For All Mankind is the series that made realize that most AppleTv+ Series are gold, to start this is not a series based on real events its all fiction, it happens on a “parallel” story where some were similar to what happen on the first mission to the moon but then the story goes further into space hotel, land on mars, arm confrontations in space. Besides the great story one of the things I like the most about this series is the story around each character, anyone who thinks about watching a space TV Series might think everything has to be about space ships and the travel itself but this is not the case, characters down at Earth has a lot to do, couples problems, fights at work because chain of command, espionage because others country want to steal each other tech and make it first to what ever rock in space they planing to go so its not only about space itself, also the cast is not The Avengers and that makes it more interesting to me, ever since Season One I gave this TV Series a 10/10, another great TV Series that I never document but I will still put up my posts about Season Four.
To keep track of things I had to watch Season 3 last episode where they literally pull a stunt that is just ridiculous to think about but thats the kind of things you are going to see on this TV Series, Edward Baldwin, one of the main pilots of the Series; tie up his step daughter to a space shuttle so he could push her to the space station on top of Mars because she is pregnant and there is no facility down on Mars where she can give birth.
Gordo Stevens youngest son Jimmy joins an extremist group that is salty with NASA for things that they have done in the past, come on on the way to success you make a few enemies, on this universe NASA never stop and kept pushing all the time putting peoples life at risk and putting others in jail, they fucking mega bomb the NASA building after the Ed landed back on Mars, his ex wife you he still love very much died during the bombing.
Now that they have been on Mars for a few years they want to start a proper self sustain colony at Happy Valley Camp, they recruiting new people to join at Earth so there will be new characters added to the story, some are willing to take the gamble.
On Season 3 a man who build the most successful private company to start an expedition to Mars almost lost everything but it seems once again he gets lucky after his team locates the biggest asteroid with enough iridium to compare it to what ever has been mine in the history of mankind, so now everyone wants to jump on it, North Korea, Russia, USA, there is this big race to get the asteroid how the fuck do you do that? from a few scenes they literally attack a space ship to one side so they can push it.
While all this is happening there is also a very dorky love story between Margo Madison the NASA director until Season 3 and Sergei Nikulov engineer who was in charge of the Soviet Space Program who was heavily under surveillance and was caught exchanging information with Margo about their programs to a point that Soviets blackmail Margo letting her know that they would send him to one of the worst prisons and I think they were willing to kill him if she didn’t give them their engine blue prints, at the end she did and no body proof it after some heavy suspicious, on the trailer she now wakes up but she is in Russia and from the few shots she look like is been follow probably KGB, most likely she is there looking for Sergei.
The trailer of Season 4 specially shows a new addition to the series, a new character Miles played by Toby Kebbell who was actually exceptional from the TV Series “Servant” that I never finish but want too, Miles is a regular guy with a regular job at Earth but now he feels there is this big opportunity to join the colony at Mars, Happy Valley camp now wants to grow massively so they need more workers to create all this infrastructure, Miles looks like a pain in the ass guy who gets into places no body invite him.
I think Season Four might be the last Season of this TV Series, some of the main characters are aging getting older in the story but still kicking like Ed and Danielle, Margo is out of NASA looking for Sergei in Russia, Bill is taking over as NASA director so its generational moves within different positions in the story from Pilots, NASA director, Engineers at Earth with Aleida finally getting enough credit to her work and from here they are growing the colony at Mars so the story does not move into another race to another planet, all other three season have been ten episode long so that give it enough time to develop the end of the story in a way that it doesn’t feel rush and they can conclude things at Earth and Mars for example we have a couple of topics
What happens after the NASA bombing
What happens with Margo and Sergie, does she finds him?
How is Ed grandson or daughter doing?
Will Ed fly to the Asteroid, he is always a captain
How Ellen does with her relationship and political position
All this are just a few of the different side stories on the series that will need a proper ending, all other three seasons in my opinion did great, even on season two when they were confine to a very small space for a few episodes so this tells a lot about the script, how good it is that it keeps viewers entertain without much space on the scene.
I totally recommend this series and cant wait to start watching Season Four, first episode comes out on November 10, 2023.
For anyone that doubt WOT season two because of it’s very slow first two episodes I have to say things are starting to turn up and everything starts to make sense, on episode four more about Ishamael and Selene or by her real name Lanfear, Daughter of The Night the most dangerous Forsaken finally we get to know who this mysterious women who does nothing during the day and only fuck Rand’s brains out at night and who Moiraine fears a lot, but it still yet to know what are her motive and reasons to be after Rand? the most obvious reason that comes to mind is that she either wants to drain his powers, use him to do something for her or just kill him and as a last crazy idea is that she is truly in love with him. Moiraine has mention before that what they living right now has happen before many times through the centuries, meaning that Rand or The Dragon Reborn is an entity that comes to the world many times and even dies but always the story is very similar so there must be a connection between LanfeAr and Rand so yes probably she is in love with him but he doesn’t remember, the difference between them even if they met before is that Rand is a new men when Lanfear was awaken so she was probably a prisoner of some spell.
Episode four keeps telling us more and more about the past of some of the characters, in this case a bit more about Moiraine Damodred, she goes back to her home town where her little sister Anvaere Damodred lives and haven’t seen in many years, Aes Sedai live longer than other mortals because they are connected to the true power so they will age slower and see friends and entire family die before them, that’s the case of Liandrin and her son, same case between Moiraine and her little sister Anvaere.
Its on Episode Four when we see Moiraine change her clothes into what she is wearing on the Season Two Cover Poster so probably from now on she means business.
The reason for Logain to be in this town same where Rand is, all that happen because Moiraine wanted so, she is looking for Rand around town and visit the Asylum he is was working at where Logain is but can’t find him, goes and visit Logain who wants to kill her if he could, keep in mind that may be he can since Moiraine has no powers but she wont let him besides she has a dagger, she offers it to Logain and what I can interpret from their conversation is that she will either let him kill her or give him the dagger so he can kill himself, she mentions “…what all those cut off from the One Power desire most of all”
Perrin and Mat are two of the least important of the main five characters so far with very little screen time plus I still don’t know how their powers help or relate to Rand, they cant channel but still have to do with The Story that repeats over and over.
Perrin was help to escape by the pack of wolfs and Elyas who serve him as a guide to discover his powers, most of the things that they talk about are very vague, like Elyas doesn’t want to talk to Perrin about his powers but let him discover them by instinct.
Liandrin has been trying to bond with Nynaeve for her own benefit, she has been talking about how great it will be to use her as the biggest wepon The White Tower has ever had but now she tricked her, sitting at the Arches Liandrin tells Nynaeve that there was an invasion on the west, a black smith from The Two Rivers traveling with an Ogier were caught prisoner, this is a lie because at this point because they WERE capture and then Perrin got away but that’s not the point, Liandrin knows Nynaeve can’t get out of the tower without reporting and if she does then she has to sneak out, Liandrin knows exactly what escape route she will take so she ambush her and knock her out, to make things worst Nynaeve was not alone she was with Egwene and Elayne who probably where not part of Liandrin plan. It is still yet to know why Liandrin ambush them and I think this time it has nothing to do with The White Tower and Nynaeve becoming an Aes Sedai.
Moiraine keeps looking for Rand every where but can’t find him, she is starting to worry Lanfear will got him first but she has been with him all this time, none of the things that she plan for happen, Logain have not train Rand at all and Lanfear has been with Rand all this time.
Rand is starting to manifest his powers but only when he is under a lot of pressure, meaning when he is mad, angry and this makes him dangerous because this are the moments he has less control of himself but I wonder if this is exactly what Landfear wants, for some mysterious reason a Fade or Myrddraal appears and tries to attack Rand from the back, when they were together out side of Selene cabin at the top of the hill and Rand display his powers burning the Fade to aches.
This seem to be a turn on for Selene because very casual they go into the cabin, she wants more of Rand but this time not only sex, she ties him to the bed and confess to him that she is also a monster, Rand can’t get out of his head that he will eventually go mad and kill everyone he loves with this power so he thinks he is a monster too and just in time but I’m not sure if this is good, Moraine cut her through from the back leaving Selene laying on the floor all bloody, what a mess.
Moiraine keep saying Lanfear/Selene is not good for Rand but so far he has done nothing to hurt him, the moment Moiraine shows up Selene was starting to channel and now I’m wondering what exactly she was going to do THANKS MOIRAINE!!! At first Rand gets mad as fuck with her and puts her against the wall because lucky for him Moiraine has no powers at the moment, if Moiraine had her powers she would probably kick Rand ass in a second, yes he is The Dragon but he has no training, similar Liandrin knock out Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne all at the same time.
What annoys me of this episode is how many dark scenes there were, you really need a good video source and good definition screen to see all the dark colors and go through this scenes, but we are starting to see more characters channel for example Rand, Selene, Ishamael, I hope it comes to that and more characters channeling at the main battle of this series since at some point Rand will face Ishamael again either alone or with the rest of his friends. Another thing that bugs me is that Mat is set to some how kill Rand like its destiny so may be the same thing has happen over and over through their history, remember all this characters have reincarnate.
Finally knowing who Selene is, that’s a great relieve, watching her doing nothing during the day and just fucking Rand at night was not fun for me, I knew there was something else than that but never thought she was a Forsaken, based on Moiraine one of the worst, the first scene when Ishamael wakes up a women cover in blood did make me think about Selene also Moiraine kept saying since episode one that their encounter with him was not the last battle and she was wrong, it was the start of everything and that he was going to awake a higher power. Season two is turning into a banger, I really like this series and would like to see at least five seasons if possible out of it, I don’t know how far advance the story is at the moment compare to the books but over three seasons is a win. I give this episode a solid 8/10.
Technology is making possible for studios to create all this shows that I would only dream off, I was born in the 80’s a generation that have probably have seen the most advance in technology from phone land lines to smart phones, from manual special effects to now AI generated scenes.
I was never a fan of monsters movies because I had this bad impression from Godzilla (1998), I remember everyone had high hopes on this movie but eventually it was so dark and very few times Godzilla appear full body, all this recent advance in tech lead to some of the best Godzilla movies ever in terms of how the monsters look example Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019) two of my favorite Monster after my number one monster movie Cloverfield (2008). After many years of not watching this type of Monster Titan movies or in terms of Monarch language MUTOS (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) Cloverfield pick my interest because of how the movie was film in First Person so the monster itself was more of a mistery but for some reason got me interested enough so I gave a chance to Godzilla (2014) end up liking it and the watch the 2019 movie, end up loving and wanted more of what is now days called the Monster Verse, as always I don’t want to pretend I’m an expert but took some time to read about Monarch and the Godzilla chronology.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) – TRAILER OPINION – www.skiptvads.blog
That order is how I remember things work out for me from bad to great impression of Monsters movies, so far the only one I’m not that excited are Kong Movies, mostly because they are all the same but now that they making a series out of the movies it intrigue me to watch Godzilla vs Kongo (2021) and Kong: Skull Island (2017) since from my understanding they are related to the upcoming TV Series too.
Trailers at times might be either misinterpret ended or misleading, this TV Show wont be the exception as most people will want to watch Godzilla fighting from the first episode and I even doubt we will see it on the first episode. Apple TV had an early release and the embargo just ended so first comments without reaction or spoilers are coming up. From what I have seen on the trailers and what has been said its going to be very different than what everyone is expecting, this series at least season one will be about Monarch itself, from how it started, what happen in San Francisco on the 2014 movie to the 2019 movie so more than one time line going back and forward.
I really like how at least Godzilla itself looks but I think the 2019 movie was the final proof that tech is there to make this cool monsters come alive with their full blown powers. As any other story adapted to TV it wont be straight up close to say the “canonical” version of the story since they have to include the drama and sell the product, it is not to be a nerd out COJI TV Series but I’m sure will give more details of how everything started and might even turn into what UMBRELLA was to Resident Evil was the entire structure for most of the movies, everything happen around the corporation, similar might be with MONARCH, make the TV series relate the movies is what most viewers will want but but that could be hard to do for all Godzilla movies since there are so many with different Godzilla and some of the more traditional to the original story so even if they do manage to get the TV series close to a group set of this movies there will always be a few things that wont match as I mention because of all the Godzilla versions through the years.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) – TRAILER OPINION – www.skiptvads.blog
Above a comparison of different Godzilla versions through the years, some of them are similar but things like legs, chest, arm length, back arch are very different between them.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) – TRAILER OPINION – www.skiptvads.blog
From what I can tell the series will start with character Keiko, a women who was there at San Francisco 2014 when the Godzilla attack happen, she lost her father so the movie will work with probably different time lines going back and forward, to connect dots you will have to pay attention to details, it looks like her father was always working for MONARCH but she has no clue what is was so after he died she started to investigate what is this corporation.
This is just a trailer so the main target is to get people all hype about it but I expect the first season to be very slow with flash backs from others movies and scenes related to that timeline probably scenes that never make it to the movies, if we see Godzilla fighting twice is a win because if its going into every episode then I don’t see it going more than two seasons and that will suck although it all depends if viewers stay interested, from what I have read and seen online from the director, on an interview he mention how the TV Series is trying to create a story around all the movies, essentially tell how MONARCH start to discover all this monsters give more details about them and probably not let things just to the imagination, how they are born, how they stay hidden and probably most important the reason for the attacks, all this keeping the spectacle the big show of Godzilla fights but also make it interesting at the people around MONARCH.
First episode will air on November 17, 2023
The main reason for this post is to actually give you my bad experience with this type Monster movies and how have been getting better through the years thanks to technology and better story, but mostly it is wise to keep expectation at a safe level with this type of content.
Lucille makes it back to the screen, that is Negan’s baseball bat name, on his left next to him with the top full of barbed wire that is what he use to smash Maggie’s husband head in front of everyone just to put on a show, through the series even if they kinda bond, Maggie and Negan; from her side it still feels she had that desire of vengeance and who would not after how Negan savagely killed Glenn, after all for her is all about that moment, she is trying to rescue her son Hershel with the man that killed her husband, it all comes back to the moment they met.
Episode four starts with that moment that Negan has mention before, the moment he knew The Croat was a problem, savage dog without a leash and he had to take care of business, cant let The Croat running around disobeying his orders and making important decisions on his own, what let Negan to take action was when The Croat torture a girl “just to be sure” she was not a scout, it was brutal, she was still a teen.
This look on Maggie is exactly what makes me think she obviously still wants to kill Negan, I would even bet she swore to kill him after her husband death, on this scene everyone is looking for Luther, the big guy from the local group Negan had problems with and eventually killed unintentionally on Episode Three.
The start moving out, on their way to take over the stadium and kill The Croat but first they go down to the train station, its a place also use for interrogation and torture so probably Hershel is there. Through the entire season Negan has basically been trying to make things up with Maggie, trying to be on her good side, I might think there are two reasons for this first that Giny is staying at Hill Top and second because he killed Glenn, on this scene they see a guy probably similar age to Hershel, he is dead and Negan will lift his head to see if its really Hershel, looks like Maggie didn’t had the strength to go through that suffering so he did it for her.
Amaia had everything figure out how to take over the stadium and lure The Croat out of it using Negan as bait but Maggie was action all suspicious besides before they went out Negan ask her if she has seen his matches and Maggie said no, weird then before they roll out of that room, above picture; she had Negan’s matches on her pocket so she is lying about basic stuff so why she wont be lying about something bigger. This is the moment that IMO confirms Maggie had plans for Negan, not sure what is it but its not help him get back to Giny when its all done.
To make things worst for Negan, before they left Maggie saw something shiny, familiar on Negan’s bag-pack, it was Luther’s wax that he didn’t want to share with Negan, at this point Maggie knows Negan has been lying about Luther but now also consider that he killed Luther too.
Amaia plan is rolling, Negan gets to the garage and starts his classic whistle and The Croat recognize him right away, question is how was The Croat that close to the garage at that very moment, probably TV Show coincidence but they all thought he would be alone so he just takes off after Negan and left the Burazi pack without their leader at the stadium.
Something wrong happen with their plan or then how The Croat react to it so easy? he must know something they don’t, first he was not alone at the garage, the Burazi were with him and second the moment Amaia and the rest of her crew was inside the stadium the doors blew up letting all the Zombies in besides they were playing loud music to get the Zombies inside the stadium.
Maggie was suppose to help Negan to lure The Croat out of the stadium but she could not because fucking Giny shows up and she goes after her ending in the middle of the arena inside the octagon surrounded by all the Zombies that just got in, lucky them there were not that many Zombies inside so they grap the protective material from the octagon and use it as a shield to push Zombies out of their way all of the sudden Tommaso shows up to help, where the fuck was him?
Tommaso, Amaia, Maggie and Giny where the only ones to make it out, from the group that got into the stadium, but got trapped into a room that had access to the sewers, problem is that its filled with bodies, so many of them that its highly contaminated with methane gas, Tommaso already use that route back in the day when he escape from The Croat and it didn’t sound like the best experience so I would expect a few nasty scenes coming up on the next episode.
After The Croat heard Negan they start chasing him around but the plan was to jack up a car and let him chase Negan out of the stadium, that didn’t work because they were too many of them so Negan didn’t had time to jump into a car so he got back into the stadium, The Croat never attempt to shoot Negan he wanted him alive but on this scene he says “I come only in the spirit of friendship…” like he really wanted to talk with Negan, who knows what for but the everyone thought he would only wanted to kill Negan.
The Croat throws Perlie Armstrong, the Marshall that was after Negan but on his way down he manage to hang on to the railing and Negan safe him, this is until now a new Negan, he is now old and wants to live in peace so he is trying to make things up for others that he hurt in the past.
Sometimes life is a real bitch, doesn’t matter how you try to fix things up that you fucked up in the past at the end it all comes back, even after Negan saved his ass, Marshall Perlie still wanted to arrest him, the moment he got his hand of one of those hock guns he point it at Negan and freeze him.
Episode Four was a solid episode for me, lot of details that had to pay attention to like Maggie and Negan lying to each other, the matches, the wax, Luther missing, also how The Croat knew they were coming, the stadium doors blowing up, the Zombies walking toward Maggie and Amaia getting them trapped inside the arena octagon, but something that got me thinking is why Giny there? I’m probably going to burn a two good hours tonight watching the last two episodes, I really don’t like this new spin off format of only six episodes, yes they are long episodes but thats not like the OG series format was and not even Fear The Walking Dead is. So far this is probably the best episode of the season with only two to go so I’m curious about how strong the season will end, good 7.5/10
Just like Winston I recently had a very bad week to the point that I had no time to keep going with my regular daily posts and didn’t even had the humor to login and engage or some micro blogging, usually when I’m get pissed I have time for nothing else other than the problem I’m facing and I cant move forward until I find a solution.
Winstons is force to come back to New York because Cormac kidnap him and brought him back to use him as bait so he can get to Frankie, Winstons brother; who is now dead after feeling it was the only way to safe his wife, Yen; and brother after he stole from Cormac and old coin press. At this point in the story from how everyone reacts to what is The High Table, it seems it was still a deep secret within the hotel, probably even the workers at the hotel had no clue what it was including Charon who look very naive to everything on this episode even to who Cormac really is, only Cormac knows who they are and probably the real power, this is something really link with the John Wick movies.
Episode two is about revenge and knowing a bit more about Frankie, even though he is dead by now, episode two gives us a brief description how Frankie and Yen met. After Frankie dies Winston starts to put up a crew to kill Cormac but over this crazy idea evolves a new one and is to take over The Continental, there has always been rumors of what goes on inside but no body knows so now Winston, Miles, Lou and Lemmy want to find out, they want to know the truth and for this will not only have to take down Cormac but get deep into The Continental Hotel.
Little is known about Yen on the series, on episode one it was evident she was not American but the question was how did she and Frankie met, why are they together and does she knows English?
Episode two explains a bit about their story and here are some of mine assumptions too, they met when Frankie was in the army, went to Vietnam war and she was some ones puppet probably trying to be a patriot, one day her “master” brain wash her into putting a bomb-jacket to enter a bar full of soldiers and explode, she follow all her orders but the bomb never activates, never explode, she try hard because she hits the trigger many times.
After Yen tries to kill everyone she gave up, Frankie saw her from the table he was drinking, my theory is that Frankie free her, they sit together have a small talk until she comes straight and ask him to help her, he gets rid of the bomb and from that moment protect her, Yen was very devoted to him but Frankie went a bit crazy when he started to discover what The High Table was, he didn’t know exactly what it was but knew it was way bigger than Cormac, he takes the coin press not to sell it or fuck Cormac but use it as a way to unveil what The High Table was.
Yen knows English very well, she only speaks when she is pissed and she is at Winston because she feels he didn’t do enough to try to safe Frankie, Yen join forces with Winston and the rest to bring down Cormac.
Winston got tired of been under Cormac all his life, he went away from NY because he knew he would never become some one if he was close to Cormac but Frankie decided to stay, Miles mention that at first he was independent but latter on he got closer to the Hotel and then became part of Cormac crew, Frankie was good at killing and handling weapons so he becomes and asset for Cormac but not under The High Table direct orders.
Winston puts everyone on notice that he is going for Cormac, he wants to bring him down but the rest knows it doesn’t end there, they need to take over The Continental.
Winston and the crew knows they might have the amount of guns with Miles supply but they need more people, more hands to pull triggers, more people willing to bleed to take Cormac down, Winston knows of a underground army control by a women, this women is Mazzy; this underground army relates to who on the John Wick movies is known as Bowery King who runs a network of spies and soldiers around the city aside from The High Table until he becomes a problem and they decided to make an example out of him, the same way as Mazzy runs their army independent from The High Table.
Mazzy and Winston didn’t really close a deal on their conversation but all she ask back is Love, I think she mainly talks about unconditional loyalty ask she explains how she help all this people who have all kind of troubles on their life then help them to get back on their feet and then become part of her family, her loyal to each other army.
I will finish watching the third episode tonight, what I think might happen is that she and her crew safes Winston ass on the last minute.
Cormac gets a visit from The Adjudicator, she is the highest rule enforcer from The High Table, the role as in John Wick: Chapter Four is the same she is here to take care of business, as identification they have a special type of coin that represent her in this case, every order she gives better be executed as requested if not it is very likely that the end will be excommunicated “excommunicado” meaning you are out, no protection from The Continental so most likely you are is on the line and there is a contract for your head. The gives Cormac a final warning to get the coin press back if not he will suffer the concurrences.
On the John Wick movies, there were cops who knew who he was and his profession, at the moment of this story cops had no idea what goes down at The Hotel and are not suppose to go inside, all they know its if you do most likely will get killed for sniffing around. KD (Kady Silva) was sniffing around a lot, she was after Frankie and a few others at the hotel, even paid a visit on episode one and now is getting closer to touch the tip of the iceberg that The High Table is, not much happen on the mini series with her only that she still investigating and recently got a call that Frankie died but then when she arrives the body was gone, she brings down the hammer to the guy who works at the morgue and got him to sing, gives her a few clues of who took Frankie’s body in this case was Winston. Probably after Winston takes over The Continental she works with him on the side but I’m not sure how because Winston on the movies was never a friend of The High Table although love their business.
Before the first shot was fired to take over The Continental the attack already started, Winston knows this job is easier with an inside man, Charon a young man who has been protected by Cormac has also been lied about how he will help him bring his Father to America, Winston did some investigation and wants to use Cormac many years of manipulation of Charon against him basically trying to make Charon open his eyes and make him understand that any day Cormac can snap and kill him. Winston pull a kidnap not kidnap on Charon and try to make him understand the true animal that Cormac is, at first I think this meeting didn’t have a big impact on Charon points of view.
Everything change when Charon got back to the hotel and saw his friend Thomas laying on the ground with his head split in two after Cormac went to town on him just because Thomas told him he invited Charon to come with him to the conservatory but he denied, Cormac interpret this as taking or stealing from him, in the topic of stealing like Frankie did; so he smash Thomas head with a golf from Behind. Looking at Thomas laying on the floor cover in blood, listening to Cormac excuse that no body takes from him and now he wants to bring Charon’s father to America to be the new resident musician makes Charon think twice who he is dealing with and now might put his father at great danger.
I have to admit there was a lot of talking on Episode two and not a lot of action but I did enjoy a few parts like known a bit more about Yen, also when Cormac hammer down Thomas head with the golf stick, I guess everyone was expecting more action from the series but I think more important than action until now it was to make the series relate to the movies and maintaining some of their characters and know more of their past was very important like Charon story, The Adjudicator who is not the same as John Wick movies probably this one already died when the movies happen, also Mazzy who was probably the pioneer of Bowery King army all this details satisfy my curiosity, I’m starting to think this spin off was to bring more details about the movies rather than a series full of action John Wick style because besides John and Caine there were very few other characters that could raise your adrenaline every time they show up on the scene.
I’m going to watch the third episode of The Continental tonight after a horrendous three days at work, at least TV Series make me forget about all those problems, last night put on my VR Setup and burn a good three hours of The Wheel of Time, last three episodes where literally fire and cant wait for the new season.
After a week of recovery and weekend full of Formula 1 is time for me to go back to one of my favorite hobbies, that’s watching TV Series, there are a couple I’m trying to finish before I start some others like The Fall of the House of Usher and some others, I have even though of posting twice a day but I don’t want to burn out, this time I try to kill some hours on Daryl Dixon. Second episode the story is still building up, this time it tells us a bit more about Isabelle and Laurent, from episode one I knew there had to be some sort of connection between them, she was not a nun like the rest she even probably got into religion as an escape route to all her bad habits, after all zombie apocalypse hits so there is no place to party, do drugs, her life stile was done.
Over all I’m still finding the series a bit vague, not necessarily bad but still havent feel it kicking in, may be on episode three and four things will pick up the pace, Dead City started with a little bit more energy although different personalities, on Dead City we got Negan and Maggie a couple that talks and do a lot more, Daryl is more of a quite guy, if it was for him he probably stay alone.
This post most likely will be almost nothing about Zombies, all this spin off that are coming up have nothing to do with it,
Isabelle was in Paris the moment that everything went down, seems that her thing was to go out, get men to buy her drinks, drugs in the back she was taking from the what ever else she can take from them, wallets, watches, money, anything she could get her hands on that had value.
When the world went up side down Isabelle was living with her sister, little sister Lily, not only that they are running away with who I assume is Isabelle friend/boyfriend? this was not detail but he seems to like Isabelle, his name was Quinn; Lily was pregnant had seven months and no body knew anything about it they both Isabelle and Quinn find out about it at a gas station where they stop, Lily was feeling sick. Quinn immediately thought of Lily as a liability, he told Isabelle there is no room for babies where we going and this was a big NO NO for her it was her sister after all so in a good old Isabelle fashion Quinn was just another men she tricked, took the keys of the car from him as she gives him a hug and ran away with Lily.
Lily was hurting all along, it was the baby, something was wrong so they kept going looking for help, a hospital, doctor, who ever can help her until they stop to an ambulance that was parked on the side of the road but it was a pack of zombies already, they got too close and one of the zombies got Lily, not badly to the point she was bleeding but enough to get her infected. Different than the zombie that got Daryl this was a direct bite, Daryl got burn by one of the acid/burner zombies, I guess he didn’t turn because the nuns burn his wound on time before the virus spread.
As in most stories the mother died at giving birth during this hard circumstances, Isabelles is facing a part of life that she never thought of, not only her sister Lily dies but now she turns into a Zombie, now she also has to take care of her nephew in a more than ever dangerous world, they had not place to go so it makes sense for them to stay at the convent, we are still yet to know from where did the entire story of Laurent been the savior of Earth came from.
Worst part for Laurent is that he is growing up without knowing where he came from, who are his parents, for sure he will never know who his father is, I don’t think Lily and Isabelle had enough time to have that conversation and I’m also sure Isabelle have never told Laurent she is her aunt, everybody else in the convent probably knew the truth except him, and some of the youngest or newer nuns even believe he is the savior, Isabelle might have other personal reasons to go back to Paris but not because she thinks Laurent will save them all.
As you can tell episode two of Daryl Dixon had nothing to do with him and I think that’s fine, it’s very important to know the background and details of the main characters, Laurent and Isabelle are two of them, basically its them and Daryl those are the stories we really need to know, there will be other small side stories but for now it was necessary to know from where they come from and who they were before this all started, before they met Daryl and why is it so important for them to get to Paris, we already know that Laurent has no clue of what is going on and knows nothing about the world only math and literature, rather than that the kid doesn’t know how savage and ruthless life can be specially on the environment he is growing up, on episode two there was more than the story of Isabelle but I think they made up the rest of the episode to push the narrative of who was Isabelle and Laurent and from where they come from, I think this because on their way to Paris they were caught by a tribe of kids that were left behind in a school but survive this kicks in Isabelle flash backs of where she was when everything started and how Laurent came to her life. Good episode, I give it a 7/10.
Same as it happen to me I’m sure most people will be HOOKED on the first ten minutes and will be asking for more gunpowder for the rest of the episode, Special Ops: Lioness packs a fucking ton of it plus tough to the nails women in action, between Joe and Cruz you will love to see them kicking ass left and right, on first episode we still don’t see any of the too in action yet.
This is a series I have been wanting to watch for some time now, as usual a bit skeptical if it would be good or not scoring 7s and 8s on sites so it obviously has to be good, I’m a sucker for war theme anything from movies to TV series, plus the undercover agent part that is very exciting.
Special Ops: Lioness as you guess is about women who go to war but not exactly to just shoot, it is a special operations program for women to get involve with female related to male targets, say they are after a man but know his daughter or wife are usually in contact then they send out a female agent to infiltrate them, become friends with them until they get enough information and if possible kill the target. This program is lead by Joe who recruit the members, it all sound easy like get dress well, become friends, gain their trust but the dirty and savage part is when their cover is blown and now Joe has to take the decision, will the agent get safe so it can be extract or is it time to cut loose ends meaning pull the trigger if necessary to not compromise the program.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
The episodes starts with an attack to a CIA post, it was a very large amount of guys attacking but it almost didn’t make sense, not that they don’t explain the reason for the attack but how they were running forward and then to the sides I don’t know, once the shooting stops, adrenaline goes down and you re watch the scene you find it empty, but I have to say it was a great opening, in five minutes you had massive shooting, ak47 screaming all over the place, a FUCKING HAWG one of the most badass aircraft in movies and irl clearing the field and even a drone strike hitting the target. Once the music was over the story starts to unfold, even though it was a great opening I doubt this is how the series will be, I don’t think we are going to have this massive shooting on every episode.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
First episode, time to meet main characters and their motives, basically what the hell is this story about, on the picture above is Joe women in charge of calling the shots on the field, I don’t think she is in charge as usually there is some one back at home moving the pieces but on the field she decides if you stay or go, on the first episode her undercover agent gets identified, Joe never check her for tattoos and seems she had a cross with a name on her side and it was seen by one of the women on the village, depending on where you at it can be a big NO NO since they are in middle east. Joe tried to extract her from the location but it was already too late for her, extremist found her and were about to cut of her head but Joe authorize drop a missile from a drone to safe her the pain and keep things secret as possible, desperate move for a desperate situation.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Next on the startup we got Cruz Manuelos, a women who is trying to make her life straight after making a lot of bad decisions, lives with her boyfriend who plays been gangster but she is over with that life, now works a honest job and is not into any of her bad habits, this creates a conflict been them and after an argument because she hits a girl inside the house, Cruz’s boyfriend hit her with a jab straight to her face.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Cruz wants to be over with her boyfriend and his old life so next morning she took vengeance, pack her things and wait for him to wake up to hit him twice in the face with a pan, the chase starts until they arrive to a US Marine recruiting center, she enters screaming for help until a big ass Marine steps in between her and her boyfriend. She felt safe with the Marine, she realize if she didn’t wanted to be abuse anymore one of her options was to become tougher, US Marines training will do that for her so she enrolls, top of her class, tougher than male recruits, faster, smarter, she was the full package, perfect asset to join the Lioness.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
After a lot of reports, debriefs, interviews, Joe comes back home with two things in mind, first is go home spend some time with her family although is not that easy because she spends most of her time out of the country on classified missions meaning no contact with her family, comes back home and between her two kids her son is more sensible to not seen her for so long, her husband holds the fort while she is out.
Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers – Season 1 – Episode 1 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Joe ended up recruiting Cruz, after all she is at the top of her class and Joe had to move fast, she needed another undercover agent, Cruz and Joe are not best friends, actually Joe doesn’t seem to like her that much, Cruz is now in my opinion over confident, been a Marine make her feel she has a lot of power and can conquer everything life throws at her but when your neck is at risk that’s when true stars shine, for her first task she did panic a bit.
Different than most common undercover agents that already know everything about their target all Cruz knows is her face, undercover name Zara Adid but she forgot the moment Aaliyah Amrohi ask for her name, the moment Cruz got into the car to get ready and meet the target she starts panicking and Joe had to calm her down, the hole idea of knowing nothing about the target is to lower the risks of getting caught and make the experience as real as possible, become friends, create a bond but with always in mind that this is just another job.
This series so far is exactly as what the tittle says, a Special Operations team that work with Lioness, top of the class Female Marines who are fearless, tough and can still be a perfect lady, Cruz is not the most girly girly but she knows her way around. Cruz story feels a bit crunch but I guess the series is not about that, after all this is another Army theme TV series bringing in something different, its the first time I see this type of series based on a group of female Special Ops Marines, usually is the other way around and that’s interesting also how they are thrown into the water without knowing much about the target, the end goal is the same locate and get/kill the bad guy.
I wonder if this series will be big enough to get several season something like SEAL Team currently on its sixth season or something shorter like Six only got two seasons, I don’t see how a series with very few characters and no side stories could make it into a more than two or three seasons, I’m also curious of how much action we will get on each episode because it was five minutes of gunpowder and then the rest was a few japs, kicks, arguing and that was it, less than forty five minutes per episodes.
I give this first episode a solid 7.5 just because of what I mention, I think they try to buy the audience with all the shooting at the beginning but after that the action starts to soften little by little.
Secret Invasion is a Mini Series I had in mind watching, I got no clue if this is an adaptation of the story or not but I thought it might be entertaining, its probably just me that love to watch all this stories but sometimes feels like slowly building a library in my mind of all this TV series, I was a bit skeptical to watch Secret Invasion since rating on score sites like RTT and IMDB are not that high with scores of 6/10 or less, for me this is just the first episode and found it entertaining enough, very cinematic, most actors are already known to the MCU but I’m not sure if people were expecting a show stopper, I remember making a short post of the trailer when it came out, most of this trailers look like an actual MCU movie so may be that’s why people were expecting so much of it. To be honest from all the Marvel Studios TV series there are very few banger, there is Loki, Moon Knight, Daredevil and then you can argue if any of the others are hits for me I can include WandaVision just because I really like her devilish style but the rest were No Bueno. Marvel Studios probably have thousands of projects to work with and not all with be hits, they know they also have a very large loyal amount of fans so as long as Movies stay blockbusters TV Series can take a few hits here and there.
Secret Invasion is the story of Gravik, Nick Fury and Talos. Nick Fury comes back to Earth from S.A.B.E.R the international space station project he is working on because rumors of a Skrull secret rebellion has spread, his old Skrull friend Talos welcomes him back and confirm that after he was gone things have change and that Gravik another Skrull Nick was related too and feels some what responsible for everything that is happening so he has come back down to earth to make things right and take care of this suppose Skrull rebellion, mix into all this events is Talos daughter G’iah who is on Gravik’s side.
From the trailers I know that the earth is flooded with Skrulls to the point that agents can’t trust each other, imagine a world like this were you just don’t know who is human or not, you will never know if you are giving the information to the enemy directly, that’s exactly what happens at first between Agent Prescod who is paranoid about the threat from this new Skrull movement by Gravik, there are rumors that a bomb attack is going to happen, Agent Evertt Ross who for the most part has been on Fury’s and Avengers side, told Prescod he needs evidence and will bring it to Fury end up been another Skrull playing the double agent game, kills Prescod after he found out.
I was watching this scene a couple of times trying to find out how Prescod figure out Ross was a Skrull, some other times its very evident but this time it didn’t seem, it would be great if there was a real reason why he figure this out, all Ross said “I will give this information to Fury” I don’t see how that is a detonator unless because he already said Fury was in space, but he could send the files or a report.
Before I continue I have to ask WHAT THE FUCK is this, was Fury at a lan party, is he playing new CS2? he shows up with, exit what is suppose to be some sort of space ship with a couple of gaming chairs in the back?
Former Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Maria Hill welcomes Fury back to earth, Talos and Maria give evidence and details to Fury of Gravik’s plan. Talos talks to Fury because a lot have change starting with him, after The Blip, that’s when Thanos make disappear half of the universe population including Fury; Fury was not the same and then went into space leaving a lot of people behind including Skrulls that have been working with humans thats when Talos got kicked of the Council, G’iah went MIA and now Gravik took control creating a sort of regime to protect their own behind a feeling of abandon and revenge against Fury and humans.
The moment Fury sets foot into the Earth everyone starts talking about it, at the White House and now MI6, Sonya Falsworth did a mini kidnap on Fury for a private meeting, they try to get information from each other but no luck, for sure she is more aware of whats really happening but seems that she only wanted to look at Fury and see if he is really the man he use to be, everyone keeps saying after the Blip he change but no one so far said how did he change, he does look old, even Sonya tells him straight to his face that he is out of shape probably meaning she knows he can deal with Gravik but not on his current shape.
G’iah, Talos daughter is working at Gravik’s camp a place they call Skrullos; she brings in new members but also manage other tasks that require someone loyal and that is up to it like buying bombs from another Skrull, behind whats going on this shows the possible amount of Skrulls in the world, how is it that Gravik the one who runs the show for Skrulls on Earth has to buy his bombs from another Skrull?
Maria and Talos caught G’iah in the act, she was transporting the bombs, Talos chase her to a moment when they stop and have a talk, they havent seen each other in a long time, I feel that G’iah join Gravik because she believes in his cause of making Earth a place for Skrulls but if humans wont accept them for what they are then they will claim Earth by force, in this conversation Talos had with his daughter he manager soft her up and help them stop the bombing, this shows that G’iah still loves his father and is on the good guys side but it was not that easy, Gravik knew this could happen and had plans for it.
Even with G’iah helping Fury and Talos they had no chance against Gravik. Along the episode while Fury was talking a walk he was watching people on the street, one time went into a bar with Maria and talk to local Russian guy, during the bombing Gravik change into all this different persons meaning he was watching Fury all the time, he knew where he was, who he was with and probably next to him. Everyone starts running after three bombs detonate and Gravik takes Fury shape to shoot Maria Hill, real Fury shows up too late to only grap Maria on his arms and watch her die after Gravik shoot her.
I have to say this episode was not bad, it was a solid 7, very entertaining, we already know most of the actors and they deliver, the pace of the story look fine to me and this was just the usual first episode to show each main character of the season or in this case the mini series.
Mini series, a concept that some times is hard to develop when you have a story that could bring in a lot of details, I always bring the example of the last Ant Man movie how I thought they would exploit more the Quantum Realm but they didn’t so the movie falls short, at least for now Secret Invasion doesn’t feel crunch and vague, also I have notice that people including myself think they watching a season to latter on discover it was JUST a mini series and you wont know anything else about it when its done that can upset the audience too, I mention this because it could be a reason why people were expecting more out of this mini series.
The Earth is full of Skrulls no doubt and Gravik control most of them, its such a vast power to know when and where are your enemies all the time, Gravik has Skrulls secret agents that not even the Skrulls in the compound know who their real identities are, such an inception, you can be a Skrull thinking that you are out smarting the human next to you when it could also be another Skrull, we still early and a lot to develop, only six episodes that is starting to be a new format but I can say so far so good.
The Wheel of Time is picking up pace, after two episodes of watching Moiraine complaining about how Lan fail her and does not need him anymore, even after he safe her life one more time; way more important to her now because she got no powers, the story is starting to move more than before, also Nynaeve and Egwene has build up some context at The White Tower of what they have been up to and what others expect from them.
I would say the second most powerful character in the story Nynaeve is put up to a task that not all Aes Sedai take on the first try but as reckless as she is took it as soon as Liandrin and the others Aes Sedai ask her too, she wants to demonstrate and become as powerful as they say, I think Nynaeve is tired of taking crap from others, this task will take her through three arch each will show her worst fears and nightmares that she will have to face, not only face but walk away from them, similar to a parallel world, inside this other world she can still be hurt or killed if not careful enough, some of this fears and nightmares is to leave what she loves the most and if she doesn’t will stay inside this world for ever.
Liandrin is in a rush to make Nynaeve into an Aes Sedai, also would love her to be a red; she push other two of her sisters to take Nynaeve to the Archers, there are many other Arch, some have been explore, some have burn Aes Sedai but this inside the tower will show her fears, to become a sister Nynaeve will have to face her worst fears and come back to them, if she refuse three times then will be kick out of the tower but if she starts she cant stop, it takes three Aes Sedai combine power to activate The Archers.
Each arch she goes in is a different reality, on the first one Nynaeve goes back to the moment she was a child, here she meets with her father and mother, there was something interesting that her father told her “remember red is dead” , could this make reference to the red Aes Sedai? after all Liandrin would love Nynaeve to become a red, usually the most aggressive and radical Aes Sedai, inside this Arch Nynaeve and her family are attacked by a large group of raiders, its weird because for some reason they want to kill them like twenty arm men against a child and her parents, they are corner inside their house until they raiders brake in, last thing Nynaeve saw of their parents was them been slaughter while she hide in the basement looking up, at that moment the Arch show up inside the basement and she have to come back to the tower.
As part of the ritual every time she comes back from an Arch, an Aes Sedai throws water on her head saying “you are washed clean of you sins and the sins committed against you…” and Leane would heal her if she was hurt. After the first Arch Nynaeve was panicking, she could not understand how it felt so real even when she knows it was not, each Arch she gets in looks like it felt more real since on the second one kept complaining more telling the rest that they need to go to the Two Rivers because there is a lot of people that need help, friends of her.
The first two Arch were less difficult than the last one, the third Arch seem to be impossible to escape from, on this last one trip she fall into a world full of shadow, she was dress in red and comes back to the room with the other Aes Sedai with Lan’s hair on her hand and all cover in blood, blood was not hers, she thinks she hurt Lan and got piss off at the Aes Sedai wanting to leave the tower, it even look like it was the real deal until she meets with Lan and the Arch in the back shows up but she could not come back this time. At least not on this try, I’m sure she is not lost on this world and some how will return, you can’t killed the second main character of the story so early.
On the other side of the world, one of the less but still part of the puzzle characters, Perrin is about to find out what his power really are, he and the rest of the warriors he was marching with, lead by Ingtar Shinowa are no prisoners of High Lady Suroth but specially Ishamael, who I had my doubts if he was really helping Lady Suroth or he had his own agenda and the second answer seems to be the case, High Lady Suroth came to conquer and Ishamael is after unleashing a bigger power, he is interested on Perrin so he must be the key to something Ishamael is after.
The tracker that once help Perrin and the other warriors locate the town that was attacked, named Elias, already know who he was, the moment Perrin and other prisoners were transported, he appear with a wolf pack an attack the caravan, free Perrin, helping him to escape to latter on regroup.
There is some disappointment and sadness in The White Tower after Nynaeve didn’t came back from the last Arch, Egwene find out about the news after she went looking for her and found Aes SedaiSheriam picking up Nynaeve things and let her know what happen. For the first time we see Egwene mad, she was piss off, she went looking for Liandrin because she thinks either she wanted Nynaeve dead or gone when it was the opposite, Liandrin always wanted Nynaeve to become Aes Sedai to weaponize her, Egwene confronts Liandrin and as she is walking away she lights up in fire, very similar to what Brand has done in a few occasions, its strange that so far other characters rather than Rand have shown part of their power before him, sometimes I wonder if we will ever see them fight with their full powers or may be not, at the current pace of the series if they do not crunch the story this might take another season for them to show their full potential.
Rand keeps wasting his time with Logain, a trickster who is drunk in pain after the Aes Sedai took his powers, Rand finally find his way up to Logain in the Asylum, he has ask for a specific wine bottle in exchange to show Rand how to control his powers, Selene, the mysterious woman who look like she has everything and enough time to fool around with Rand every night helps him get this bottle. Logain is only selling him smoke, he is just mad with the world after loosing his powers and is probably jealous of Rand, after Rand gave him the wine all he tells him is that he can’t control it, he can’t stop it, all he can do is embrace it, it will eventually spills out.
Rand is starting to manifest more his powers, I think Selene knows this and thats exactly what she is looking for but so far doesn’t reveal who she really is and what does she wants from Rand, sure thing is that some how she wants to manipulate him but with what purpose and who is she?
In a desperate attempt to bring Nynaeve back from the third Arch, Egwene tries to power the Arch by herself, desperate actions for desperate times seems to be forcing everyone to show their powers, this includes Rand, Perrin, Nynaeve and Egwene has show part of their powers that they haven’t in previous episodes, finally its starting to get interesting.
Egwene is stop by Elayene, her novice companion, tells her that it takes three Aes Sedai to power the Arches and that in a thousand years many have try to bring back friends, lovers, that have been lost in the Arches with no luck. All they could do is sit there and hope, Nynaeve was deep on that dream, the first chance she had to come back she didn’t, no body knows what happens on the other side so no body knows if the Arches gives you more than one chance to come back, as any other of this kind of test is up to the one been tested to decide what to do but as I though they could not get rid of the second main character so early in the series. While Egwene and Elayne were sitting there, tired, she finally came back crying for all the pain she went through on that last trip where she was with Lan and even had a daughter, lost them all to Trollocks.
I’m going to have to take a day in advance to write this WOT recaps, with so many side stories at the same time, this are long ones, way over 1500 words from all what is happening, probably one of the most exciting episodes, the first two I agree were very slow and boring but they had a purpose, season one left us with everyone going into different directions, defeated, so characters had to regroup, from now on I think we will see more of their powers and probably who the hell is Selene and what she wants with Rand, also Moiraine didn’t show on this episode I’m sure on next episode will come up telling everyone what to do and when.
A character I haven’t cover that much is Mat, same as Perrin they are not that interesting from me, Nynaeve, Egwene and Rand can channel and are very powerful but what does Perrin and Mat does? what is their purpose on the series, Min did see Mat killing or at least stabbing Rand but what else is about it, this are things that has not unfold yet and why the story remains interesting.
As some good things in life you need to have some patience, same goes for some TV Series, few weeks ago I saw online how people were saying that season 2 of The Wheel of Time (WOT) was just too slow, it was not interesting, was nothing like the books and to that I have to say a few things.
– None of these series based on books or novels will be some times even 80% like the books, the amount of things they have to adjust because of time, budget, TV restrictions, etc do change an entire season, all the cut scenes, so don’t expect it to be like the book
– If you read the books, I have not; I’m sure you will spend more time waiting for some action than in the TV Series
– It took the season three episodes to pic up some pace and do something different than not just Moiraine arguing with Lan, latter on you will find out why, there was a reason for those to first episodes.
I’m not sure if this TV Series was ever intended to be make for real NBA fans or just to bring more exposure to the league and the L.A Lakers, after many articles online criticizing the way some of their characters are develop like Jerry West or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, even on some of the game play there is a double that looks totally different than the actor Solomon Hughes and that’s confusing, makes me think how much of the story is real, even though they do present some facts like “this was real or this really happen”; clear proof that it was never meant to be hundred percent attach to how everything happen, so lets take it for what it is, a fiction story, not saying that everything is false but also I’m not an NBA or Lakers expert so I’ll keep my comments based on the TV Series, after all this is not a review and just my comments on it, I do not consider my posts reviews since I got no position of expert, just blogging and having some fun.
On this episode Magic Johnson comes back after a knee injure, he got surgery; he is playing but it still doesn’t feel right plus the team has change its tactics, coach Paul Westhead implement “The System” and players are having a hard time to adapt but it is getting a certain percent of acceptance among players and its giving good results, problem is at the time they had two players each as good going for the same position that’s Nixon and Magic, usually in futbol you cant have that unless one of those two players can go for other positions and if you bench one usually it has less talent than the starting line but this was not the case between Nixon and Johnson, playing over and over The System also expose them and eventually other teams will figure this out, Paul Westhead didn’t think so and force the team to always go for his plan, to make things worst the hole hollywood and power went to his head believing he was all mighty and only he had a saying on what can be done or not with the team.
After Magic got back he was out of rhythm, not only physically but psychologically, it lower performance was expected and everyone notice it but during this time the offense of the team was going through changes, one of them Nixon replacing him, for coach Westhead he was a more moldable player, Magic on the other hand was more use to improvise, something at the time their coach was trying to change, his direct approach was more production of hoops at the places each player was the most effective.
Magic love the press and the press love him, seems he always had something to entertain them with, it was either his performance of the drama around him, a young start who at first thought he could carry the hole team but latter on learn the hard way, after he came back he understood how others could take charge of his spot on the starting line and Kareem remaining the captain without a doubt, they were performing better than when he left.
Coach assistant Pat Riley at the time figure out Magic’s problem, he was worried that it would happen again and probably be done for good from playing, Pat was a player too so he went through this stages, anyone who do any sport at a competitive level will go through rough times or injuries, some take more time than others to heal, some need external assistance and that what Pat was intending do, help Magic get back in shape, not with the purpose to take Nixon out or gain power over the team, although this was not how coach Westhead saw it.
Nixon was as great player that was giving great results for coach Westhead but as any other professional level sport sometimes you have to trade players or buy players, the world keeps spinning so the league, rumors run around that they are going to trade Nixon for a new player David Thompson, this got leak to the press some how and that’s how Nixon finds out.
On the series Lakers had a huge problem at management, players had direct line with the team owner and I think that is probably still the case on many sports, it happens at many companies, rumors were killing them and Westhead would not allow other players think Magic’s opinion had some influence over their fates, that I give it to him although this phrase had double intention because he thought HE was almighty. Coach ends up killing the trade but I’m not sure if that was the best interest for the team.
Lakers start fighting for the ball between each other, actually Nixon and Magic, during the series the nights that they were playing together no one could beat them but when they fighting it was easy to turn them apart, Kareem always took the wheel and kept the team in check when it was necessary, but that direct line that Magic had with Dr. Buss plus rumors kept leaking mad a big damage to the team, I think after all this drama best thing to do was take off magic from the starting line for some time, let things cool down. All this also directly affect Pat’s relationship with coach Westhead as he thought Pat was going behind his back to make deals and gain power over the team like helping Magic get better by training him or knowing about the trade before him this gave coach more energy to show everyone he is in charge and he will take the team to the finals his way; what it looks is that it was never Pat’s intention to take glory from Westhead but keep in mind there is a lot of fiction on this story.
Lakers were having a hard time, ups and downs, as it has happen on most of this stories, they are on the line for elimination, fifteen seconds on the clock, Lakers down by one. Coach strictly tells Magic “no hero ball” but then Pat tells Magic “You are the guy”, I wonder if he did it for revenge against Westhead, both him and Magic were risking a lot instead of going for the play he went for a solo shot and ends up loosing the game.
On all sports franchise there are rivalries behind the curtains either between players or at the administration level, Lakers had a great time probably to at least be at the finals but all the rumors, glory and fame kill them, Dr. Buss did change the game when he bought the Lakers he turn it into a show something more appealing and attractive to investors at the same time giving something more to the audience than just two teams going at each other but this for good or bad got the players and staff, from there starts the power hunger Westhead plus the rival vary between Nixon and Magic for the starting line spot, keeping in mind that coach also make drastic changes after wining the finals, now forcing the players to perform an offense they were not comfortable with. I have to give it to this series, as a comedy is great in my opinion but the more I watch this last seasons the more I want to find out how much of this was truth to make a comparison, may be when I’m done watching the series will continue to do some digging and do a post between what was fiction and whats not, good episode solid 7/10.
