My Quick Takes on the Final 'Stranger Things' Showdown, Jump Scares, MIA Ellie Bishop and More
The latest installment of a feature in which I offer 60°F takes on the TV shows I'm watching and the news that's breaking.
◾️ To look at the official — and quite fantastic — Stranger Things final-season trailer (below), the very final, heartbreaking showdown is going to be Eleven versus a Vecna-controlled Will, isn't it?
◾️ It's good to see a return date for Jennifer Garner's The Last Thing He Told Me (Feb. 20 on Apple TV). Now how do we get Ellie Kemper out of TV Commercial Jail?
◾️ During Fox's coverage of the World Series Game 7, which was played in Toronto, did they not have a camera crew set up at any Los Angeles sports bar to get real-time Dodger fan reactions to critical home runs, plays, and the eventual championship win?
◾️ Regarding the overplayed Amazon commercial we collectively grumbled about last week: a Facebook friend informed me that the spot is a tad less annoying if you fixate on how unusually high the bedroom doorknob is.
◾️ Seeing Emily Wickersham hanging around the NCIS: Origins offices gave me thoughts.... For one, wouldn't even a short-term return to NCIS by her Ellie Bishop be a must-see event? Short of that, maybe Wick guest-stars on Origins as Ellie's mom, who has a near-miss with Gibbs when visiting San Diego from Oklahoma (and who of course grows up to be Lindsay "The Bionic Woman" Wagner)?" Also re: NCIS: Torres has far more chemistry with Barbara than Jess, right?
◾️ The victim was a "housewife," you say? Are we sure the Chicago Fire news story below wasn't written in 1970 versus 2019?
◾️ Shall we add Chicago P.D.'s bomb blast to the list of This Year's Biggest Jump Scares, alongside the Peacemaker park explosion and Task's [Spoiler] getting shot dead in the finale during his talk with Grasso?
Matt Webb Mitovich
◾️ Now that Matlock showrunner Jennie Snyder-Urman has fulfilled half of her dreamcasting wish with guest star Melanie Lynskey (a three-time Emmy nominee and Jason Ritter's real-life wife), is it just a matter of time until Edwin Hodge (Skye P. Marshall's husband and recently of FBI: Most Wanted) shows up?
◾️ I was disappointed that Elsbeth didn't outright "catch" the killer as usual, in the Halloween episode. The trick-or-treater's fingerprint found on the scarecrow costume glove simply secured the police a search warrant, which then paved the way to catch the killer.
◾️ What do you think, Fire Country fans? Is the note that Eve found tucked in Vince's guitar case (below) a big ol' misdirect? Or might, say, Bode have a secret half-sibling out there somewhere?
Matt Webb Mitovich
◾️ Speaking of Fire Country, is it me or has the Station 42 backdrop below been looking distractingly fakey-fake this season?
◾️ On the latest Boston Blue, am I right that linking the accused rapist's IP address to views of the victim's adult films isn't the "smoking gun" it was made out to be? Couldn't a defense attorney simply argue that that doesn't necessarily put his client in front of said computer screen?
◾️ Once again, I haven't read Stephen King's IT or seen any previous adaptations, but HBO's IT: Welcome to Derry thus far has this horror lover hooked. Not only are the frightful sequences horrifically disquieting, but the child and adult casts are both excellent.
◾️ DMV's Lifeguard Fire was 100% a send-up of Rescue HI-Surf, yes? (But I'd totally watch it.)
◾️ Does FBI have TV's biggest (as in font size) opening credits? (When Taylor Anthony Miller's name comes on, it always seems to fill half the screen!)
◾️ Stealth Castings Corner: So, not only did 24 alum Sarah Clarke guest-star on this week's FBI directed by veteran 24 EP Jon Cassar, but Rudolf Martin – aka 24 Season 1 baddie Jonathan Matijevich (no relation!) – played the episode's elite assassin.
◾️ Those NCIS: Origins flashback wigs were... something.
◾️ Tune-in alert! Apple TV's Pluribus drops its first two episodes (of nine) this Friday. Rhea Seehorn stars, its from her Better Call Saul boss Vince Gilligan, it is already renewed for Season 2, and... that's precisely as much as I can say about it right now.
💬 THE INSIDE LINE LINE OF THE WEEK
"I’m trying really hard, Baby Jane." — Matlock's Edwin to pancake make-up victim Madeleine
