Daley Review: Tv, Movies, And Books - This Is Us | The Orville | The Mist | The Leftovers | Handmaids's Tale | Colony | Westw

We're going to cheat on the last two episodes, but only a little. If you could go through episode 7 and NOT turn on episode 8, you have far greater restraint than anyone I've ever met. Episode 7 was shorter than the rest and ended on a major cliffhanger (RIP Castle Byers!)! It was perfectly built for episode 8 to snuggle right up against, all comfy-like. Since that's how the shows obviously were made, that's how we made our podcast. In this fine recording, you get our recap and analysis of Stranger Things episode 7: The Bathtub and Stranger Things episode 8: The Upside Down back-to-back, binge style. Where do start on this one? Everybody's got to come together one last time and they get there in grand anti-ET style. Try to avoid seeing 11 flip that van out of context because seeing her do it the moment is very satisfying. She's not content to just get away. She wants Brenner to be sorry he tried to catch her again. It's great. Where do end up? The least likely of all worlds given where we start: a happy By

Now we've got all the players back on the board. They may not be as close together as they'd like (we're all looking at you, Bram), but all Bowmans are definitely taking turns at playing games. Will: Will got a new partner this week in one-time Jennifer investigator, Bob Burke. Bob wasn't putting on an act for Jennifer's benefit apparently. He must always act like that. Although being the "good soldier" is Will's only play right now, the department he returned to only resembles the one he left because they inhabit the same space. Question of the week: Now that Will has to bow down to a new dress code, do you think they'll make him cut his hair? Kate: So much for being the "good citizen" half of Team Bowman. I guess throwing your state appointed tutor out of the house isn't technically bad citizenship, but it may be bad colonist...ship. The big questions surrounding Katie's erratic behavior revolve around where the heck WAS she? Both awkward Charlie/Lindsey interactions came while Katie was away or busy. I d

In this episode, entitled "The Monster": Nancy and Jon get the crap scared out of them in the woods, have a slumber party, and then decide go shopping for some items that would probably put them on a watch-list had they done so today. Chief Hopper and Joyce are out of town questioning a comatose Terry Ives when Jonathan cleans Steve Harrington's clock. Luckily, Terry's sister is chatty and well informed. 11 gets hungry after being a little hard on herself after the fight at the scrapyard. She uses illegally obtained Eggo waffles to ease the pain. Lucas goes on a solo recon mission to Hawkins Labs and sees a small mobilization of guys that look like trouble for his friends. Dustin and Mike learn the true meaning of friendship when 11 saves their butts from getting tossed into the quarry or carved up with a pocketknife. As Dustin says, "She's our friend and she's crazy!" The bullies learn the true meaning of telekinesis as 11 uses it to break their arms and push them around.

Not this season's best episode, but a serviceable one for a necessary situation. The Bowmans had to have a reunion. They had to lay their respective cards on the proverbial table (although we're not at all sure that Katie has come completely clean). We endured a lot of soap opera-style recapping of events from both recent episodes and last season. As faithful viewers, we kind of hate having to sit through too much of that. What made it endurable was: Will did not give in to Katie and her loser ways -and- the cold open plus Jennifer's story. The cold open gave us a brief glimpse at what else is going on in the world. In a way, Jennifer's eternal reluctance to turn in Will and his family is sending ripples through the bureaucracy that are being felt and voted on at the highest levels. She just knows her jerk boss has it in for her, not that she might get them all "rendered". But it sure is fun for us to know it. In the podcast, Caroline mentions so of the previous acting work performed by the actor portrayin

How do you like your Devon? Pulp? Or no pulp? Episodes like this one are fun to watch. A little heartbreaking, sure, but still fun. Alas, poor Devon. We hardly knew her. She never Landoed Will, like I was suspecting she would. She helped him out, kept on eye on his flight-risk kid, and taught him how to survive in Santa Monica. Now, she's just one bloody smear among many on the Santa Monica side of the wall. You can't get too attached to mentor-ish characters in Colony. They don't last. Although Colony's propensity for dispensing with mentors remained consistent, we also experienced a pleasant change this past week in the form of Katie taking some responsibility for her actions. Well, kind of. She really passes the buck to Jennifer on whether or not she's actually held accountable. That is, if Jennifer can bring herself to turn in a grieving mother and maybe widow. Nice way to back into responsibility. "If you say I am, then I will be." I for one loved to see former Proxy Snyder in action and with a little

Warning: I talk a bit about Game of Thrones and some major developments in that story as a comparison to Colony in this episode. If you call yourself a Game of Thrones fan and are not completely caught up (an excuse-less condition), you may want to skip ahead in the podcast when it comes up. This week's episode marks Will Bowman's return to action hero status. I have to admit I was a little concerned when a very desperate Will got his butt kicked in the first episode. After seeing the hold Solomon had over Charlie, plus the scar tissue remnants of Solomon's "lessons", Will's edge returned. With Charlie safe from the local poncho-wearing warlord's retribution, what will Will do? And then there's Katie. Katie. Katie, the woman who can accuse her own sister of not trying very hard to use her politically persuasive boyfriend to Bram released. Never mind that Bram broke one of the cardinal rules of the colony -or- that Maddie's had to basically sell her body to buy Nolan's affections. Katie just calls 'em like s

Just 10 episodes last year was all it took. We bought in. We invested. We engaged with the Colony community. We even met Ryan Condal. When you go out in a public forum, like a blog, Facebook, what have you, and say you like something, you are also saying some other stuff. What we let into our minds and souls as entertainment is one thing, but what we tell others we like is another. Coming out all public-like in support of a show in its freshman season can be fun... until its time for the Season 2 premiere. Then we're all like, "please don't suck. please don't suck." We have good news for you. Colony Season 2 looks like it is off to a STRONG start. Where last season, we were left wondering about our characters' backstories, this episode we got mostly backstory. BUT. Some of the details we learn only lead to more questions (funny how good writers can do that, huh?). All the previous stuff I wrote I used a collective "we" to denote how Caroline and I feel about the show. This next bit is all Paul. Alan Snyde

NOTE: I incorrectly credit Sergio Leone with directing The Magnificent Seven during the podcast. Apologies to John Sturges. Where'd we end up? Ford: Dead. Maybe. Killed by Dolores in front of the Delos Board of Directors. Another possibility includes the Ford we saw get shot was actually a host impersonator. Dolores: Alive and making her own choices, the first of which is to murder Ford. When we left her, she was taking potshots at board members with a large revolver. William: Confirmation of his identity as the Man In Black. Somewhat disillusioned after discovering his pursuit of the maze was all for nothing. When last seen, he'd been shot in the left arm and had suffered a pretty catastrophic break in his right arm at Dolores' hands. But at least he was having fun. Logan: Rode off into the sunset , naked and with only a feather to keep him company. Hale: Had front row seats for Ford's suicide/murder, making her in prime seating to get gunned down by Dolores. Sizemore: Alone in cold storage wondering

It's late. Here's the podcast.      

First, the title: Trace Decay. It relates to another theory about how our brains work (recall bicameral mind?). This one has to do with a Nolan favorite, our memory. As the theory goes, memories begin in your mind as a trace and unless -something- happens to lock in that memory, like rehearsing the memory or some other multi-sensory association, it will decay over time. Pieces can come back, but after a memory gets hazy, it eventually goes away. The process even starts with short term memory. Memory, the dependability of it and to what extent it should define your current reality, is very much at the heart of Westworld. Both of our female host POV characters, Delores and Maeve, are starting to fray at the edges of their sanity. Their memories, whether they lived through it or simply had them programmed, are not only coming to them as flashbacks, but are now overlaying on top of their perception. What they see and hear is now indistinguishable from memory, making it nearly impossible for them (and us) to tell

If you're reading this / listening to this podcast, we assume you've seen the episode. With that out of the way... WOW! We had anticipated Bernard to be revealed as a host (a host-ified version of Arnold, actually), but didn't expect it so soon or so devastatingly. Big reveal, very well done. Maeve's plan to escape doesn't look like it will have a happy ending... Delores is happy to have company on her journey to self- fulfillment, but don't call her a key... William is sounding more and more like the Man In Black with each passing episode... Elsie is on "leave" since her abduction last week. That implies that whomever took her, could have made that change in the company computer... My money is still on Stubbs. Cullen 1.0 is currently down. Look for Cullen 2.0 to debut soon! Now, with less betrayal and more compliance! Direct iTunes Link!

Blame election week hysteria or whatever you want. We're massively late, but here we go, with at least a full day before the next episode. No long write up this time. Let's just get to it!

We've seen enough. There's enough to work with at this point to adopt the Internet's "multiple timeline theory" as being for real. In the podcast, we'll talk about the couple of times this episode where you can spot the clearest evidence so far. The run-time on this episode is a little on the longish side, but did you see that episode? So much happened! We've added Adam again this week and we just kept finding more to talk about. I know we're late, but... you know. Adam and I had Dr. Strange tickets. Let's catch up with all of our favorite characters: Delores: She shook off the prairie dress and, "aw, shucks," persona and traded up for something more in the Lara Croft vein. She's also been chatting with Arnold. The best theory going places Delores physically in the same location in two timelines. 35 years ago, she had an adventure with William and Logan. In the modern timeline, she's retracing her steps and seeing her memories play out before her. William: Wound up feeling conflicted about taking out a

Although this episode maintained the high aesthetic standards of the ones preceding it, I have trouble summing up what this one was "about". We caught several of our main characters in the middle of their respective narratives and, except for Maeve, no one had a single episode character arc. This show has been compared to LOST and in a lot of ways, I agree with that comparison. One thing that LOST did very well was it let you know whose story was being covered in a given episode. So far, Westworld is casting a large net every episode when it comes to POV characters, allowing the story to advance through many different points of view. This is fine, but sometimes you end up with episodes like this one. Episodes like this where we find out a couple of tidbits we've been wanting to know and basically serve to position characters where they need to be later on in the season. You can practically feel the writers' hand moving William and Deloers' party to smack into the Man In Black's party at some pivotal time and

One unexpected brain-dump of Westworld mythology later and now we have Arnold. With him comes tons of new questions like: Is the Man In Black somehow related to Arnold? Is Arnold a first name or a last name? Is Arnold like a ghost in the machine presence in Westworld? Did Ford tell the whole truth about Arnold? Immediately, I'm reminded of Jacob from LOST. For a looong time, Jacob existed only in the shadows, speaking through others (sound familiar?). We had to watch all the way to just about the end of the final season before we got the entire backstory on the guy. It's unknown with only 3 episodes in the can whether or not Westworld is a show that condones entire-show flashbacks or not, so we may never get a filmed version of "This Is What Arnold Did". I hope we DO get some corroborated info from some other sources on Arnold though. Ford seems like the kind of guy that takes Obi-wan Kenobi's "truth from a certain point of view," from Return of the Jedi and RUNS with it. Honesty, but not the whole

The tempo of the series starts to pick up with Hopper's invasion of Hawkins Labs. I haven't followed any of David Harbour's work before now, but he brings a very large, very physical presence to his scenes. It makes for believable action and an endearing character. Even though he's captured and delayed in a little swamp of self-doubt in his cabin, he picks himself up and gets the story moving again by making it to Joyce's to spill his guts. I love this. Lonnie's influence may have delayed Jonathon's ability to confer with his mom, but after Joyce ably kicks him to the curb, she's all ears when Hopper shows up. And the plot keeps moving! After Will's funeral, 11 has the boys chasing their tails after Professor Dustin Compassman schools them on proper compass functioning. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt. Until she does, that is. And then, so looooong, Lucas. Chagrined at having knocked out one her friends cold, she bolts. Meanwhile, Jon and Nancy take in the fall colors with a little shooting practice and

In episodes to come, we will look back at this one and say, "That's the one everything was put into motion," I bet. Although whatever Ford intends to happen must have required some steps having been taken prior to our introduction to him last week, this is when those plans are starting to bear fruit. This is when the good stuff starts. We talk about said good stuff including: Newcomers William and Logan - what's their possible relationship and whether Logan is a psycho back in the real world or not All the HQ staffers including Bernie and Cullen's lustful urges and Sizemore's comeuppance Maeve - her tumultuous life path from prairie massacre survivor, to whorehouse madame, to robot revolutionary The Man in Black and his gunfire-laden path to winning friends and influencing teenage robots Ford - or robot-god (robo-god?) and what he might be up to Check us out and see what you think! Direct iTunes link.

What an episode, right? We have this show which has all the trimmings for Hollywood success: It's a reboot of a 1973 sci-fi classic written and directed by Michael Crichton. It's got BIG stars. KNIGHTED stars. Even CYCLOPS. It's got classic, Frankenstein inspired themes combined with just-out-of-our-reach tech. It's got Jonathan Nolan, the guy that wrote Interstellar, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Prestige in charge of the whole thing (with his wife, Lisa Joy Nolan). AND it all seems to actually WORK for once! This show has that carefully polished sheen you'd expect from HBO these days, but it goes further than meeting expectations set by watching Game of Thrones. You get the sense that although we may be at the beginning of our adventure with Bernie and Delores, we're actually very late to the party. Things have been happening in Westworld for a while, but now they're getting interesting. Dropping us into the story like this gives us the natural desire to see the story move forwa

If I didn't love this show before this episode, then this one cemented it. I love this show. What makes this episode so special though? Forward progress in the story. Jonathon and Nancy - They get right to the business of sorting out monsters with missing faces and Jon's pictures of them.  Despite their awkwardness around each other, despite Jon's naked pictures of Nancy, despite Jon probably like-liking Nancy, they still managed to exchange very important info and factor into solving the mystery. Hopper - What's not to love here? This guy punches O-Bannon's lights out and then breaks into the morgue to get the truth behind Will's body. Sidenote on the appearance of Cujo during the morgue scene: The cop and the kid die in Cujo. Just sayin'. The boys - They all get on board with 11's ability to channel Will's other worldly transmissions. Dustin especially has a wide open approach to trying to understand what's happened to Will (hopefully wide enough to make up for Lucas' very close-minded approach). They co

We have had a -busy- month! As just a couple of parents podcasting for the fun of it, Real Life has a way of winning out over extracurriculars sometimes, but we should be back on track for a while now. We plan to finish out Stranger Things, then podcast all about  our trip to Gilmore Girls Fan Fest AND the GG Revival episodes coming out in November. After that, it will almost be time to start up with Colony, season 2! Poor Barb! I don't think there's any hope that Barb wound up anything other than a faceless monster's Barb-burger. Did it pay to be Nancy's conscience? Or does she wish she had cut loose a little more? We'll probably never know the answer - unless the monster was just really lonely and wanted a friend for checkers at the bottom of the pool. We had a hunch they didn't show us that quarry in episode 2 just for good production value. I wonder if we're done with it though. Seems like a great showdown location with the monster... Or maybe Joyce's house. Either way, I know I need to see Elle telekin