding. Wow, what a grade-A jerk.

Oh, and there's a boy in the dentist chair who Barry's taking care. He and Rachel had some funny exchanges with each other.

However, while Aniston does perform slightly better she still falters compared to the rest of the cast. Besides a couple of decent deliveries, her comedic timing hasn't quite gotten quite there yet. Just like before though she continues to play the dramatic material well. The conversation she and Ross have at the end as they contemplate over the disappointing directions their lives have taken and they wistfully wonder if true love really exists or there's something more exciting than a thankless café job. Given the info we've been given so far, we're aware whose heart has caught Ross's attention.

Considering the important groundwork lain along with the sharp humor throughout, I'm surprised this episode isn't talked about more fondly.

This episode gets RIGHT into it. We are in the middle of intense space action, and we see Marcus running around for reasons we can't decipher. Then he comes across Isaac, whose eyes start growing red and he sprouts out fangs all of a sudden. It's then revealed this was Marcus' nightmare.

This is an awfully confusing way to open an episode, but it does get explained later on. Then we are met by even more confusion as Isaac sits down beside a table during lunch, and a bunch of crew members immediately get up and leave. One of them comes back shortly after and says that was a little too harsh. She tells him where the resentment comes from, and this is where I realize instantly this is NOT going to be a good episode.

First of all, who the fk is this person? She's thrown at us in a scene with no real introduction. With Talla we were first given an episode where Alara was simply absent, then in the next episode we were introduced to a new lieutenant commander and got to know her a little. Basically the complete opposite of what is done here, where we're aggressively forced to accept a new character who not only has no build-up, but is so quickly unlikable that you already find yourself not wanting to care about who this is.

Secondly, while Charly has her reasons for being angry at Isaac (Her best friend was killed by one of the Kaylons), the way they go about it is so obnoxious and like I said, just throwing that at us right away was entirely the wrong approach.

But it gets worse. Not only does Charly have an axe to grind, but Gordon, for NO reason whatsoever, agrees with her and says he was never happy about Isaac being reinstated! Excuse me? Were those moments of you two palling around after Identity Part II and seeming totally fine about him still working there just pretending? This is so out-of-character for Gordon to hold such resentment towards someone who he knows very well is the only reason they're still alive.

But it gets even WORSE. You know the nightmare Marcus had in the beginning? Turns out the reason for that is because he's had a deep-seated hatred for Isaac ever since that day he found out about his origins and even tells him to his face that he wishes he was dead. He was also the one who sprayed MURDERER in the room where Isaac is working. Once again, was him being absolutely fine with Issac after Identity Part II just fakery? Either these two are extremely skilled at hiding their true emotion, or writer Seth MacFarlane just retconned his own episode. I just don't understand how he could misunderstand the original story so badly, which was brilliantly done and so far my favorite of the series. Marcus isn't one of my most beloved characters or anything, but this takes a giant dump on him in ways I never thought were possible. Once that leap with him was taken there was no point of return.

The hostility of most crew members eventually leads to Isaac taking his own life. This should of course be a dramatic and scary moment, but due to how terrible the plot has been up to this point I'm unable to feel anything.

There's only one aspect I can call remotely positive, and was the sole reason I didn't rate this a 1/10. Claire is conflicted about Isaac too, but unlike the others I mentioned this was already established in the original episode, and her relationship with Isaac has been left in the air since then. Another reason why it works is that she doesn't simply go "Oh, I hate that Isaac, he can burn in hell", instead she acknowledges that it's hard to unite the fact that he kidnapped her kids and almost got them killed, but he also saved them as well as humanity in the process. She gets broken up the most after Isaac's suicide, and the scene where she sits alone in the resturant the two of them had a date in is really well-acted by Penny Johnson Jerald.

Unfortunately this small redeeming factor comes way too late, and the problems I mentioned earlier only return once the crew gets into a new space battle (The circumstances of which are barely explained, almost like the episode itself doesn't care much) and Lamarr has found a way bring Isaac back to life. Ed orders Charly to help out and she refuses, because that's exactly what a loyal bridge commander is supposed to do am I right? In real life this would hopefully get you fired as soon as possible. Only once she has a conversation with Marcus who feels guilty over Isaac's suicide does she reluctantly change her mind and revive him. And even then she has to add "I didn't do it for you" in the most annoying manner possible. Seriously, is there a single moment where she doesn't feel like she has teeth gritting underneath? I hope to God that her presence is diminished severely for the rest of season 3.

And even though Marcus feels guilty and is the one who convinces Charly to revive Isaac, they somehow continue to screw his characterization up. At the end he enters Isaac's "quarters" and I'm waiting for that one single moment that'll redeem him, where he comes forward and forgives the old robot for what he did in the past. Instead, he says nothing and walks away! What the sh/t? What kind of ending is that?! There was one final chance to get Marcus right, and you ruin that at the very last second by making him still hold some sort of resentment despite everything. I could almost feel my brain bleeding when that happened.

Oh, and Gordon is simply neglected. No scene of him forgiving Isaac either. Splendid.

I want to bring up something else as well. I'm glad Claire and Lamarr at least mourn Isaac's passing and evidently really miss him. With that being said, this is also where the topic of suicide is fumbled. Both of them seem to be calling him taking his own life selfish (Especially Lamarr), completely ignoring the fact that it's not about selfishness or selflessness in the first place. Secondly, while you could argue Isaac had his own demons (Whatever demons you'd claim he was having) we saw directly hostile behavior from the other crew members. Especially Charly. So even if you were to try and blame somebody, why don't they ever address that he was made to feel unwelcome and despised by most people working on the ship? The only one who's shown feeling guilty of possibly contributing to a suicide victim's deteriorating mental state is Marcus, besides that it's only treated as Isaac made his own call and that's that. It's such a one-dimensional way of looking at a serious tragedy, and even stranger when you consider the fact that the episode of Family Guy where Brian and Stewie are stuck inside a vault handled the subject with more nuance and understanding.

Then in the last scene where Claire tells Isaac to come forward if something is troubling him feels more like a PSA than a heartfelt message. Probably because before that point they seemed to have no real clue of how to talk about something that serious.

I love Seth, I still think he's a talented writer and excellent performer, but given the serious tone of this episode he should've done more research before deciding to write about something that heavy.

Please tell me this was just a bizarre brain freeze moment and not indicative of the show's future.

Runo is frustrated. He lives with two female roommates (One of which is his girlfriend) and slaves away on his new painting, which he think will be his masterpiece. But the neighbors are loud and the landlord is getting increasingly impatient with the rent. How much more can be take until he snaps?

The Driller Killer is an odd film. The term "artsy slasher" is one I'm sure rarely gets used, yet is perfectly fitting here. It follows a lot of the typical slasher beats, but it also tries to tackle many other subjects such as the music scene of New York, homelessness, art and inaffordable housing to name a few.

Most of it is shown through the perspective of the mentally anguished painter Reno. Abel Ferrara has a fittingly rugged appearance, and delivers the one performance that is consistently worth watching. Although he noticeably struggles with his lines early on in the film, his acting gradually becomes more believable as Reno slowly starts going off the deep end.

Harry Schultz has a funny small part as the arts dealer Dalton Briggs, whose critique is so unfairly savage it makes Comedy Central roasts look like kids' play.

Even though the drilling doesn't start until somewhere in the second half, there's an intense brutality to the killings that makes you feel the visceral shock and sudden terror feel as Reno attacks them with his power drill.

However, there are several mistakes made along the way which prevent me from giving a full recommendation.

The first is the music. It's not that it's bad necessarily (Although it's *awfully* repetitive), but that it takes up much space of the runtime that sometimes it feels like I'm watching parts of a music documentary, with most of the clips being the ones where the band is practicing for their big gig. It grinds everything to an abrupt halt as you're left wondering when we'll cut back to the action. The music does serve a purpose as it's one of the annoyances Reno experiences, but me thinks you could have cut quite a bit of it out and the pacing would've been a lot stronger as a result.

The second major issue is that despite there being so much groundwork laid for Reno to go crazy and start murdering people, the choice of victims and motivation is disappointingly flimsy. Instead of going after any of the people who have actually been bothering him, he chooses a bunch of random homeless people? He was earlier seen trying to draw one of them, which suggested they're not exactly his enemies. It doesn't make much sense, and I felt especially bad for the guy who was offering him a beer and got drilled anyway. It seems like the script is trying to make you sympathize with Reno's struggles and also show you how fked up he can get once he lets go of all restraint, but the structural imbalance makes the character portrait confusing more than anything else.

The acting is hit-and-miss. Ferrara and Schultz (Possibly also Alan Wynroth as the landlord) as I mentioned do well, Carolyn Marz as the girlfriend Carol is okay if not lifting her material to massive heights, while Baybi Day gives a sleepy and dull performance as Carol's friend Pamela. When she discovers the body of Dalton her reaction is non-existent. When Reno jumps out on the other hand she screams. Well, at least she remembered how to start acting in her last few seconds.

It may sound like I'm giving this movie a hard time, but there still is an earnest quality to The Driller Killer which makes it worth at least a one-time watch. You've gotta start *somewhere*, and both Abel Ferrara as well as writer Nicholas St. John would evolve with future films such as King Of New York and The Addiction. For what it's worth, this buffalo shouldn't be shot down as harshly as Dalton would.

For a long time, I didn't get all the hype about this movie. Sure I didn't think it was bad or anything, but I couldn't get into the Gremlin groove as much as everyone else.

The first time I rewatched it that largely remained true, though it had improved by a small margin.

This time, which I intended to serve as the final judge, it improved enough to the point where I can call it a good movie.

Joe Dante has created an imaginative world with memorable characters. The opening scene is immediately atmospheric and sets the stage for how the rest of the film will unfold effectively. Mr. Wing makes such an impression despite not appearing afterwards and only saying a few words. Keye Luke did an excellent job.

Hoyt and Lynn are both very likable parents, with Hoyt being the well-intentioned yet faulty inventor and Lynn being patient and kindhearted, but resourceful when necessary (More on this later). Corey Feldman doesn't quite get as much to do, but is solid for the limited screentime he has. The sequel completely does away with the family aspect, so enjoy these three people while you can.

Mr. Futterman (Easily one of Dick Miller's biggest roles) is your lovable old-timey bigot who hates foreign cars so much you wonder if he's really saying something else. It's implied that he and his wife Sheila get killed later on (Which New Batch reveals was a fake-out)..

The pacing is simultaneously a strength as well as a flaw. On one hand you don't want to get to the chase too quickly, as building up to the main threat slowly usually makes you take it more seriously whenever it arrives. On the other hand, there may be a little bit too much set-up in this case and even though I was enjoying it fine I found myself getting impatient after a while. When the antics finally start though it's still worth it, and I especially enjoyed seeing Mrs. Deagle reduced to a pathetic whining wimp after acting so tough before when threatening to maim Billy's dog.

The gremlins themselves are pretty funny and cool-looking, Gizmo of course being the one who's softer and less abrasive than the others. It's easy to fall into the trap of making cute characters feel like shallow marketing ploys, but he's absolutely lovable and he'll almost makes you wish he was a real pet (Without the horrible side effects naturally).

You know what I said about Lynn being resourceful? The whole sequence of her destroying gremlins in various ways, one being pushing one of them down in a mixer was freaking awesome and made her instantly badass. She still shows a visible fear on her face, but knows this is what she has to do to protect her family.

The romance between Bill and Kate is okay. The chemistry between the actors is good, but there's a noticeable stranglehold on time which makes the emergence of dating feel extremely rushed, especially since Bill asks her out right after they were arguing (Over something pretty dumb, mind you). Kate revealing the backstory of why she hates Christmas is also awkwardly executed. She delives the monologue well, but Bill having having no emotional response whatsoever to what she's saying prevents it from hitting a full home run.

That being said, I still like them together and Phoebe Cates is sweet as sugar which helps too. Her line "While everybody else opens up presents, they're opening up their wrists." made me laugh out loud.

The cops are awful. The scene at the police station is my least favorite in the whole film, because it's one we have seen a MILLION times, whether it's a serious horror movie or a more comedic one. This is one trope that gets worse the further I'm exposed to it. Not only that, but when they finally see evidence of gremlins with one man trying to fight them off, the cowards just drive away not even trying to help at the least! I swear to God, I wish the gremlins would have crashed through the window and simply torn them to pieces.

Judge Reinhold's small part as the sarcastic ass hole is predictably entertaining. One of his more punchable characters, but Reinhold is so naturally funny you still enjoy watching him.

Overall, Gremlins is not the flawless holiday classic it's been touted as, but I have a little more respect for it now than I did before. It does its job of being a dark, amusing horror comedy.

There are a multitude of problems with how the topic of COVID is handled. For example it had already been done by many other shows. Putting an original spin on a tired subject is never easy, as was proven by shows which parodied Donald Trump. It's the same case with COVID. Eventually it becomes difficult to come up with anything new to say about it. But hey, it's Futurama. Surely they if *anybody* would have a clever sci-fi variant on it?

Nope. Besides the virus being renamed Explovid-23 (And COVID-19 has apparently existed for 1000 years, which makes so little sense I don't know where to start) and everyone becoming angry after being infected, what you expect is exactly what you get. Commence the goofy Zoom call, the incorrect mask wearing, the conspiracy theories, the silly anti-vaxxers, the distrust in science, the constant coughing, the q-tip tests... You get the idea. Of course a few of these things would be necessarily to include given the subject matter, but when all you have all the basic tropes and nothing else, there exists no real purpose for this story to exist in the Futurama universe. Even the bitcoin episode from the same season felt less dated than this!

On top of that, the pacing is more sluggish than the slowest slugworms. The Hermes sideplot is especially horrible with this, with every sidequest being taken with no real humor to be found and a poor, uninspired use of Barbados Slim. I could comment on his recasting alone (Which is a new problem with the revival), but even if you look aside that his character has no purpose other than delivering exposition and furiously flirting with LaBarbara. I know that's been a running gag throughout the show, but somehow it was too over-the-top and irritating here. You could've had two jokes dedicated to it, that's it. Otherwise it's gonna start feeling like Bonnie and Joe's toxic marriage in Family Guy.

Wasting characters in general is one of the biggest issues. Wernstrom got very underutilized in the Comedy Central era, so seeing him return should've been a pleasure. But instead he shows up as a red herring, making you think he will play a major part in the plot only to never be seen again after the press conference. What the hell was the point of his appearance??? You can't play such a cruel trick and bring back a fan favorite just to have him do his schtick then fk off for the rest of the episode. They also do this with Nixon. And with Zapp. And with Leela's parents. That last one is particularly weird since they say at the start the new virus stems from the mutants living underground, yet they never come back to it at any point. This was a chance for two characters you don't see very often to get involved, but instead they choose to ignore it as if it never got brought up.

The characterization is not the best. Leela spends the entire thing behaving like a totally different person. Which would've been fine if the season hasn't struggled with writing her already. Leela can be a really cool and interesting character when they put their minds into it, but besides the premiere and Related To Items You've Viewed, I haven't found myself enjoying her a lot lately. Hopefully they move past this snag in her development soon, because I really don't want to see her becoming a blank slate which the writers can just throw stupid jokes on. Which speaking of that is exactly what happens with Amy as well. Making her a conspiracy theorist comes so out-of-left-field and exaggerates her personality from cute ditziness into straight-up moron. I hope they don't bring this side of her up again in the future, otherwise I might have to ask Bender to strangle the writers. Hermes, LaBarbara and Barbados are all bland at best and frustrating at worst. Zapp for the first time in the whole show didn't even make me chuckle.

Bender, bless his soul, is the only one who gave me a chuckle. Unfortunately he doesn't get used here much.

The ending tries to spread some sort of message about science, voodoo, religion or whatever the hell they were going for. It was so badly executed I was left with a dumbfounded look on my face once the credits rolled.

Nuturama is not a lost cause. I liked The Impossible Stream, Children Of A Lesser Bog and I Know What You Did Next Xmas, which even though they weren't perfect were still enjoyable. Please don't give us any more desperate attention hoing like "What if COVID, but it's the fuuuuture". You can do better. *We* deserve better.

Michael and Jan's relationship is in trouble. He found out in the previous episode that she compromised his position at Dunder Mifflin by reporting bad behavior, which left him deeply hurt and betrayed by the woman he's gone to bat for all this time. But he still wants to arrange the dinner party that's been in the works, which can only lead to disastrous results...

A recurring theme in the series is that Jim and Pam often feel sorry for Michael, but feel uncomfortable spending too much personal time with him. Jim thinks he can get out of the situation this time since they're all forced to work overtime, but realizes he made a crucial mistake once Mike tells his boss off and Jim has already said he doesn't have other plans. I love the pure look of defeat on his face. It's left to the audience whether the overtime was a trick or not, but considering Ryan has become a snarky ass hole this season it could be a case of simple luck.

Andy and Angela are also invited, while poor Dwight gets left out. I can't imagine anything more upsetting than your ex and her quickly found new flame getting prioritized over you. It makes me wonder how Dwight doesn't hate Andy more than ever at this point.

Once the dinner party gets started, we are treated to one terrific scene after another. You can tell that despite Jan and Michael's surface-level loving dynamic something isn't quite right between them. There's a subtle passive-aggressiveness to her comments, while Michael seems to be make sure he doesn't step on any carefully placed out lego pieces. Melora Hardin gives her funniest performance of the character in here. The seething frustration and thinly veiled contempt for Michael is so well-played and bitterly comical. It's hardly a mystery what she's referring to when she animatedly describes the soothing effect all the scented candles have on her. Steve Carrell similarly plays her off excellently, making us feel the desperation in trying to uphold an inviting atmosphere while at the same time combatting Jan's annoyance. It's hilariously heartbreaking that he's literally forced to sleep on a tiny separate bed that would fit the size of an infant more than him.

Not only Michael gets targeted either, Pam is rudely accused of sleeping with him at one point. Jan suspecting cheating towards someone who wouldn't have sex with him in a million years is so mindbogglingly ridiculous and shows such unhinged insecurity I'm left nearly as baffled as Pam gets upon hearing it. She and Michael become so afraid of Jan they both worry about the food being poisoned, which is a comically monumental jumping to conclusions, yet the way she has behaved throughout makes it seem almost plausible. ... Well maybe not, but she's not helping her case.

Andy and Angela have a horrible time at the party and don't seem to find any common ground as a couple whatsoever. Bitterly amusing just like everything else.

The tension continues to rise, and reaches its peak when Dwight shows up with a homeless woman he found as a date. You gotta give him cred, he can find the chicks if enough will power is involved! The ironic part is that despite their obvious lack of chemistry and the fact that he only brought her along so he would be let in, it's still a lot less toxic than Michael and Jan's relationship.

The evening hits a tragicomic high when Jan targets two of the things Michael loves most: His Dundee statuettes and his mouse-level plasma TV. His reaction when she throws the stauette at the screen is devastating as much as it's hysterical. I used to have a tiny TV just like him, and it was somehow still bigger than his. But when you have a personal connection to something, and you use it as some form of relief for emotional pain, it's gonna hurt deeply no matter how insignificant it may look to outsiders.

The arguments and sounds of a crash are heard by the neighbors, and the cops are called in. Jan is the guilty party when it comes to the latter, but Mike is so hopelessly nice he takes the rap for her anyway. When you're so undermined by your partner you're willing to be arrested in order not to make things worse, it's time to hit the breaks. Those giant knockers are ruining his life.

No charges are pressed thankfully, and Dwight offers solace (albeit unreciprocated) in offering to let him stay at his farm. While nowhere near the same toxic level, this mirrors Michael being taken for granted by Jan by helping him despite not always getting treated with equal respect. It shows he's the bigger person when he sees his friend is in pain.

Offering a counterbalance to the dour conclusion, Jim and Pam share a romantic moment together reminiscing on the crazy experience they've just been through.

A darkly humorous gem that leaves you concerned over Michael's mental state more than any other episode before. Will the papercuts of Jan's toxicity heal until next week?

Chasing It is sort of deceptively filler. It's gotten criticism for the Tony gambling arc, but this is something that did get set up in the previous season and we also saw more hints of in Remember When. If it had come completely out of nowhere I would understand that point more.

Tony succumbing to the dangerous highs of gambling is also interesting because not only did he beat the sh it out of an old friend back in season 2 who got addicted to gambling, but it makes him even more of a hypocrite to make fun of Christopher regularly over his soberism when he struggles with an addiction himself.

The fight between Tony and Carmela is fantastic! We haven't seen them lose their sh it over each other like this since Whitecaps (Which probably remains the most intense of the bunch), and the acting as well as dialogue deserves the highest amount of praise. The scariest part is that Tony doesn't have justifiable motivation for getting mad at her. He literally won the race, just not as much as he wanted to. Carmela was also right to be sceptical given how much more often he has lost at betting. So to see him flip out at her this badly over something that's 100% his own doing is absolutely bone-chilling and selfish, though Carm is the one who tries to hit him with an object from a distance.

Then we witness him losing one of his closest friends as he very begrudgingly pays back part of the debt very little at a time, going so far as to mock Hesh over his Jewish heritage.

Only once Hesh's wife dies out of the blue does Tony seem to feel remorse and pays him back the entire debt. But the damage is already done...

I enjoy the Vito Jr. Storyline too, which contains one of the all-time funniest lines from Phil ("You look like a Puerto Rican prostitute"). The kid is bratty, but there's a level of tragedy as well since he's simply lashing out over losing his dad as well as being humiliated by others that he was gay. The conclusion with him being forced off to boot camp is incredibly sad and disturbing.

Finally, A. J. tries to salvage the relationship with Blanca by proposing to her during dinner. She accepts it without really thinking it through. And what do you know, in the next scene between them she coldly gives him his clothes and returns the ring as well. That has to be one of the coldest break-ups I've ever seen onscreen. A. J. Might have been over his head hooking up with an older woman with two kids and even preparing for marriage, but that's no reason for her meanspirited and uncaring behavior towards him. This scene alone makes her one of the most unlikable characters in the series.

As an episode with nice understated tension and the compelling display of a delusional and self-destructive Tony, this is one that deserves a bit more credit than it gets.

Barbecue Story:

Tommy is playing with his precious ball until Angelica cruelly kicks it over the fence. Now he and his friends have to try and get it back.

There's something about the way the show mixes the mundane with the craziness that is so compelling. Even if its exaggeration it still feels so real since you can imagine babies really blowing all the possible ordeals up to such an extent. Getting a ball back simply isn't a pain in the ass like it would be for an adult. It feels risky, dangerous and frightening. Tommy's friend warns him not to do it, but he confidently tells them (Giving us the first appearance of his catchphrase) "A baby's gotta do what a baby's gotta do." Then his diaper embarrassingly falls down, but nevertheless his bravado over such a seemingly small task is both amusing and strangely admirable.

After her muted debut in Tommy's First Birthday, Angelica gets to demonstrate her mean streak more clearly when she selfishly snatches Tommy's ball from his hands and then kicks it away as far as possible out of spite when he wants it back. She never shows again after this, but they're doing a solid job slowly building her up as a bratagonist. I think as long as it's still funny and she doesn't just get away with everything Caillou-style I could watch her without cooking with intensifying rage that many fans seem to do over her.

I love how rattled and fed up Chuckie gets as he gets his dead stuck inside a tree trunk. He rants like they've been out in the desert for 50 days and is almost infuriated with Tommy for forcing them to come with him. He really is Milhouse in infant form.

That's nothing though compared to when they come across the guard dog who just so happens to be near where the ball landed. The animation plays up the raging threat so convincingly that it's both hilarious and understandable the babies expect to be ground into meat at any moment. Especially with it fiercely ripping the doghouse off from the ground. Even Tommy for all the bravery he showed earlier doesn't know what to do.

But not to worry, as Spike hears the desperate yells from dear companion and comes to the rescue, getting his head inside a decorative Totem Head in the process, which helps scare the wits out of the pitbull. Once again the animation does a great job at getting the highest possible dramatic tension out of the situation.

The adults' screentime is very limited this time around, but the little that's there works well enough. The fish-eye style of writing just makes you enjoy hanging out with them, even when it's something as simple as Stu singing a silly melody while grilling burgers and Grandpa Pickles getting distracted by a bug while in the midst of an extravagant story.

Waiter, There's a Baby In My Soup:

Tommy comes along to an important dinner meeting where Stu has to convince a client his inventions are worth investing in.

This segment is a strange case. Not because I don't like it, I enjoy it the most out of the two stories. The reason I say that is because we learn something about Tommy's character, but I can't quite decide what it is. At home we learn he has often tried to flush Stu's tie down the toilet. And when Didi fails to find a babysitter he makes a giant ruckus in the kitchen. Tommy is known to be a bit clumsy, yet this is the first time we see him making a mess on purpose rather than it happening accidentally as he's on a quest towards something. It being Tomboy he remains feeling innocuous and playful.

This is demonstrated even further once we're introduced to Stu's client Mr. Mucklehoney. And my God, his design is just... something else. It's ugly, though artistically so. It goes together excellently with his immature and boarish demeanor, pulling pranks on people like he's got an addiction and treating Stu like a joke as he presents all his inventions. And whatever you may so about how he looks, all of his movements are so fluid that he's almost at a higher speed than the rest of the characters. Fascinating to behold.

Now what did I mean earlier that I'm not 100% sure what we learn about Tommy? If you thought he was mischievous before, when Mucklehoney enters the picture he goes all-out. He ties Stu and Muckle's shoelaces together, crawls to the kitchen drops a shítload of chili into the soup as well as hides a bunch of cutlery into a pie. I feel sorry for whichever person is gonna have their teeth destroyed receiving that order. Tommy does still do something accidental though as he tries to reach the spaghetti and falls inside it. So in other words the baby isn't in the soup. Suing the writers for flagrant advertising.

Does this mean Tommy is a person who is easily influenced considering he starts pranking left and right after he meets Mucklehoney, or is this just who he is general and Stu's client simply happened to give him more inspiration? I suppose I'll find out in the upcoming episodes, but the fact that I'm even comtemplating what's being presented reveals how nuanced his characterization is.

Stu is on his last legs with the inventions, pulling out the springy eyes in hopes of convincing Mucklehoney to hire him. It goes awry of course and lands in someone's drinks. The chili soup arrives and Muckle is the unfortunate victim. He reacts violently to the strong taste and also trips over the shoelaces that were tied up earlier, tripping and falling over the table. The duck-esque sounds he makes as he struggles breathing made me laugh hysterically. Michael Bell gives a spectacular comedic performance. When he finally recovers he starts laughing harder than ever, mistakenly thinking Stu set up the whole thing speaking to his fondness of pranks. Giving Stuey a victory after it didn't seem to go all that swimmingly at first makes you feel happy for his sake, proving even a troublemaking Tommy can somehow benefit others.

I got a chuckle out of the closing gag where the waiter stretches out his hand for a tip and Tommy hands him the spaghetti from the bowl he fell in. They show such a range of emotions on the waiter too. First reacting with disgust, then a fairly neutral face removing the spaghetti from his fingers, and finally a slight smile, suddenly finding some amusement in the baby's ultimately well-intended action. The attention to detail is extraordinary.

If you're hungry for something entertaining, whether it be overcooked burgers or soup that will leave you in the emergency room, you'll be doing just dandy with this Rugrats outing.

Tommy is turning 1. Stu and Didi want to throw the best party for him they possibly can, but run into several problems with the arrangements. Tommy himself has a very strange reason for wanting to get his hands on some dog food.

This episode just like the pilot is largely introductory, letting us get to know the characters and their dynamics. You can tell Chuckie hasn't been fully formed yet since his scaredy cat trait isn't very prominent, but he still manages to be an amusing and likable presence. Angelica is pretty firmly shown who she is, even if right now it's more subtle. Her controlling nature comes through pretty well, such as when she calls dibs on Tommy's presents despite it being his birthday, as well as tightly hugging him and Chuckie showcasing an evil smile while Didi takes a snapshot of them, letting us fear for a short blink what she's up to.

We don't get any Angelantics this time though, with her simply hopping onboard Tommy's quest to steal dog food for all of them to eat.

His reason for wanting dog food so badly is pretty funny. It turns out to be something else than disappointment over today's meal. He's somehow been bizarrely convinced that eating it will turn him into an actual dog. And the others turn out to be just as gullible, even mistaking Spike for Tommy successfully transforming when he comes out of the kitchen at a timely moment. You can get away with extreme naivety even more easily when you have characters who barely comprehend how the hell the world works 90% of the time.

They discover to their chagrin that the dog food has already been eaten by Spike. Until T. Looks up and sees a can left standing on the top of a shelf. Their attempts to get it down is reminiscent of the rollicking catastrophic escalation of events shown in White Thing. And it goes even further since you now have more babies involved. Phil and Lil's cockiness as Chuckie tries to steer his friend down with a drone makes me chuckle as they are shown to be just as clueless and incompetent themselves. I'm almost surprised Angelica didn't fly into a fit of rage when the machine knocks her over and she's covered with flour. The whole thing becomes a gloriously colossal mess.

The adults' antics are quieter, but that's not say there isn't tension cooking underneath. Didi is feeling stressed over the party not turning out how she wanted, and Stu starts quarreling with his brother. I love the tragicomic way the conflict between them is incorporated. A puppet show was ordered to be performed, but the delivery men only give them the supplies without the puppeteers. So Stu and Drew come up with something themselves, Little Red Riding Hood. Except Drew can't remember the lines. Him forgetting the most simplest dialogue and coming up with such generic replacements such as "I know" and "Yes" when the wolf is asked about her weird facial features is hysterical, as if them having a really long argument still talking through puppets. Grandpa Pickles stepping in trying to break up the fight through the Woodsman is just the icing on the cake.

Boris and Minka also have an amusing silly argument where they argue about something so petty as the kind of cake is being served.

While the ruckus is going, the babies finally have gotten their previous dog food and are waiting for the changes to kick in. They don't notice anything at first, but then seemingly show "symptoms" and get so caught up in their imagination they start crawling around on the floor, barking and howling. The adults stop whatever they are doing, observing with fascinated eyes at what their kids' play activities. Stu gathers the whole gang together to take a picture. There is something so wholesome about this ending. All the hurt and pointless squabble are washed away temporarily thanks to the adorable innocence from a couple of children being into their own adventure. It feels so real and honest, even creating a sense of nostalgia.

The voice acting is superb from start to finish. Every new actor already sounds confident in their performances (No first episode shakiness whatsoever), and the ones we've heard before don't miss a beat either. There is one major change to discuss. Tommy's voice actor Tami Holbrook is replaced with E. G. Daily. And while I was happy with Tami's interpretation, the casting of Daily is simply perfect. She adds more of a baby quality to the voice, further highlighting the curiosity and wonder of the character.

Michael Bell and Melanie Chartoff (voicing Drew and Didi as well) are also a joy to watch as the other grandparents.

The music once again is highly memorable. In particular I love the Jewish jingle that plays whenever Boris and Minka appear. There's something classic and old-timey about the use of a slow accordion in it.

A lot of promise to be gathered from this premiere.

Tommy sees something big and mysterious one day. What could it possibly be? The audience knows it's a toilet, but Tommy doesn't, and that's where the excitement lies.

This little short is incredibly memorable and exciting for being just 6 minutes. The limited runtime means we don't get a good look at all the characters, and most of them haven't even shown up yet. That's not a flaw however, as Tommy's babylike curiosity and enthusiasm for finding out what that thing in the bathroom is provides enough entertainment. Phil and Dil are the only other infants that appear, but don't get that much to do besides question Tommy when he tries to tell them about something incredible he saw.

In fact I weirdly enough wouldn't say that the dialogue is the biggest strength. It's certainly fine, just not there for much there than set up the basic plot elements and introduce us a little to the characters. We still get a solid sense of how most of them are like though, such as the twins being argumentative and Grandpa Pickles being a little aloof. The only possible exceptions are Stu and Didi, who we simply know loves their kids.

The voice acting is pretty good from all fronts. Even though Tami Holbrook wouldn't voice Tommy in the official series I think she gets the essence of the part down right, and wouldn't have minded if she was picked as the voice instead of Daily. The rest of the cast are the same, and I especially enjoy David Doyle as Tommy's grandpa. Even though his dialogue is near-intelligable (Perhaps because of like I mentioned the minimal focus on dialogue-based humor) he's nevertheless a very colorful presence.

All right, let's talk about the main reason for all my enjoyment: the animation. My God, every frame is jampacked with personality and life, with practically every second being freeze-frame worthy. Both the facial expressions (That goes not only for the regulars, but even the TV screen at the end) and the camera angles work together to take a deceptively plain premise and make it as crazy and wacky as possible. We even get a hilariously unnecessary but cool shot inside Tommy's mouth, his tongue almost looking like it belongs to a lizard. This is a weird comparison to make, but the atmosphere was almost that of an anime at times. Just something about the oddness of the animation as well, perspectives as well as the awesome score made it come off as somewhat alien and otherwordly. And maybe that's kind of the point.

I just realized that the story is the one thing I've forgotten to talk about. Well, it's thin pretty much by design. Tommy sees the toilet, some mishaps occur as he approaches it late it night, then he leaves the adults confused and pissed off seeing the bathroom in a mess afterwards. The whole Rube Goldberg-esque sequence as Tommy almost stumbles into the toilet, gets himself mummified with toilet paper and soap gets into his mouth is so fantastically over-the-top that it's perfect. Then at the ending you have him doing this really cute dance together with the dog Spike as they imitate the moves on TV.

It's not hard to see why the executives were fascinated by this "great white thing" and picked the show up for a full season order.

Would you like to watch a movie where characters are either as racist as humanly possible or as stupid as humanly possible, all while trying to create a misguided social commentary with less sublety than a clown throwing a pie in his own face?

You've come to the right place.

Let's start with the story, which is pretty simple. Ezra is doing a podcast every week with his friend Mo, which is centered around black culture. He bumps into a woman while stepping into the wrong car called Amira. They start clicking with each other and fall in love, but the Jewish ancestry on Ezra's side and Muslim ancestry on Amira's risks causing a cultural collision between their families.

Look, I am all for a wellmade and funny social commentary on racial relations. And with Eddie Murphy thrown into the mix it couldn't be anything less than at least watchable, could it?

Wrong.

Right off the bat, the characters are complete garbage. Ezra's entire schtick seems to be an annoying hipster who dresses in clothes to look even more like he's "with it". If you're expecting the usual raunchy, yet endearing qualities Jonah Hill is so good at pulling off, they are nowhere to be found. He is basically playing a cliché and nothing else.

And that's the case with all of them. Mo is the sassy best friend, Shelley always messes up trying to impress black people, Akbar thinks every white person is out to get him, Fatima is just the supportive wife, Amira is either there to look uncomfortable or be a boring generic love interest, and Arnold... well, he is just an idiot who says whatever comes to mind. Not once do these characters ever step out of their one-note characterizations and show any nuance to their personalities. So in the end you are left with a painfully dull and annoying bunch of people who the script is trying as hard as possible to make you find interesting or be entertained by, but you're not.

This shines through in the dialogue, which is forced and almost robotic in the way it's written. Are we supposed to believe anyone actually talks like this? You even have characters popping up randomly just to comment on someone's skin color. No wonder Ezra feels so uncomfortable throughout the movie, he can barely step out of the door without a racist comment getting hurled at him! What kind of worldview are we really promoting here? Is civilization so doomed that no matter what we can never try and reach some sort of mutual understanding with each other? What a depressing and cynical message.

The worst scene in the movie is where Ezra is mad at Akbar for instigating conflict during dinner. Instead of seeing where he's coming from, his girlfriend Amira *immediately* accuses him of stereotyping her father as an angry black man. What the hell? You literally saw for yourself how hostile Akbar's attitude was. Her attempting to "call" Ezra out for using a racist stereotype makes no sense since he was simply describing what actually happened.

But let's look at the other side of the coin. Shelley tries throughout to seem as progressive and openminded as she can, to the point where she goes too far and basically treats Amira more like a stone idol than an actual person. That's a fine satirical idea, except for the fact that they hammer home this point so much that it's obnoxious more than funny, and once again uses dialogue that doesn't sound like it comes from a real person. When Get Out did the same kind of humor it sounded realistic since there was actual comedic timing and didn't forcibly inject it into every single scene.

While the characters are irredeemable however, the acting is thankfully passable. No doubt that Eddie Murphy playing his character completely straight was a huge mistake since this desperately could have used some of his classic energy, but given that his character is *supposed* to be stoic and serious he still did a competent job. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives the best performance, clearly trying her hardest even though the material she gets is less than satisfactory. David Duchovny is good as usual. Lauren London is decent. Jonah Hill I have mixed feelings on. He has no chemistry with London in the slightest, but whenever he has scenes with Murphy he seems to come off a bit better.

The soundtrack is both overbearing and overused. There are scene transitions with mediocre rap songs used ad nauseum, to the point where I had to change the volume on my TV over and over again since it's always 3 times higher than the dialogue. Please learn how to properly mix the audio!

The only one who's coming to dinner are Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill themselves. I hope you enjoy your meal.

Sander meets a woman by the name of Ida when exiting a theater. They quickly fall in love and eventually move in together. But when Ida suddenly disappears Sander finds himself interrogated by her father.

This is a movie that's mainly a drama with thriller as more of a backdrop. The main focus is on Sander and Ida's relationship, and how it gradually falls to pieces. The way that it's written is different from many other films, in that we're never really sure of how much they feel for each other. Is this really love, or just a desperate search for happiness?

The ambivalence towards them as a couple is wellhanded throughout, as we get to witness how they may do each other more harm than good staying together. Sander is kind of an emotional black hole, where he might seem affectionate and caring but kinda treats Ida as his possession (exemplified by the scene where he in a bragging manner shows off nude photos of her to friends). His confession that he sometimes does nothing but stare at her for hours as she's listening to music is creepy more than it is cute. While Ida is suffering from some form of depression as she cuts off the entirety of her and Sander's own social life.

Jonas Holst Schmidt and Angela Bundalovic do good jobs at portraying these mysterious characters, keeping the audience on edge as we are waiting for the dagger that puts the final blow on their relationship. Zlatko Buric does an excellent job as the anguished father Porath as well, drawing attention to every pause and moment of silence as he interrogates Sander. He has proven to be a real force in acting, and I'm sorry I didn't discover him until just last year. Vilmer Trier Brøgger as Ida's brother Viktor doesn't have as much to do, but is solid for the material he gets.

Be prepared however that this is not a thriller meant to make you sweat or gnaw at your fingernails. The shock near the end is melancholy rather than cerebral in nature, which fits the melancholy tone of the story. There is also no closure, as Ida's father will never find out what truly happened to his daughter. Is that unsatisfying on some level? Absolutely. We want nothing more than for Porath to dig his claws into Sander for being the son of a bítch who murdered Ida. But it adds a depressing realism to the story, that some people are perfectly capable of getting away with horrific actions if the victim didn't have anyone they were close with.

In both Sander and Ida's case however, their issues ran much deeper than one single person could've solved. They didn't help each other from drowning. They drowned together instead.

As for minor flaws, the plot can feel a bit slow at times, where it's marinating for a while before picking up some steam again. And although I'm satisfied enough with what we got, Sander wasn't quite as well-developed as Ida. Why did he fall in love with her so quickly and passionately, to the point where he passively lets her ruin his social life? The latter part in particular is a bit unclear to me.

Eskil Vogt continues to prove himself as an interesting voice in modern cinema. If you're a fan of slowburn thrillers or his work in general, you'll want to visit Copenhagen while it still doesn't exist.

Good God that was cheesy.

Once again, these shorts continue to have no real story to speak of whatsoever. The Bocellis just randomly happen to be in the Simpsons' house, they start singing, Bart continunously tries to open the presents too early, we're shown a montage of other characters celebrating Christmas.

Seriously, where *did* the Bocelli family come from? How did they manage to stay hidden in the living room without being noticed by anyone else than Homer? It doesn't make any sense.

And as usual, nothing is funny. I might not be as viscerally annoyed as during Plusaversary or When Lisa Met Billie, but that doesn't mean the shorts have suddenly gotten good. At the end of the day this is still a lazily made, celebrity pandering ad that almost verges on scamming customers on their money (Those subscribed to the service would want actual Simpsons content, not just commercials masquerading as it).

The jokes in the montages were as lazy as they could come. Reused Wiggum cooking the turkey on the electric chair, reused Ralph picking up an egg from a bottomless Easter basket and what a surprise, Sideshow Bob gets a rake. Jesus guys, the least you could have done is give us the classic gruntle if you're gonna beat that gag to the ground again.

Feliz Navidud.

Before I get into the plot, I want to make a brief mention of the beginning. After Larry David left the series, the standup routines we see at the start of every episodes were done away with since Jerry Seinfeld couldn't take on so much work at once. So to see the finale open with a classic routine, the subject this time being the importance of sitting, standing or lying down for an important conversation was very nice to see. I remembered then how much I had missed them.

Jerry and George get the big break they've always waited for: Their show Jerry is given a second chance and picked up by NBC! This also means they'll have to move to California, but decide to take their friends Kramer and Elaine on a fun trip to France first. But is this seemingly perfect dream just an illusion?

I dreaded watching the final episode of Seinfeld. Not because of its divisiveness, but simply because it felt sad having to say goodbye to all these characters. I suppose that's the case with all great TV shows, but with some it's especially hard. Thankfully, for the most part they put in a good effort at delivering a memorable final outing to finish on.

The dialogue-driven witty humor is present as usual. Jerry having to reel George in because he can't help his whiny nitpicking provides some funny moments.

When they are at the meeting with NBC he for some reason corrects the executives on calling it a watercooler show since coffee machines are more popular now. He also objects to the idea of Jerry and Elaine becoming a couple since the show does not rely on relationship humor. Ironically this is kind of inaccurate since Seinfeld does relationship stories all the time, just not really in a serialized sense.

But what amuses me the most is that he even has to poke holes at the choice of fruit being offered, highly exaggerating how spiky pineapples are.

Luckily for both of them, his comments are not enough to deter the executives from picking up the series, and they are fully set on the future containing greener pastures.

Newman tries and fails to make Jerry include him on the trip since he has a sick cousin there. Whether he's telling the truth or just making it up to get out of the postal working tedium for a while is left unknown.

But one thing is for sure, when you piss off Newie he is not gonna take it lightly. We get a hilariously overdramatic yet also slightly ominous rant where he promises the four of them are gonna pay dearly for what they have just done.

In hindsight this is kinda interesting since he and Kramer are the only two to have some kind of a friendship. But his deep hatred of Jerry is so strong it must affect his opinion on the group as a whole.

Once the foursome get on the plane it's smooth flying. Of course though George can never be satisfied and complains about how generic and barren the inside of the private jet looks. You gotta love how this guy can find a negative in literally everything, no matter how good it is. Kramer still has water left in his ear from his recent beach visit and keeps shaking the plane so wildly it starts going down.

This results in a parodically sinister suggestion that this is how the story will end. They are so sure they will die all sorts of secrets come out. George cheated on the masturbating contest and Elaine almost tells Jerry she still loves him. It actually makes sense George would have cheated in the contest since we so rarely ever see him win anything.

To everyone's relief the plane lands safely and they take some time off to eat in Massachussets. Shook up by the scary plane trip, they settle on going back home in a normal flight.

Before they have a chance to do so however they witness an overweight guy getting mugged. Instead of intervening they stand by cracking jokes, particularly at how husky the man getting robbed is. This is some of the most heartless the gang has ever been, but the callousness makes it ridiculously funny. I can't think of many other characters who would be witnesses to a mugging and essentially treat it like a funny clip on America's Funniest Home Videos. To their surprise a police officer comes forward and arrests them for this due to a new Good Samaritan Law that has been passed in the state.

All hopes and dreams dashed, they are forced to enter a trial defending, you guessed it, the freedom of doing nothing. And to make it more entertaining we get the appearance of one of my favorite recurring characters Jackie Chiles. He has this quick and confident delivery to his lines that makes his scenes such a joy to watch. This would be everybody's dream lawyer if he existed in real life. On top of that a lot of the most iconic characters (As well as a few less-famous ones) return to testify and prove to the world just how despicable the four friends are. I had most fun seeing The Soup Nazi and Bubble Boy, since their personalities are so off-the-wall they are ingrained into your mind. Babu Bhatt is worth mentioning as well, though I feel kind of bad for Jerry in this case since he had the best of intentions in both encounters, and it's more bad luck that Babu's life went downhill the way it did.

We do get clips from past episodes during the trial, but they are relevant to the story and not as egregriously inserted as The Chronicle. It does slow things down a little, though not to detrimental levels.

What I have to criticize more though is that some of these testimonies were directly irrelevant to what the trial is about. George's ex bringing up her disgust over the contest would be grounds for an obscenity trial, and even then it wouldn't hold water anyway since that was a private thing which didn't involve anyone else. The same thing goes for Elaine's nipple being exposed in a Christmas photo. It makes the witnesses look more like petty jerks than the group itself.

During the trial Jerry asks Elaine what she was about to say on the plane before getting interrupted. Elaine lies and says she was telling him how much she loves United Airlines. Although considering how terrible their private jet experience was, who knows?

To nobody's surprise whatsoever, they lose the trial. The sentence for all four is one year. Before they are sent off into the slammer however we get one more scene in the holding cell. Elaine, having made "wrong" phone calls to her sick friend Jill all day (Because it wouldn't be Seinfeld if not for trying to follow horribly rigid social rules, such as not calling while you're outside), gets the idea of calling from inside prison. Since you can only make one phone call that would mean she preserves time just so Jill can feel better. And Jerry starts nitpicking the way a button on George's shirt is placed. George points out they must've had this conversation before, which they did in the first episode. It's a nice little bookend to close out the series.

We also get a post-credit scene where we are treated to another standup monologue. Jerry makes some prison-related jokes, which is greeted by hostility from some of the inmates. This only fuels him even further, until he's forcibly taken offstage. It kinda lessens the depressing nature of the previous few minutes, and leaves the audience some final laughs before closing down the curtain.

At the end of the day, is this one of the best episodes or the perfect way to close out the series? Maybe not, but I think it's appropriate to not go with a lovey-dovey happy ending that brings out the waterworks or leaves you smiling at how everything turned out all right in the end. Instead it's sarcastically dark and kind of a downer.

Despite how selfish and egotistic these characters are, we still love them with all our hearts for how much fun they've brought us over the years, complimented by the amazing performances and timelessly sharp writing.

It's so easy then to hope that they walk off into the sunset. Hell, I was totally happy for Jerry and George when their show got picked up by the network. But that's simply not the fate they were destined to have, and it wouldn't have been Seinfeld if everything worked out like a charm.

But hey. Like Jerry said, a year is not that bad. They'll be out and back at it again. Doing absolutely nothing of significance whatsoever.

Caligula was known for being a particularly cruel emperor during the Roman Empire. He was unpredictable and would subject people to unusually sadistic punishment whenever he so pleased. We like to think of those times as being far behind us, that something like that could never occur in modern times.

This movie shows that the spirit of Caligula living on in other ways. All throughout there is a bleak and pessimistic tone. All of the victims have no way of escaping (and those who try get captured or shot right away), the rules constantly change and contradict themselves no matter how much they try to comply, and at the end if the day you are just a puppet. Simply there to abide and subject yourself to these captors' sadistic desires.

We see only brief glimpses of these teenage captives sharing a smile or two, and finding a little comfort in each other. In one scene two of them forced into a marriage, having to showcase their "wedding night" in front of a crowd try to enjoy it the best they can. But since even a little bit of genuine intimacy is forbidden, they get interrupted and violated. That small bit of free will, however insignificant, taken away once again.

As the story progresses the punishments only get worse and worse in nature. The girl being reminded of her mother's death and instead of having people console her only getting humiliated more by having to eat someone's shít is the most heartbreaking and disturbing scene in the entire film. It's actually less gross than the dinner scene later on where everybody gets served the same kind of meal, but the sheer nonchalance and downright pleasure the man get from making this girl's grief worse demonstrates the total lack of humanity this place shows. How can you soften a heart that gets off on people crying their absolute guts out?

Throughout we also have Signora Vaccari telling erotic stories. Though to call them erotic is almost insulting to actual eroticism, since most of them are either weird, gross, creepy or all three. Of all the leaders she is the least involved in the rituals themselves, but it's evident she gets a sick pleasure out of them as well, and sometimes even inspires the others to come up with new ones. We get a little bit of backstory from her, which only serves to make her character more unsettling. Her mother is the only one who seemed to show some concern for her wellbeing, which Vaccari responded to by brutally murdering her. If that doesn't tell you what a cold heart this woman is, I don't know what will.

The final punishments we get to see are torture-related. Tongues getting cut off, parts of the body getting burned, someone having one of their eyes gouged out... all while being subjected to more sexual humiliation at the same time.

There is a political undercurrent underneath all the shocking content, with dialogue touching on philosophical ideas of fascism and anarchy. I've got to admit some of the message might have gone over my head, but given the director's constant struggle with authorities and the horrible fate he suffered after the movie was finished, I get the feeling all glimmer of hope he had for a happier world had all but vanished. Cruelty is rewarded, and the victims' screams become muffled as their voices are never heard. One of the captors asks the other if he doesn't feel any empathy for the homeless or poor who barely have enough money or resources to get by. His answer? That it doesn't matter what they're going through as long as he can enjoy his own lot in life.

By the end, there are no emerging heroes, no victory, no defeat and no remaining hope. Surprisingly however the last scene is a quieter and less harrowing moment. Two boys are standing guard by a window. One of them puts on some music. They put down their weapons on the floor and start dancing. Despite all the pain and misery they've been through, they are suddenly present in the moment. Suddenly at peace, as if they've been cleansed of all the trauma and worrying. That dance is probably the last bit of happiness they will share.

Ever.

Based on a recurring series of tweets, The Prince centers around Prince George, the youngest child in the royal family. He gets all the service and attention he needs, but somehow it's never enough.

Yeah, uh... I don't know how to sum it up better than that. This show is a colossal disaster on every single level. First off, the premise itself. The tweets that the series is based on are not even funny. Most of them are kinda stupid in fact.

So to then take such a strange idea and sell it to a network doesn't come off as very bright. I'm actually surprised they even approved of it to begin with given that there wasn't much potential to gain from that.

Another problem is the humor. Not a single, and I mean not a SINGLE joke ever lands. Every joke seems to consist of either people yelling at each other, someone randomly swearing, a complete non-sequitur that doesn't relate to anything ("Demi Lovato is non-binary. Huh. Good for them.") or we have the worst gag of all, George bullying his butler Owen. More on that later.

All right, there is one joke that actually gave me a chuckle. But one small bit working and so many others failing is far from a glowing recommendation.

Then we have the godawful animation. This is one of the ugliest shows I've seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating when I say this shìt looks worse than Allen Gregory! Nearly every single character design has something off about them, and some like Prince Philip and Camilla are downright grotesque.

There is something very offputting about the eyes as well, like they're staring into space or something. A lot of the head proportions also look like a crazy mix between GoAnimate character sprites and Bobblehead dolls.

The voice acting is okay, with one glaring exception: Gary Janetti. All the time he's doing a measly Stewie impression, down to the tonal inflections and everything. But due to the character and the performance as well lacking all comedic timing and charm, it becomes grating to listen to very, very quickly.

Jim Cummings is easily the best out of the bunch, even if he gets thankless material to work with. He does at least deliver the only scene with any substance, which is when he tells the story of how he met his wife, and how lonely he feels after her absence. But that once in a while, he thinks back on those old times and feel happy for just a small moment. It definitely came out of nowhere, and Janetti's penchant for injecting heart into his stories shows there.

Too bad that right after that we are back to the terrible jokes and directionless plots.

As bad as the earlier flaws I mentioned are, the by far biggest sin are the characters. Oh my God. There is nary a single likable soul here. You don't care about George since all he does is act like an irritating spoiled brat who always complains and is extremely obsessed with social media for some reason. I can't even tell you how many times he namedrops "Kelly Ripa", as if it's supposed to get funnier every time.

And his narcissistic tendencies show at their very worst when it comes to his interactions with Owen. No matter how nice, complimentary and helpful this poor butler is, all he gets are mean cracks about himself, his dead wife, his life, even the quality of his services. Except how can he properly provide you any service if you just keep changing your mind every time he does something for you! It's so frustrating and painful to watch.

What Gary Janetti doesn't seem to understand is that even for characters with a lot of flaws you still need to take them down a peg once in a while, especially if it's your protagonist. Otherwise you're watching an ass-hole getting away with acting vindictive towards everyone just for the sake of it, begging for some kind of karma and justice to happen.

But it never does. Why should he be punished? He's the prince! Watching him treat the only sympathetic character in the show like he's worth less than an animal simply isn't fun, and only gets on my nerves more for every time it occurs.

Other than George and Owen, the other characters are just... there. The Queen does nothing but swear every other sentence and acts like she's on Jersey Shore. Prince Philip is just a pathetic old man who makes weird noises and looks like he's on the brink of death. George is a spineless mama's boy. Camilla never talks, and gets occasional bits where she acts like or gets compared to a horse (Yep, the kindergarten-style jokes about Camilla from the tweets are still present here). And all the other couples are so boring and uninteresting I couldn't possibly give less of a shìt about them. Only thing that stands out is that Prince Williams looks more like Putin. Olivia is always on the phone, then she turns out to be a Russian spy. Somehow though even the spy stuff manages to be ridiculously dull.

I can go on and on naming off the boring characters, but I just don't have the energy. If they're not even interesting enough to keep my attention, I'm not gonna give them the luxury of being remembered any further.

There is a feeble attempt at a serial arc throughout the season, which is rendered pointless in the end since it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be followed up on.

The theme song is solid, I suppose. But that's a good theme song if it's not leading up to something worthy of it?

Overall, if you are curious about whether this show is as bad as people say I can save you time right now and say this: YES. It really is as bad as its reputation suggests. In terms of adult cartoons you can't really go that much lower. Hell, it's barely even adult to begin with. Most of the innuendo is pretty tame, and it's not really that violent either. The swearing is the only reason it's considered "adult" at all. Instead of trying too hard to offend you, it's trying too hard to be hip and trendy. And in all honesty, that might be the worst thing a show could ever do.

Following up the events from Booze Cruise, Michael starts unsubtly teasing Jim in public about his crush on Pam. Jim implores him not to spread the secret around, but how do you keep the worst secret-keeper in the world at bay?

So far this is probably the hardest episode of the show I've sat through. But that's not to say it isn't funny. Michael's feeble attempts to become best friends with Jim provide a lot of amusement. The scene where they are having lunch at Hooters is a particular standout. Jim is still a bit uncomfortable around Michael, but it's still kind of a nice moment between them.

Dwight gets some good moments as usual. Seeing Rainn Wilson having to deliver the tongue twister "Otherwise, it's just malfeasance for malfeasance's sake." got a huge laugh out of me. The fact that Dwight stumbles a bit trying to say it only makes it funnier.

Despite how hard it is for Mike to keep a secret, he's still very guarded when it comes to Jim. His pure annoyance at Stanley trying to get a soda out of the machine when he wants to be alone with Jim has such a small, but perfect payoff. You want your soda? Go ahead. Here's a brand you will hate.

When Michael clumsily spills the beans in front of the other coworkers is when the seat squirming commences. Everybody starts chattering about the not-quite-lovebirds like a bunch of school kids, which means Jim has to tell Pam as soon as possible, or the situation will be made even more embarrassing by her finding it out from somewhere else. I had to pause this scene twice when I watched it since I was expecting the absolute worst. Thankfully it doesn't go as poorly as you might expect. But there's a catch: Jim constructs a white lie revealing his crush on her by claiming it was years ago and he now doesn't feel that way anymore.

You feel a little annoyed at Jim for not being totally honest, but it's understandable why he isn't. I once revealed a crush I had to a girl who was already in a relationship, and it went far worse than we see here. Of course though it wouldn't be The Office if things didn't escalate further, so when Michael unnecessarily starts apologizing to Pam he reveals the info Jim kept hidden from her. She reacts in a confused fashion and Michael retracts what he said, but it's obvious that she takes what he said seriously. So now there's no telling what will happen next...

However, as awkward as this episode may be it's still very well-written. The story is one of the season's most memorable ones, and Michael's clingy nature is starting to take on such extremes that you're just begging for the man to get some help. The saddest part is that Jim probably the closest thing he has to making a friend, and even he mostly hangs out with him out of pity.

Due to a rather bizarre morning routine gone wrong, Michael accidentally burns his foot on the George Foreman grill. Dwight immediately rushes to rescue him as soon as he hears about it, but gets injured himself when he crashes the car into a pole.

This episode is a glorious display of how far Michael will go to make sure the attention is on him and nobody else. Most people who injure themselves feel a bit embarrassed over it, and will usually try not to make a big deal out of the whole thing. Not this guy. He makes such a theatrical showcase of this unfortunate, but on the whole survivable injury that you'd think he's had his legs blown off. I can't even count the amount of times he keeps yelling after Pam and Ryan to come and help him, as if they are his permanent personal assistants. Ryan's discomfort with the whole situation in particular really cracks me up.

Of course once confronted by people in worse conditions he still manages to act selfish, if not even more so. Dwight he pretty much ignores, despite his head injury being so severe it affects his entire personality. And let's not even talk about when he brings in Billy, a wheelchair-bound guy for "awareness". Due to being disabled for most of his life, he has a fairly easy-going and positive approach towards his handicap, even cracking a little joke about it which Michael for some reason takes objection with.

And when asked about how doing everyday things in a wheelchair is like, Michael desperately tries to make it look like his life is nothing but a constant barrage of misery. This subconsciously reveals that he's trying to justify his extreme overreaction and attention-whoring over his own burnt foot, not genuinely wanting to bring awareness about disability.

I love the sequence of him breaking down disabled heroes so much. Not only are several of these movie characters, and AIDS not a disability, but it's not even the correct movie character in one of the examples. This confusing attempt at inspiring his co-workers had me crippling over with laughter (Pun maybe intended).

Dwight also gets a lot of funny moments as his head injury makes him act more approachable and friendler than usual, especially towards Pam. In my opinion Dwight is actually a sweetheart deep down, but he's rarely this upfront and lovey-dovey about it. Except for with Michael, sometimes.

If I thought it all couldn't get any more perfect, we have Michael in a final act of selfishness trying to stick his foot in under the CAT scan at the same time as Dwight is going through it. What makes it even better is that his foot has already healed at this point, so it's just another way for him to try and be noticed.

We start off right in the middle of a battle. One of the men seem a little distracted, thinking about his girl back at home. This man is the American colonel John Wynter, who's engaged to Valerie, but was forced to leave for battle. Then we cut to another man, Brad Parker. As it turns out he has a connection with Val as well, having an affair with her while John is away. Who will be able to keep Valerie's heart in their hand at the end?

This movie has gotten some flack due to not really having much to do with D-Day, despite what the title suggests. However, since I had read up on this beforehand I was willing to give the movie a shot just as a romance drama instead. How well does it work?

To start with the positives, Dana Wynter has a delightful innocence to her that makes her very charming. Robert Taylor is all right. Not a groundbreaking performance, but he and Wynter have a solid chemistry together.

My favorite scenes however involve Col. Alexander Timmer. He's a fascinating blend between bravado and a sense of underlying anxiety, trying to put on a hard, cocky surface while having to deal with sheer horror every time he's out on the battlefield. It's hinted that he might be an alcoholic since he always mixes vodka in with his coffee. The banter between him and Brad is enjoyable, and although his exit from the film is rather underwhelming I still got to develop a good deal of empathy for this guy.

John Williams as Val's father Russell doesn't have much screentime, and his development is told more than it's shown, but he has a solid presence with the little material he gets.

The tone is generally pleasant and light despite the background of a brutal war, with a romance that doesn't seem to contain much conflict. And that's where the problems start.

While this makes for an easy watch the story really would have benefited from some higher stakes. Brad and Valerie are both married, yet from how little they fret about the nature of their relationship you never feel any tension through most of it. Dana seems completely enamored with John at the beginning, yet later on she says she's just with John to make him feel secure, suggesting she doesn't love him deep down. This doesn't make much sense. If we had been shown earlier that the relationship between them is flawed this would've been easier to buy into.

What's worse is that Brad is married himself, yet we never see his wife at all. The only thing we learn is that she becomes aware at some point he's cheating on her. I feel like they made his wife a shadow figure so he wouldn't come off as unlikable, but it also makes his character more shallow.

When John eventually returns home you think things are finally gonna get dramatic as he finds out about Val cheating on him, but the filmmaker seems unwilling to focus on his feelings too much as we only get a mildly shocked expression on his face, even becoming friends with Brad by the end.

These nagging issues take away from the emotional impact when Valerie makes her choice to stay with John instead of Brad. It's a shame since Wynter does a great job at depicting her inner torment having to make such a difficult decision. It highlights how much more heartbreaking this could've been if the story would've had a bit more depth throughout.

Overall, I end up having mixed feelings about this movie. If your standards are not too high and you just want a good ol' cheesy romance this might do the trick, and for the most part I can still say I had a decent time watching this. Still, it's hard not to think about the opportunities missed.

How do we stop hating ourselves?

That's the big question this episode poses. Because of all the mistakes he's made and relationships that have been ruined, BoJack is now afraid to make even the tiniest decision that can possibly get misjudged or criticized. And a lot of the time, it's not even what he might be told in person that scares him the most. Rather, it's what people *wouldn't* tell him. They'd talk behind his back, think about how untrustworthy and worthless he is. And this in turn makes BoJack think that he's worthless himself.

But we can never predict the exact outcome of something. We're not mindreaders or psychics. A lot of life is devoted to guessing, which can gave a lot of us severe anxiety since we don't know which decision will be the right one every time.

I think about and relate to BoJack's thoughts in here so much it's creepy. I wish I *didn't* relate to them, but I can't deny I do. By addressing the subject of self-hatred so frankly however (The drawings throughout are wonderful), we can hopefully reach a healing process inside ourselves.

Yes, sometimes the worst does happen. And it sucks. There is no way you can ever reverse what you did either.

So how do I stop feeling like a stupid piece of shít?

You're not provided with any answers, but it's a beautiful piece of psychological art.

Sophia is feeling very ill lately. She's having chest pains. Blanche decides to call her doctor, but Dr. Harris has gotten stuck since trees are blocking the way after a storm.

Like any Golden Girls episode, this one contains a lot of sharp and witty dialogue between the girls. Sophia has always been my favorite of the four, and she gets some of the funniest material of the season despite the dark subject matter. In a way it's kind of inspiring. She's lying there terrified not knowing what is gonna happen, and still manages to have a sense of humor about the situation.

The writing also deserves credit for this. Sophia gets a really sweet little moment where she tells her daughter Dorothy that she was always her favorite. This is extremely significant since these two bicker with each other like hens most times we see them interact. Don't get me wrong, the love between them is always understood. It's not a seethingly toxic relationship. But hearing it in this context with her going so far as to say she's her favorite warms my heart.

You realize even more how much importance Dorothy has played in her life when she almost dreamily says she will meet her husband for the first time in thirty years. In classic Sophia fashion though she follows that up with wanting her hair to look good when they meet.

Rose and Blanche start to reflect on death themselves. Blanche has a very funny line when she talks about her dream funeral, which involves Arlington Cemetery because of all the men. When Rose points out that they are dead she quips back "So are the men I date!".

Rose recollects an awful memory of her late husband Charlie, revealing that he died of a heart attack while they were having sex. Interestingly the same thing would happen just a few episodes later. Poor Rose.

As someone who has lost two grandparents, this got uncomfortably close to home at points. Even though Sophia is humorous as usual she sounds and looks realistically sick. But through it all we see how much the girls love Sophia and consider her an essential part of their lives. After a while Dr. Harris finally arrives. It turns out it wasn't as bad as was previously thought. She was suffering a gallbladder attack due to eating so much food at a party. The fear was still real however, and we're relieved she made it through.

Dorothy is still flattered she's her mother's favorite, which results in a confused reaction. "Favorite? I thought I was dying!" I like to think that's just Sophia's incurable grouchiness talking. The sincerity with which she said those words was her vulnerable side slipping through, which she usually keeps covered like a hardered Italian cheese.

If someone asked me what makes The Golden Girls such a special show, this is the episode I would point them towards.

Lisa can't play her saxophone peacefully at home, so she relocates to a bridge. Billie Eilish randomly finds her there looking for new talent.

Probably the stupidest plot in all of the shorts. By now there is no logical explanation required whatsoever for a celebrity to appear. Billie just happens to be in Springfield and we don't know why. She's also a weirdo who has her agent hold her upside down talking to the girl playing sax under the bridge.

There's not a friendship "developed" between Lisa and Billie, we are just supposed to get excited about Billie Eilish guest starring in a short. It pales an incredible amount to Lisa seeing lonely jazz player Bleeding Gums Murphy sounding away his sorrows in the middle of the night. Coincidentally both involve a bridge. But while here it's a cheap joke, there it serves as a meeting place for a profound and emotionally revealing connection of souls. It's not just beautiful and atmospheric, it does a great job at making you care about Lisa's feelings of alienation and desire to find like she belongs somewhere.

This is Simpsons in 2022 though, so any sublety or finesse you might expect will not be present. Instead we get Lisa monotonously saying that her father couldn't care less about her music, and if he seems to it's only because he's drunk. They prefer presenting it like the whole family is miserable and never in sync with each other rather than attempting something more nuanced. Lisa is a victim of everyone's stupidity or ignorance and she's a perfect angel who can do no wrong.

And of course, there is nothing funny whatsoever. Not even a mild chuckle, every single joke lands with a thud. The worst one has to be spiders crawling out of Billie's mouth, which is so bafflingly dumb that I'm at a loss for words. Was I supposed to laugh at how gross it was? How random it was? I honestly cannot tell what the punchline is supposed to be.

Dear Al Jean and Disney, please get it through your heads nobody wants these lazy advertisements that only get produced as money-making filler for the platform! They are embarrassing and tarnishing The Simpsons' name more than the show itself already does.

Walden decides to move in with Zoey, which makes Alan suffer a heart attack. He meets the ghost of Charlie who suggests that he makes some serious changes in his life.

This is the third of the season 9 episodes focusing on Charlie's absence, and easily the worst of the bunch. For starters, the first few minutes focus on Walden's family drama which I couldn't care less about. Then since Alan has suffered an injury he talks with a nasal voice the whole time, which gets very annoying. It limits Jon Cryer's acting, who usually does well with even the crummiest material. I cannot stress enough by the way how terrible his character is here. He's turned into such a caricature that even when he's suffering a heart attack he's trying to pick up a 100 dollar bill on the floor. Sure it's a little amusing, but not funny enough to excuse just how far he has fallen.

At the hospital we see Alan lying in a bed listening to everyone talking about him. Evelyn going "I already lost the good son" got a chuckle out of me. Then we hear a voice, who turns out to be Charlie. Except it's not the Charlie we remember, he's ended up in Kathy Bates' body. Okay, I respect Kathy Bates as an actor and she's been brilliant in other roles. But her performance is simply a cheap imitation of someone who embodied the character to a tee. There's a reason they call some roles irreplaceable, and that's because they truly are. I also don't like that he ended up in hell. Why is that necessary? It's already sad he's gone, this is only adding salt to the wound.

Charlie telling him to stand on his two feet and stop sponging off others had potential as an idea, but is not followed through on very well. We see him move into a cheap hotel room, trying to make the best of it. He realizes soon this is gonna be a very unpleasant experience, so Charlie tells him that she was only fúcking with him and wanted nothing more than making him move out of the house. Once again kind of doing him a disservice since he did want Alan to become more independent. Yes he did become increasingly insistent on him moving out, but that's only because Alan started overstaying his welcome.

Of course this leads to him crawling back to Walden. But instead of being honest and saying it didn't work out, he *fakes* a heart attack this time to garner false sympathy. This is taking sponginess to a level that isn't lighthearted or clever, it's actually irritatingly despicable.

I haven't mentioned Walden much. I never have much to say about him, he's the most boring character on the show. Ashton's performance doesn't help either since he seems to have lost his funnybone when joining the series. Depending on the episode he'll either play it too goofy, or he'll look stiff like he just walked into the wrong room. This is a case of the latter instance.

This is the first time I've gotten a glimpse of Zoey, and can already say I don't care much for her. Another character who's dull as dishwater, and Sophie Winkleman should change her name to Wrinkleman with that weird offputting voice she's forcing out. Please stop sounding like a posh high society lady at a cocktail party, for God's sake.

I guess now I can say I've seen this infamous anti-gem, but it sure as hell wasn't worth it.

After Walden sings some breakfast jingles in the kitchen, Alan starts to realize how much he really misses Charlie. He first reacts by getting sentimental, but then takes it a step further by completely transforming into his late brother.

Everybody knows the show doesn't work without Charlie. The chemistry is just off and the replacement they went with couldn't have possibly been less interesting. I was still curious about this episode however since I wondered if they'd be able to pay more respect to the character than the premiere did.

And you know what? This actually isn't too bad for the Kutcher era. It absolutely still has flaws, but for once I didn't cringe and feel like turning off the television. Jon Cryer portrays Alan's grief with believability and heart. His chemistry with Charlie was the most defining aspect of the show, so it's very important that they get it right. You feel so bad for him when he has his piano taken away from him by the decorators, and afterwards sits alone in the dark depressed over how things have changed. His conversation with Jake is hit-and-miss in terms of jokes, and considered how much Charlie cared for him I expected Jake to sympathize with his father more. Listing off the advice his uncle told him got a chuckle out of me though. Of course they all have to do with sex.

Where the story really kicks in though is when Alan becomes jealous of Walden's luck with women and decides to act like Charlie. He becomes so dedicated to this play he forgets that he's Alan entirely and starts to worry the people around him. The dialogue also imitates very well how Charlie talked, and once again my praise goes to Cryer for how well he captures his spirit. It really goes to show how the show would've been even more doomed if he left at the same time. The highlight is when he talks with Jake and his tutor Megan, reappearing after Springtime On A Stick. This is also the only point Alan shows himself again as he gives them only a dollar for a night out.

I would've liked some more shenanigans from Alan as Charlie since when it ends I was kinda surprised it was over already. Still, the exclamation of "Winning!" is an amusing and satisfying final gag.

Berta has a couple solid lines too.

With that being said, the flaws you would expect are still there. Some of the jokes are kinda annoying and drawn out, like Walden singing Charlie's jingles (Let's face it, his voice is nowhere near as good). And Walden in general remains a boring and overly self-righteous character. He calls himself a good person, yet without Alan's permission he donates Charlie's old piano to an orphanage? No matter how much you try to justify it as a decent act, it's incredibly disrespectful. You haven't even *met* the guy, and you are trying to dictate how someone is allowed to remember his brother. Shame on you, Walden.

And although Jake still had his moments, it's noticeable how much they dumbed him down. He was already not the smartest kid anymore by the end of Charlie's run, but now he's practically braindead. Still, Angus T. Jones does the best with what he's got and this is not his worst appearance by any means.

Maybe not a classic, but far better than most from season 9-12.