Making Monsters

Once Upon A Time, S02E05

Regina tried to overcome her past, but had trouble when Dr. Whale brought Daniel back to life.  In the past, Regina struggled to learn magic from Rumpelstiltskin because she refused to use magic for evil.  In the magic world, Emma and the others suspected that Hook was not who he seemed to be.

I suppose what I was most concerned about (despite Franken-Daniel was walking around) in this episode was who the hell Dr. Whale was.  At first I thought he was the Wizard of Oz or something.  It wasn't until he was shown trying to revive Daniel with a bolt of lightening crashing near his tent that I suspected he might be Dr. Frankenstein.  Man, they are taking characters from all kinds of stories...  I guess that's okay.  But I feel like I'm soon going to be yelling "come on!"  But Dr. Whale (someone I was hardly concerned about before this episode) did bring about some interesting events.

The most interesting thing he did in the past was work for Rump to help Regina "come over to the dark side."  I can't believe I didn't think that Rump wasn't involved when it was Hatter (who used to be Rump's lackey) who almost randomly offered to help Regina when Rump wouldn't.  I thought that was strange even when he was asking for something in return.  So Regina really never had a chance to stay good when Rump was pulling all the strings (and apparently has had his eye on her before they even met).

It's also interesting Regina called her mother a monster for ripping people's hearts out and then collecting them.  For she became the same thing, thanks to Rump making her give up her moral obstacles.  And of course, Dr. Whale made a real monster out of Daniel who was brought back to life when implanted with one of Regina's stolen hearts.  That was quite like a horror story when Regina was looking for Whale and found him missing an arm in a hospital dark and in shambles.  Plus, it was a bit freaky with Daniel walking around attacking people like Henry and Regina.  I felt a little sad that Regina had to put him out of her misery herself, waving her hand and turning him into dust.  I don't know how that will ultimately affect Regina, even if she seems more open to the idea of therapy.

I was proud of Emma in the magic world because for once she wasn't acting like a fool.  In fact, she was pretty awesome in the way that she didn't really trust Hook for one damn second. I loved that she put a knife to his throat and then she and the others tied him up to a tree so he could be torn apart by ogres.  I actually thought that Hook wouldn't cave in and he'd keep pretending, but he cracked pretty soon.  That was suspicious to me, but at least the girls were all on their toes about being led into a trap by him.  It's just weird to me that Hook would end up teaming with them.  I'm sure that he wants to get revenge on Rump, but not so sure he really wants to double-cross Cora.

Oh, and on a completely different note, isn't it pretty cool that Rump just waved his hand and returned Dr. Whale's arm to his body?  Wow.  And I like how they have this long-ass argument about which is more powerful: science or magic.  It seems like the two can work pretty well hand in hand.  Well, maybe not because Daniel's revival wasn't a success.  So why the hell does Whale think it'll work again with his brother?  Talk about a one-trick pony.

I wonder what we'll learn about next in Regina's past or Rump's.  The more I learn about their past together, the more I'm convinced that Regina was no more than a product of her mother and Rump's manipulations.  I like that this show is really reinventing some of the characters that we thought we knew from last season, but are finding out that we didn't know half of their story.  It'll also be interesting to know what will happen when Emma and the others ascend that beanstalk.  There's no way a giant thrown into the mix can't mean more adventure to enjoy. 

Never Alone, But Forever Crazy

Cougar Town, S0314-15

Jules was forced to deal with some issues she was having with Grayson's privacy and deceiving Laurie about her position as co-maid of honor when everyone re-enacted the premise of Groundhog Day for her.  Travis had to rekindle Bobby and Andy's passion for penny can.  Grayson proposed that he and Jules elope in Napa by themselves, but she brought the whole gang with her.

Sometimes I think that Grayson is the most reasonable person on the show and found his explosion of fury when Jules and company would not give him the tiniest bit of space in his new home to be overdue.  There's only so much one person can take before you just push them over the line and having people lotioning up and raiding your drawers and closet while you want to read is beyond what a normal person could tolerate.  That's why it was not just appropriate to see Grayson yell at the gang and punch the wall, but it was also funny.  Finally he stops just complaining in the background while everyone ignores him and puts a little force behind his rejections of their ways!  Truly, I identify with Grayson the most of all (especially because I would have been a neighbor like him was who intended to interact as little as possible with his fellow neighbors).

I wasn't too surprised that Grayson's request for the two of them to be eloped was denied.  But it frustrated me to see Jules not understand that just the two of us didn't mean the rest of the people who never leave her house (gathering at 6:30 in the morning?? I would shoot those people!).  In fact, I think my head would explode if Jules had taken Grayson to Napa with just the two of them.  But at least Grayson accepted his fate that he was marrying everyone (his proposal to them all was lame) and didn't drown himself in a full wine barrel.  There's not much he can do short of murdering Jules' entourage.

Besides Grayson's outburst, I liked that they recreated Groundhog Day to teach Jules a lesson.  It's one of my favorite movies, and I would love it if I could do that with a group of friends.  The fact that Jules didn't understand the concept of the movie and was annoyed that they kept saying the same thing for a few days was really funny.  I only wished that she had taken longer to figure out how to make things right with Laurie and Grayson.  I like when they sort of team up against her.  She deserves it.

Concerning penny can... I was so hopeful that Travis had done something great for once in his miserable life and brought an end to that game.  It has a certain charm for weirdo adults, but when you think about it, it's a really stupid game that loses its charm the more they play the game.  It was only slightly cute when Little Stan was asking to play and finally did play it at the end.  Other than that, I didn't pay too much attention to that story.

I also didn't pay too much attention to Travis trying to get Laurie again.  I was happy, however, to see Wade.  He is quite cuter in person than on an iPad!  But I know one day, especially now that Travis has drunkenly exposed himself to Laurie, Travis will get Laurie.  Am I sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for that day?  Hell no.  But I hope to enjoy more of cute Wade for a little while longer until that happens.

I was disappointed that they had their wedding on the beach while trying to avoid the cops because it happened without much mishap.  I wanted to see disaster after disaster before they said "I do."  It was sweet, but it didn't pull at any heart strings for me.  What was better than their wedding was Ellie flirting shamelessly with the guy at the hotel.  I mean, if Andy had dropped dead right in front of her, I think she would have hopped over his body and jumped Daniel's bones in a second.  I loved it. She just wouldn't stop, even when Daniel was arrested.  She kept texting him things that were certainly crossing over to cheating on Andy.  Somehow I really envy how she can do that with no guilt.  It's cruel in a hilarious way, and I sort of wish I could do that if I were married.  I gained a little more respect for Ellie.

This wasn't a bad season finale, and I could be happy if this were the series finale, frankly.  This show was a little too often off the mark for me in terms of jokes, so I'm not that eager to continue watching it on TBS, unless I hear some pretty good rumors about it.  I kept with this show hoping that it would grow on me and it has a tiny bit, but not so much that I think that I will be definitely watching it again in its fourth season. 

Ricky Spanish--What Up With That?

American Dad, S07E17

Steve helped Roger undo the bad rap one of his personas named Ricky Spanish had made for himself through apologies.  It all seemed to be going well until Ricky went to make amends with Daniel, an ex-coworker Ricky let take the blame for a crime they had both committed.  The two began to steal sweaters just like old times, but were going to let Steve take the fall instead.  Steve tried to believe in Ricky's ability to change until the very end when Steve got arrested by the cops and had to spend some time in jail.  In a side story, Stan and Francine tried to ditch Tungee, a boy they had sponsored from Africa who came to live with them.  They left him at a Costgo only to ditch him again immediately.

As much as the town hated Ricky Spanish, so did I.  I thought there was potential for Steve and Ricky's journey through redemption (possibly in way that started off like it was helping, but actually made things worse), but it was all a ruse for a second sweater heist.  And I thought somehow the caterpillar turning into a butterfly would be more meaningful in causing Ricky to change.  Instead it was used as some kind of metaphor to show how Steve's innocence as a child was killed just like the butterfly trapped in the jar.  I didn't really get it, but hearing someone  like Werner Herzog narrate at the end really made it feel like some kind of ending to a depressing movie (with a deep meaning that would go over my head).  Overall, a story where Roger ultimately screws over Steve and gets away with it completely is a failure of a story for me (if I'm looking to laugh, anyway).

The only thing that was good was when Steve was trying to encourage Ricky at one point and he used SNL as an example:

It's like Saturday Night Live.  The opening sketch stinks, the monologue is awful, but then Kenan does "What Up With That?" and it's all worth it.

I absolutely love that sketch on SNL.  I had my reservations about Kenan making an impact on SNL like he used to do with All That back in the day, but sometimes all I want to see is that sketch when I happen to watch that show now.  I was so happily surprised to hear that they thought the same thing  about how well Kenan steals the show at times.

The Stan and Francine story was just stupid.  It proved what horrible people they were and how they enjoyed taking granted for things as long as there wasn't someone around who could ruin it by appreciating it.  Granted Tungee was an unwanted guest, but it wasn't like he was destroying their home or making that much of a nuisance to them.  I think he was better than damn Klaus is.  At least Stan and Francine stayed true to themselves and didn't pretend like they really wanted Tungee back.  They got rid of him like they really wanted to deep down inside, no matter how nice of a kid he was.

This episode just made me mad and was a waste of time except their on-the-nose assessment of SNL.  If that line wasn't in there, I would have thought it was one of my least favorite episodes.  I definitely saw one of my least favorite Roger personas.   I like the kind that are up to schemes that try to fix problems of the other characters, not ones that pretend they are letting one of the other characters fix him.  I'll be happy not to see this episode again, but I surely will be watching some clips of "What Up With That?" after this.