Teen Wolf, Season 6, Episode 15: Pressure Test

Tension in Beacon Hills are getting higher with the fear demon fleeing from the Wild Hunt and causing all kinds of shenanigans

Firstly we get the return of an old character, Theo. Who should have been murdered by angry hockey-playing weremoose several seasons ago. He has been captured along with two other werewolves from Saotome’s pack, Jiang and Tierenan. They’ve been captured by Schrader, a former worker at Eichenn House and brutal sadist. Honestly this may have nothing to do with the fear monster since he was pretty awful to begin with. He tortures the three of them for funsies for a while - and there’s something especially creepy about a torturer who doesn’t want money or information or a confession - just torture. Of course they’re werewolves and the bonds holding them give out before they do - we can assume this is the end of this guy

This puts Theo the Awful with Jiang and Tierenan and him offering to show them to Scott’s since Soatome is dead and they have no pack. Except on the way Sheriff Stilinski stops them and arrests them all for murder.

Murder? I mean I’m not even shocked with the bodies raining down, but this whole thing is getting very public

Theo quick gets the other two to implicate themselves on camera since they did the actual killing (hunters with lots of claw marks) getting Theo released, though Jiang and Tierenan claim self-defence.

Which is when Scott and co show up to argue for their release on the grounds that, well, basically a werewolf killing hunters is kind of the hunters getting what’s coming to them. And, y’know, not entirely wrong? Of course Sheriff Stilinski makes it clear that they’re still people and murder is still murder

And then things get worse because Tamora gathers an entire mob of people with guns to lay siege to the police station. Which is a police station so is also full of people with gun. Tamora demands the police hand over Tierenan and Jiang for murder

Scott rallies his people ready for war - and the Sheriff gets in between them along with Parrish to encourage everyone to be nice and peaceful and calm - and delay until midnight.

He could call for help being police and all but that pretty much ensures exposure for the supernatural. Sheriff Stilinski is kind of awesome through this, calm, rational, careful.

Midnight Texas, Season One, Episode Five: Unearthed

I'm just going to admit it, Midnight Texas has really started to grow on me, despite my reservations due to the fact that it's based on a series by Charlaine Harris.  Midnight Texas knows that it's cheese but still tries to infuse each episode with some drama.  It alternates between the serious and the camp quite well. So far, each episode has been about delving into backstories as a form of characterisation. In Unearthed, Bobo and Manfred are forced to deal with their pasts.

It begins for Manfred when a rock is thrown at his door. Manfred steps on his front porch to find a Manfred in box, containing a note to be at a certain location at a specific time. That's right, after all of his running, Hightower has finally found him. Xylda's advice is that Manfred simply skip the meeting. Running is what Manfred has always done but that was before he entered into a relationship with Creek. Manfred suggests to Creek that the two of them run and hide but Creek isn't about to leave her father and her brother.  Unwilling to leave Creek behind, Manfred decides that it's time to face Hightower at last.  Creek encourages Manfred to seek out the help of his neighbours but Manfred is determined to go it alone.  Creek heads to the pawnshop and sells a bunch of antiques to Bobo for 15K to pay off his debt.  Bobo picks up on the fact that Manfred is in trouble and suggests that Manfred take a gun with him. 

Bobo doesn't offer to help Manfred because he has his own problems to deal with. Earlier in the day, the biker gang drove through town and set his pawn shop on fire.  Fortunately, the town acted quickly to save the building, in the process saving Olivia and Lem's life.  It turns out however that the fire was simply a distraction so that the biker gang could kidnap Fiji.  It's Mr. Snuggles who delivers the bad news.  Fiji is taken to a building site, drugged and hidden underground. Bobo quickly gets together the ransom to free Fiji but before he can deliver it, Lem arrives at the pawnshop wanting to know what the hell is going on.  Bobo is a little resistant but when Lem points out that whatever the problem is almost got he and Olivia killed, Bobo decides to reveal his past. 

It turns out that Bobo is the son of well to do white supremacists.  When he was 17, his father took him along for a ride and he sat in the car while his father set a church on fire.  From that night on, Bobo decided that he wanted nothing to do with his family and so he stole their cache of guns, gold, and cash and left.  He's been hiding in Midnight ever since and has become something of an urban legend. Bobo figures out that the leaders of the Sons of Satan must have figured out who he really is.  Given the danger, Lemuel decides to tag along, despite Bobo being told that he has to go alone.

Manfred arrives at the location Hightower picked at the appointed time and runs into Olivia.  While Manfred was busy selling his family treasures to Bobo, Creek enlisted Olivia's help. Manfred's so incompetent that he still has the safety on his gun.  Manfred tries to send Olivia away but Olivia feels that she owes him for saving Lem from vampires. When Manfred and Olivia meet up with Hightower, he uses telekinesis to take Olivia and Manfred's guns away, forcing them to take cover. Once the guns are empty, Manfred tries to confront Hightower but it seems that Hightower is in no mood to make peace because he figures that Manfred owes him a lot more than money. It turns out that Manfred agreed to marry Hightower's daughter Violent in return for 100K but and Xyla stole the money and left Violet alone at the alter. A few days later, Violet committed suicide. Hightower wants vengeance  for the loss of his daughter which he blames on Manfred and he uses his powers to toss broken glass at Olivia and Manfred, forcing them both to flea.

Bobo drives to the meet with the Sons of Satan and Lemuel is hiding under the vehicle. Bobo hands over the cache of weapons and cash and is beaten for his trouble. Now that Lowry finally has his hands on Bobo, he's not about to let Bobo go. What's interesting is that Lowry repeatedly accuses Bobo of killing his wife, even though Bobo denies having anything to do with it.  Bobo is taken to see Fiji and Lowry delights in talking about Bobo's white supremacist past and his part in the church bombing, before leaving Bobo and Fiji locked together.

Preacher, Season 2, Episode 10: Dirty Little Secret

We open with hipster Jesus having sex. Yes way back in the past Jesus skipped out on praying to have sex - very good sex in many positions apparently.

He then leaves, gets himself dead and leaves his disciples to steal the baby and beat the mother to death. Of course because Preacher

We learn this as Herr Starr describes his institution’s vast power to convince Jesse he needs their help to find god. And he does a pretty impressive job of showing this while dragging Jesse hooded to various secret locations. First showing Jesse the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope - and how he can totally summon them both to his side on a whim. Which is pretty impressive, even if they do reveal no-one actually knows a damn thing about god and that you can drag religious leaders together but you can’t make them agree.

Of course on does drop a hint about the messiah. Starr tries to pretend this totally didn’t happen but Jesse uses the voice every time Staff wants to get cagey. So it’s another hooded travel to where the Jesus child exists - the messiah, the 25th great grandchild of Jesus. Jessie falls to his knees in worshipful awe… only to have that shattered

Jesus - or “humperdoo” is the product of 25 generations of inbreeding and is severely developmentally disabled, knows nothing about god or much else.

Can we not use disabled people as props, comic relief or figures of contempt? In fact, given Preacher is Preacher I can’t imagine this show ever being respectful.

And so Jesse realises Herr Starr has been manipulating him the whole time. After all, anyone around Jesse who knows what he can do and would expect the word to be abused a whole lot.  Herr Starr is supremely disillusioned by his job which he originally took to be an excellent chance to serve an organisation which would bring order and control - only to realise that there is no leader capable of ruling here. He feels like he’s wasted his life.

The Last Ship, Season Four, Episodes One and Two

In yet another season of American exceptionalism, the world is in grave danger and only the men and women of the Nathan James can save humanity from itself and of course the virus. What virus you may ask? Didn't we spend the last three seasons hunting for a cure and distributing said cure? How could we possibly have a problem with the virus now? Well, it seems that the virus has mutated and now is attacking the world's vegetation.  The problem with this is that it will effect the world's biodiversity.  Animals need corn, the wheat, etc to survive so we cannot simply eat them, if they have no source of food. It's insects which are passing the red rust from crop to crop leaving American devastation and near 90%. It's a reminder of just how interdependent we all are on our little blue planet. The red plague is a mutation of the original virus which and it puts humanity at risk once more.   I do believe that The Last Ship is low key sending an environmental message, along with its main agenda of reminding the viewer of just how spectacular the American military is. 

It turns out that palm seed is the only hope of stopping humanity from starving to death. An away team from the Nathan James tracks down a man claiming to be selling the seeds. Unfortunately, before the crew can find out where the seeds are being kept, the man is shot. 

After evac, the Nathan James heads to Spain where the crew learns that the base is being closed because of the shortages. The Nathan James seems to have picked up a new member named Rea and she gets her flirt on with Wolf and Gunderson. As the Nathan James is being resupplied, Fletcher and Sasha continue to continue to work on locating the seeds. Fletcher and Sasha figure out that Omar Bin Dalek is the one who stole the seeds and that he, is working for someone else. Unfortunately, this doesn't give them a lead as to where exactly to take the ship. 

The team still very much misses Tom and Slattery admits that he has not heard from Tom in the sixteen months that he's been gone. As the food is being stocked, the crew wonders if they are holding the last apples. Burke and Carlton head to the gates to give food and water to the desperate people who have lined up outside. One of the kids kicks his tennis ball into the base and Carlton yells that the people are to be kept back.  A kid slowly approaches the opening to the base, clearly nervous. Unfortunately, the kid has bombs attached to his body. Carlton is injured in the explosion and armed men storm the base determined to get to the injured man who knows where the seeds are. With their only lead dead, the team watch the video of the raid which left 12 Americans dead. It's Sasha and Fletcher who figure out that the location has something to do with Lions from the tattoo on the dead man. And since lion stands for Algeria, the team now has a direction to travel in. 

The team leaves dock and in the mess a sign is placed telling staff to only take as much food as they need and to avoid seconds. They head to Algeria and Slattery informs the crew that they will have no back up again. It wouldn't be The Last Ship if the Nathan James was on its own now would it? As the ship approaches the shore, the Nathan James hits what Slattery believes to be a fishing line, only to have said fishing line knock out the engines and shut off the electricity. The emergency generators kick in but the Nathan James is a sitting duck when a missile from the land is shot at the ship. Wolf, Rea and Sasha are forced to go ashore to see if they can stop the missiles being launched at the Nathan James. Another missile is shot at the Nathan James but the crew is able to shoot it down. 

The Strain, Season 4, Episode 6: Tainted Love

Eichorst has now decided Vasiliy is totally someone he needs to hunt down- so finds their previous minions and murders all but one of them. This leaves just Eichorst and Benjamin who he expects to drive him after Vasiliy.

Because The Strain is not even remotely subtle, Benjamin is a Native American and Eichorst confirms his evil credentials by saying how Hitler was totally interested in the genocide of Native Americans because it was so “effective.”

Y’know, on another show this could be handled with a level of nuance and interesting examination. I mean, just examining the fact that Hitler admired the genocide of the Native Americans and the whole idea of how there is, rightfully, a cultural loathing of Hitler (among… most people? And why gods why do I have to put that question mark there? Whyyyy?) as the most uniquely evil person when so many similar atrocities are completely ignored, or the perpetrators even lionised (or have really ugly statues made for them)

But this is The Strain, instead his rambling rant about Native American genocide is just an easy plot point for Benjamin to sacrifice himself to turn on the radio and warn Vasiliy that they’re coming. So it’s not an examination of genocide and horror or even developing the Native American character, but just invoking Native American genocide as justification for another Native American character to die for the non-native characters.

Uh-huh.

Vasiliy, Quinlan, Charlotte and Roman are all heading towards an airfield Roman knows so they can get a plane and then fly to New York with their new nuke. Roman is coming with them. Quinlan vaguely questions this complete stranger’s decision to join them and… beyond “hey better to fly with the nuke than being alone”. Uh-huh.

Unlike Roman, Quinlan would like them to leave Charlotte behind because of his Victoria flashbacks. See way back then he was all playing happy families with Louise and her daughter Lydia. But then he runs into vampires and realises that The Master is in town. He drops his happy family, even with tearful little moppet begging him to stay, to go kill the Master. It’s a complete goodbye because if he wins he still dies as one of the Master’s progeny.

Game of Thrones, Season 7, Episode 6: Beyond the Wall

This episode was interesting in that we had major events happen but it didn’t feel rushed or packed and we didn’t have a gazillion storylines everywhere. We even only used a little plot bending (honestly, my main issue this season is how the plot broke itself to make it work -between Cersei’s prescient army, High Garden, the fleet of ships apparently made by Santa’s Elves and last episode’s ability to teleport the length and breadth of the entire continent in a few days is beginning to really annoy me).

So on that note let’s begin with the most annoying storyline - Winterfell. Where Arya and Sansa begin reminiscing about their childhood, their beloved father and Arya’s wish to step outside of the constraints that society put on her and which her father supported her through. This shows her childhood disdain for Sansa as well as her devotion to her father and Jon

She taunts Sansa about the letter she wrote as a child and considers it a betrayal, adding what the northern lords (and, more importantly, Lyanna Mormont) would think.

What strikes me most about this scene is that while Arya has learned many skills and become tough and hard and unforgiving she’s also been isolated. We talk a lot about how much everyone has grown and changed but here we see that in many ways she IS still a child. Her condemnation of Sansa is childish - it shows a complete unwillingness to deal with greater political realities, a complete naivety over what you can actually do and what is a smart answer.

Sansa tries to point this out - and rejects any idea she’s a coward or weak because of what she has endured and survived. Sadly Sansa, in an act that is utterly bemusing, turns to Littlefinger (who, of course, doesn’t reveal that he’s the one who led to Arya finding the letter anyway) who tries to drive more a rift between them and even suggests he use Brienne as a bodyguard

Sansa doesn’t do that because she has an invite from Cersei… yeah no. Sansa is not having that. Brienne can go and rely on the sexual tension between her and Jaime to keep things safe. Brienne wants to stay to protect Sansa. Not from Arya - but from everyone, because as long as Littlefinger’s around everyone can have their loyalty manipulated. She’s not wrong - but Sansa won’t hear it

Later she does discover Arya’s stash of faces and Arya menacingly explains what they all mean in a not-quite-overtly-threatening-but-the-threat-is-there manner.

Midnight Texas, Season One, Episode Four: Sexy Beast

This week's monster is a man eating succubus. We've been warned that the end might be nigh by the resident angel Joe and proof of that is the fact that more than ever, supernatural creatures are being drawn to the area. So, there the succubus is sitting by the side of the road when she's picked up by Ted, a dudebro who might as well have asshole tattoos on his forehead.  We're conditioned not to have any sympathy for dudebro because it seems that he's stolen and sold his father's Rolex. Predictably, when the dudbro is coerced into pulling over, he becomes snack food for the succubus. 

Creek and Manfred are getting all domestic though Creek is still very much adamant that their relationship needs to stay on the downlow because her father is certain that Manfred will break her heart. I'm getting kind of tired of the policing of Creek's sexuality at this point and it seems that it won't end anytime soon.  Manfred says that he's not a bad guy and that he might be entitled to catch a break after saving them all from vampires.  Yeah, I'm team Manfred on this one. When Creek leaves, Manfred checks his phone only to find some ominous messages from Hightower. Yes, Manfred is on the run but only because he's being held responsible for his grandmother's debt. At any rate, Hightower reaching out to Manfred is enough for Manfred to decide that he needs to make some cash.

Ted's sister Patsy shows up to hire Manfred, to see if she can find out where Ted is and if Ted has the Rolex.  Manfred starts to turn Patsy down but when she offers 5K, Manfred takes the job. Manfred does his thing and he sees Ted's spirit, who talks about being snacked on "like a taco" by a hot blonde woman.   Manfred decides to investigate and when he finds the succubus, she is cleaning up in a truckstop bathroom after killing yet another man. When the succubus makes her play for Manfred, he's quick to take his leave, declaring that he's just not into her.

Back in Midnight, Fiji is getting ready for a dinner date that she's planned with Bobo.  Fiji asks Olivia to join her but Olivia declines because she has a job to do. Olivia points out that this is the perfect opportunity for Fiji to get with Bobo and recommends that Fiji step away from the peasant gear for the night. Later, as Fiji is setting the stage for her romantic dinner, she gets a call from Bobo saying that he'll be over as soon as he changes out of work gear. Of course, Bobo isn't getting ready for a hot date but trying to meet up with bikers now that he knows that they've killed the sheriff. 

Olivia's job is to kill a man who has robbed people of their 401Ks. The mark tries to plead that it was only money but he doesn't get any sympathy from Olivia on this. Olivia points out that families can be ruined by having their life savings stolen.  Olivia does the deed and leaves the building but pauses when she notices a man who was watching her when she was in the building is now sitting outside in his car.  For Olivia, this is too much of a coincidence and so she drugs him and carts him back to Midnight for a little casual waterboarding. It doesn't take long for the man to admit that he was hired by her father who supposedly just wants to keep track of Olivia and ensure that she's okay. Olivia becomes emotional and asks Lemuel to feed from her.  Lemuel is happy to oblige but he's concerned that Olivia is so upset.  After Lemuel feeds, Olivia is back to her normal self and doesn't want to discuss it.

Mr. Snuggly (oh how I love that talking cat) is facing reality faster than Fiji.  Mr.Snuggly makes his bid to have Fiji feed him some Sheppard's pie because it's become clear that Bobo isn't going to show up. Fiji holds onto hope until Joe calls and finally cancels. 

It's time for a meeting of the Midnight supernatural club.  Manfred describes what the succubus looks like to Joe, who does a sketch.  They're able to identify the succubus and Joe claims that succubi are attracted to men who've harmed women. So you know damn well that this gets Creek's attention because all the men in her family are suspicious of Manfred. At any rate, this is when Creek's little brother Connor shows up. It seems that Connor has been following Manfred all over town to see what he's up to.  Yeah, that's creepy as all get out and I don't care that Connor is only 17.  Creek is quick to send Connor on his way. 

Convergence (Winter Solstice #1) by J.R. Rain and Matthew S. Cox

Solstice knows magic exists but she’s one of the few who does - and it doesn’t overly affect her job as a photographer or her relationship. Unfortunately, since neither are doing extremely well.

And then something happens, the Convergence - and Solstice’s career is definitely picking up. Oh, and apparently she’s not even human. While being an elf explains a lot of things, it also makes her very much in demand. Including by some very unethical people...

Ok, shameful confession time - I had pretty low expectations of this book and had all honed my snark ready to take this on. Mainly because of one thing: “Solstice Winters”. Yes the protagonist is called Solstice Winters and in no way was there any indication that this was going to be a parody.

But it is neither a parody and nor taking itself ridiculously seriously and Solstice is duly mocking of her own parent’s silly naming choice.

Instead we have a really interesting world to explore which is light hearted and fun (and with a protagonist who is very much both - I really like her) and pretty much a joy to read.

The concept is one we’ve see a few times - magical realms are getting close to Earth which leads to the normal magical lite Earth suddenly having scads of woo-woo and magical creatures that were never here before which causes some upheaval. What is a really fun take on this is Solstice waking up in this new wash of magic and having the illusion torn aside and realising she’s an elf. It’s one thing to have a world that suddenly becomes magical - we’ve seen that a lot - but to have the protagonist wake up and realise she is a magical creature (and always has been) is a great twist.

In some ways I think it could be a greater twist if adapted, extended or, perhaps, if the book weren’t quite as funny and light as it is. I mean, we have examples of how elven attitudes have always influenced Solstice (casual nudity, connection to nature, not seeing sex as a big deal) but there isn’t much look at her analysing any of her behaviour/attitudes/thoughts and thinking “am I human”? Or even “Am I elven”? Or “where are my people?”. Of course this book is pretty heavy on the action and probably hasn’t given her that much in the terms of introspection.