arts and entertimment

They are All in a Snow Globe

I saw an article yesterday that a character from the canceled Chicago Justice television show will move to Law and Order SVU. I knew that the Chicago Fire universe had already crossed over in to the Law and Order universe. This was just a reminder and made me think about how many shows are now connected.

Chicago Fire, PD and Med are all obviously connected, so that means they are all in the same universe as the Law and Order shows. Law and Order is connected to Homicide Life on the Streets via the character of John Munch.  When Homicide ended, the character moved over to the Law and Order universe. So, now we have connected the Chicago shows to Law and Order and Homicide. Munch ties them in to a lot of other shows. He was everywhere. He appeared in one episode of the X-Files, an episode of The Wire and was mentioned by Luther in the BBC show Luther(all according to Wikipedia.

So now we have Chicago Fire connected to the X-Files, The Wire and Luther. I guess that means of they wanted they could add some X-Files weirdness to a storyline or have Luther visit from the UK.

The connection to Homicide leads us to the Snow Globe. Two characters from St Elsewhere once crossed over to Homicide. That means all of the above mentioned shows are connected to the St Elsewhere universe. In the St Elsewhere finale, it is revealed that everything in the show is a figment of the imagination of an autistic boy looking at a snow globe with the hospital building inside it.

So, next time you watch a show in the Chicago franchise, remember that everyone there is just an imaginary person living in a snow globe.

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Tater Takes on the Fall 2017 TV Schedule

I’m am one of the weird people who looks forward to the network upfronts every year to see what is renewed, what’s canceled and what’s new. The upfronts were this week. I will go night by night and post my thoughts. If you want a good grid, TVline has a good one.

Sunday: ABC has To Tell the Truth, Shark Tank and Ten Days in the Valley. CBS has Wisdom of the Crowd, NCIS: LL Cool J and Madam Secretary. Fox stays with comedy with Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Ghosted  and Last Man on Earth and NBC has football.

Most of my Sunday night viewing is on AMC and HBO(Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, etc) but we do enjoy Madam Secretary.  Otherwise, I will try Wisdom of the Crowd only because it stars Jeremy Piven(a charismatic tech innovator who creates a cutting-edge crowd-sourcing hub to solve his own daughter’s murder, as well as revolutionizing crime-solving in San Francisco.) and Ghosted with Adam Scott and Craig Robinson(a comedic X-Files) and football.

Monday:  ABC continues Dancing with the Has Beens followed by the new show The Good Doctor, CBS has Big Bang, 9JKL, Kevin Can Wait, Me Myself and I and Scorpion. FOX moves Lucifer to 8(weird) followed by The Gifted. NBC has The Voice and the Brave and CW has Supergirl and Valor.

Lucifer is one of my favorite shows. The move to 8 is weird. We also really like Supergirl. My wife and daughter like Scorpion. As for new shows – I think the only one I will watch is Gifted(set in the X-Men universe). I might give in and watch the new comedies, but I don’t think they will stick.

Tuesday: ABC has The Middle, Fresh Off the Boat, Blackish, The Mayor and The Gospel of Kevin. CBS sticks with NCIS, Bull and NCIS:Gumbo. FOX moves Lethal Weapon to Tuesday followed by The Mick and Brooklyn 99. NBC has The Voice, Superstore, The Good Place and Chicago Fire. CW has Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Tuesday night is always hard for us and the reason we need to upgrade to a DVR that allows for recording more shows. This will be complicated. At 8 we watch Flash and Lethal Weapon(best new show last season). My wife watches NCIS and I like the ABC comedies. Looks like NCIS and the ABC shows will watched on On Demand. At 9 we watch Legends, the NBC comedies and Brooklyn 99(the one comedy my wife likes) and I think The Mayor sounds good. More On Demand somewhere. 10 is easier. My wife watches NCIS: Gumbo and we all watch Chicago Fire.

Wednesday: ABC has The Goldbergs, Speechless, Modern Family, American Housewife and Designated Survivor.  CBS has Survivor, Seal Team and Criminal Minds. FOX is Empire and Star. NBC has The Blacklist, Law & Order SVU and Chicago PD. CW is Riverdale and Dynasty.

This night is even more complicated by the fact that I work until 9(I need to figure out how to be paid to stay home and watch TV). We really like the entire ABC slate. Speechless and American Housewife are two of the best sitcoms on TV. Survivor was the one show I watched live until I started working on Wednesday nights and is now the one I watch as soon as I get home. We also watch Riverdale and The Blacklist. So, at 8 we will record Survivor and one other show and watch the rest on On Demand. at 9 I will record the ABC comedies and will likely try Seal Team(because I am a fan of David Boreanz) and Dynasty(because I’m a sucker for a reboot), 10 is easy because we only watch Designated Survivor.

Thursday: ABC continues Shondaland night with Grey’s, Scandal and How to Get Way with Murder. CBS has football and then Big Bang, Young Sheldon, Mom, Life in Pieces and S.W.A.T. FOX has Gotham and The Orville. NBC has Will and Grace, Great News, This is Us and Law & Order True Crime(football from Nov 9-Dec 14), The CW has Supernatural and Arrow.

I still watch Grey’s and I don’t think I will be able to resit the Will & Grace reunion. We watch all of the DC universe shows so Arrow will be on the schedule. I will probably try The Orville(comedic Star Trek type show with Seth McFarlane) and S.W.A.T.(because my wife is a sucker for cop shows).

Friday: ABC has Once Upon a Time, Marvel’s Inhumans and 20/20. CBS has MacGyver, Hawaii 50 and Blue Bloods. FOX is Hell’s Kitchen and The Exorcist. NBC has Bindspot, Taken and Dateline. CW is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin.

My wife likes Macgyver and Hawaii 50 and I like Blue Bloods, so we will record the entire CBS slate. She also really likes Taken. Otherwise, nothing here for me. I still can’t figure out if all of these shows are here to die or if the networks are trying to revive Friday night viewing.

I won’t bother with Saturday because it is all encores and football. Use this day to watch DVR’ed stuff if you are boring like me and never have plans on Saturday night.

Mideason shows I’m looking forward to seeing: The 100, Black Lightning and iZombie on The CW. Shield and Alex, inc on ABC. AP Bio, Rise and Timeless on NBC. Amazing Race and Code Black on CBS.

To read more about the new shows go here for a synopsis on each one.

 

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Some Thoughts on Last Night’s Episode of Survivor

Some random thoughts about last night’s episode:

In the reward challenge why did Tai’s team never put him in the chair? Shouldn’t you put a smaller, weaker player in the chair at the end instead of leaving him as one of the ones lifting the entire time?

I don”t disagree that Zeke is a strong, strategic player but shouldn’t he have been a little more subtle with his bonding with Culpepper? Especially when you know your current alliance already has little trust in you?

Math: Your current alliance is up 6-4. I know that mathematically you can get rid of one of your own and still be up 5-4, but that means you only need one person to flip to be in the minority. I don’t get why people always want to make the move on an alliance member with such a small advantage. It makes more sense to get it at least to 6-3 so you would need two flippers to change the game.

Andrea wins the battle with Zeke and was correct that he was going to turn on her. If not for idols and advantages(legacy and secret) I would like her chances to go to the end. Instead she has a 5-4 advantage but has alienated Michaela and Sarah by pushing them to go after Zeke. If Sarah flips you have a 5(or 6 with Michaela) with 3 idols and 2 advantages. She is also doomed because my daughter says she is the only one left that she really wants to win. I see a final 5 of Sarah, Sierra, Tai, Troyzan and Culpepper(perhaps saved by one of Tai’s idols).

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A Very Emotional Survivor Game Changers

Caution: Spoilers ahead:

 

I should have known something big was gong down in tribal council last night. After the normal “previously on” and the scenes of the tribe after tribal, we moved quickly to the reward challenge, saw brief scenes from the two tribes and then moved on to the immunity challenge and then to what I will be writing about: tribal council.

At tribal council, Jeff Varner started out trying to explain to the tribe why they should vote out Ozyy instead of him.  In doing so, he talks about a secret alliance between Ozzy and Zeke. Of he had stopped there, everything would have been fine. Unfortunately, he did not stop there. He turned to Zeke and asks him why he has not told them that he is transgender. He then goes on to say that this shows he is capable of deceit.  Zeke looks like he is in shock The rest of the tribe, to their credit, immediately turn on Varner telling him, rightly, that no one has the right to out someone. Varner tries to backtrack and says he is sorry, but I’m sure at that moment he is only sorry it didn’t work. I guess he thought the tribe would either agree that this means Zeke is deceitful or perhaps be bigoted enough to vote him off for being trans. In the end, they don’t even need to officially vote. Probst asks if he is correct that Varner is going home, they all agree and off he goes.

There have been a lot of villains on this show. Many people have done despicable things to try to win the money. Outing someone on TV has to be the worst. You have to be a pretty terrible person to 1. reveal such personal information without his permission and 2. think that Zeke being trans is a reason to vote him or his alliance out. I’m glad he is out of the game.

 

 

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Tater’s Music Listening History

I should be reading my book during my lunch break, but instead I will bore everyone with a post about music.

I went to a concert Tuesday night. The opening band was a ska band(Stacked Like Pancakes) and the rest were pop-punk(Direct Hit, Runaway kids and Bowling for Soup). This is generally the type of music I listen to. Bowling for Soup, Patent Pending, The Dollyrots, Suburban Legend, etc, but I try not to be the type of person who listens to only one style or era of music. I went from the above mentioned concert to listening to 50’s music on Sirius on my drive to work yesterday. I recently spent my drive to and from work listening to a collection of Prince’s greatest hits. It’s about time for me to do my week of listening to the local “hits” radio station to try to keep current with the mainstream music of the day.

I have always been a weird music person(a weird person in general). I grew up hearing county music from acts like Conway Twitty, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Statler Brothers, etc and watching Hee Haw on weekends. I spent a lot of time listening to 45’s of 50’s music when I was a kid. One of my favorite songs is still Blue Moon by the Marcels(I’m listening to it now). I went from that to being the typical 80’s kid and still love 80’s music. I was a fan of bands like Motley Crue, Whitesnake. KISS, Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Poison, etc. along with the pop music like Michael Jackson, Wham, etc. In the 90’s  I drifted toward country when I found myself not liking a lot of the popular music. I went the direction of pop punk by accident. I heard a Bowling for Soup song on the radio, loved it and looked for more. I went to some of their shows and started listening to music by the opening acts at those shows. A good portion of the music I listen to came to me from their connection to BFS.

My music history is a weird one, but I think it gave me an appreciation for all styles of music and has kept me from becoming the annoying old guy who hates all music not from his era. I am an annoying old guy in many other ways. Do yourself a favor and, if you are in a music rut or have not given new styles of music a shot change that. Listen to new bands and new genres. You might find a new favorite band.

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Survivor Game Changers: Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?

Spoilers Below:

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This week’s episode starts out with another tribe shakeup. We go from three tribes back to two tribes. Because there is an odd number of players left one person will not join a tribe and will go to Exile Island instead. The odd person(in many ways) out is Debbie. The rest of the cast has to be relieved to get a break from her. After tribal council, Debbie will join the losing team so that team gets a double penalty this week.

All we see of the one tribe is Culpepper and Troyzan’s male bonding. The other tribe is full of talk about strategy and idols. It’s pretty obvious which tribe is going to lose the challenge. The consensus seems to be to vote out Sandra while making her and Varner think they are voting out Tai. The plan seems to be going OK until Tai blurts out that they are voting her out. He now has two idols and no skill at game play. I’m sure he will find a way to screw up the plan somehow.

Over on exile, Debbie finds she has a boat, food and booze. She also has a guest. For some reason, John Cochran is there to talk strategy with her leaving most in the audience wondering what we’ve wondered during multiple reunion shows – why is Cochran there taking screen time from the actual players? I like Cochran, but I don’t get why he keeps showing up. He deals with crazy Debbie and gives her a box with an option of three advantages. An extra vote, a fake idol kit or a tribe advantage. She takes the extra vote. I would have gone with the tribe advantage. It seems like a good idea to give the tribe a reason to like you. Also, the extra vote never seems to work out.

The challenge is not very dramatic. The tribe we all knew would lose lost. It was never close. Tribal council is interesting. Sandra says she knows she’s going home. Tai agrees, but then says he would be willing to vote out someone else. He throws out Ozzy’s name and Sanrda and Varner say they are in, Sandra then tells Andrea that she will vote with them and they are all whispering Tai’s name behind his back as he talks. I’m worried they will all vote Tai and he will vote Ozzy and I will not be happy. Tai doesn’t play an idol and I’m sure he is going home. Instead, Sandra and Varner vote Tai and everyone else votes Sandra. Sandra is voted out for the first time ever after 90 some days of playing. This must have been a plan designed at camp that we didn’t see. If so, it was a genius one and gets out one of the biggest threats out there. Now Debbie joins the tribe. I’m sure the Debbie/Tai combo will screw up the tribe dynamic and ruin a good streak Andrea and Ozzzy had going.

Next week: Everyone is crying and Ozzy is a target.

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Survivor Game Changers: Debbie Does Delusion

It’s a little late because this week is weird and needs to end, but here is my weekly rambling post about the recent Survivor episode. Let’s see if I remember anything.

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Spoilers

We start with the arrival back at camp after the Malcolm debacle.  No one is happy with JT.  JT tries to convince them that he is innocent. No one is buying it.

We move on to the reward challenge. In the middle part of this is a balance challenge. Before the challenge starts we get a rare look at the teams deciding who will do what portion of the challenge. Debbie declares that she has an incredible sense of balance, so she will do the balance portion. Of course, we got this glimpse because Debbie obviously does not have an incredible sense of balance and takes forever to complete her part of the task. Her tribe loses and she goes even crazier than she was before. She declares that Brad is a dictator and that she had no say in who did what and in another rare Survivor moment we get a flashback to her saying she will do the balance portion. Back at the camp, in a bout of alternative facts befitting a member of the Trump administration, Debbie declares that Hali was the one who took forever while she, Debbie, zipped right across. She screams, she does push-ups, and is just crazy in general.

Meanwhile, JT and Michaela fight over sugar intake. Sandra eats all of the sugar to make them fight more and we have JT and Aubrey vs Sandra and Michaela with Varner as a swing vote.

I can’t recall much about the immunity challenge except Michaela killing the digging portion and Culpepper killing the slingshot portion of the challenge. In the end, Sandra and company head back to tribal(I can’t remember the tribe names). Before tribal, Sandra does a masterful job of convincing JT that he is safe and that they are all voting Michaela. So convincing that he goes home with an Idol in his pocket. How does a return player this late in the run of the show go home with an idol in his pocket? He has been the outsider from the beginning and his closest ally went home at the last tribal. He had no reason to feel so secure that he wouldn’t play the idol. Dumb.

Next week, as my daughter says, there is a lot going on in one hour of show: merge, exile island and a visit from a mysterious contestant.

 

 

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