Wednesday, June 17, 2026

TV Show Review: Step by Step - Season 2

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: More laughs as the characters get stronger
Cons: The writing still needs to find ways to use all the characters better
The Bottom Line:
A step family
Learning to blend in sitcom
Glad I found these laughs




“We Tried to Help and Both Kids are Miserable.  I Think Our Work Here is Done.”

My journey through 90’s sitcom Step by Step continues with season two.  With when this show ended, I never watched it when it was originally on.  I didn’t really begin to hear much about it until I started listening to some rewatch podcasts that mentioned it.  So, I’m watching this show now blind.  But I’m glad I am giving it a chance since I am really enjoying it.

If you’ve missed it, this was a 90’s take on a blended family sitcom.  The parents are Frank and Carol (Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers) who each brought three kids into their second marriage.  Frank’s three kids are J.T., Al, and Brendan (Brandon Call, Christine Lakin, and Josh Byrne) while Carol’s three kids are Dana, Karen, and Mark (Staci Keanan, Angela Watson, and Christopher Castile).  Rounding out the main cast is the required goofy character, in this case, Frank’s nephew Cody (Sasha Mitchell). 

Fans know that there is a cast change between seasons one and two.  Carol’s mother and sister, regular characters in season one, aren’t back.  And, in true 90’s sitcom fashion, they are never mentioned this season.  Considering they worked with Carol in her beauty salon, that’s quite an omission.  Honestly, with nine characters for the writers to juggle, they had plenty of characters to try to write for each week.  And, with how underutilized these two characters were in the first season, it’s no surprise they didn’t return.

So, what does happen this season?  Dana takes the SAT and is surprised to find Cody taking them as well.  All the kids struggle to adjust to the new school year, with Al’s cooking being bad, Mark struggling in wood shop, and J.T. having an unfair English teacher.  J.T. starts a Wayne’s World knock off on the local cable access station.  (Truly, those two episodes are horrible.)  Dana finds out being a boss is harder than she expected when she is hired as the manager of a 50’s themed cafĂ© with Karen and J.T. as her employees.  An overdue video under Brendan’s bed prompts the family to cut down their spending.  Cody inherits money from the resident of a retirement home he regularly visits.  And the family wins a trip to Hawaii.  Plus watch for a very fun storyline poking fun at Christopher Castile’s role in the recent (at the time) hit movie Beethoven.

While I did enjoy season one, I found the writing stronger here for the most part.  Many of the episodes included some wonderful laugh out loud moments and some tender moments as well.  Still, the writers are struggling to find things for all the characters to do.  Even with two storylines per episode, the younger kids often get under served, especially poor Brendan, who somethings only has a line or two.  While all the characters get at least one episode focused on them this season, you can tell who the writers favored by who has more.  It’s definitely not even.

Not that I’m blaming the writers.  There are twenty-four episodes this season, and that’s a lot of work.  If there are characters it’s easier to come up with storylines for, it’s going to be natural to focus on them more.  Still, I hope things even out a little going forward.

One thing that makes this sitcom stand out is that not all the characters like each other.  Frank and Carol got married before the kids had even met each other, so they are trying to navigate that while all living under one roof.  That makes for some great one liners and insults.  And, we do see more evidence that those relationships and bonds are growing this season, which I appreciate.  It’s more realistic than some shows while not being as spiteful as others. 

The actors are all killing it this season.  They are getting more familiar with their characters, and they are hitting the jokes well.  I find everyone a joy to watch.

As I said earlier, the jokes are funny.  Yes, it’s a typical family sitcom in that department, but I love sitcoms, so I’m really enjoying getting to laugh at these characters as I get to know them better.  In addition to the dialogue, the cast does some great physical comedy, especially the adults.

The show is already diving into some very special episodes this season.  I’m thinking especially of a couple this season involving teenage sex lives, and I appreciated how both were handled.  Of course, I would have preferred they not be included at all since I cringed more than laughed, but if they had to be here, this was a nice way to handle the topics.

This season featured 24 episodes.  The show doesn’t appear to be available for streaming, but I got it on DVD.  We don’t have any extras, but the show looks and sounds great for a 90’s sitcom.

I’m so glad I found Step by Step.  I’m truly enjoying getting to know these characters and watching what happens despite some minor flaws.  Now that I’ve finished season two, I’m looking forward to diving into season three.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Book Review: Lost and Clowned by Dana Mentink

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Good story and interesting characters
Cons: Pi a couple of times; pacing a couple of times
The Bottom Line:
A circus attack
Troop member responsible?
A great standalone




Finding a Killer is a Circus

I enjoyed the four Shake Shop Mysteries that Dana Mentink wrote, so I was very curious to read Lost and Clowned, a rare standalone cozy set in the world of a traveling circus.  It may have taken me a while to get it and read it, but I’m glad I did since I enjoyed it.

Pi Steely (yes, that’s her real name) is the business manager and a clown in the traveling circus her uncle owns.  It’s the first place in her life she’s felt at home, and she loves her life and feels like her fellow performers are family.  The time around Christmas is always a dead time, and this year, the circus is spending it in a small California coastal town.  They are spending the down time working on a new act, even putting on a short show for the locals to try out the material.

However, the next morning, Pi stumbles on a body on the beach.  She recognizes the woman as someone who attended the show the day before.  The detective is certain that a member of the circus is responsible for the crime.  Pi is quick to dismiss that, but as secrets start coming out, she begins to wonder if the detective is right.  Is someone in the circus a killer?

If you are expecting the book to be filled with wildly outrageous characters, you’ll be disappointed.  While the characters might have a few more quirks than in a typical cozy, they still feel very grounded and realistic.  These are not circus freaks, these are people who happen to work in a circus.  I did have a hard time keeping them all straight early on, but as the story unfolded, I was able to remember who they were.  I did find Pi a little immature for her mid-twenties a couple of times, but maybe that was just me.

I did find the pacing off a time or two, but it never lasted for long.  We get enough time to meet the characters and the circus setting before the story kicks off.  And there is plenty going on.  I was hooked as Pi tried to figure out what was going on.  This included a shock in her personal life.  The ultimate solution made sense, and the climax kept me hooked.

The tone was a bit more serious than I was expecting for a circus setting, but it fit the story being told perfectly.  And there were moments of fun along the way.

And, yes, I enjoyed the setting.  There are some references to places I recognized in Northern California, which always made me smile.

Given the author has written plenty of other books since she released this one, I do think this is a standalone, which is very rare in the cozy subgenre.  And, given the nature of this story, I’m not sure I see how a series would flow out of this book.  But if she were to release a sequel, I’d pick it up.

I’m glad I finally got to enjoy Lost and Clowned.  This is a book to pick up if you are looking for a different cozy.

Monday, June 15, 2026

Movie Review: Upgrade

Stars: 2 out of 5
Pros: Interesting premise
Cons: Several overly violent scenes; ending doesn’t quite work
The Bottom Line:
Creative premise
Marred by violence, ending
So does not quite work




When Technology Seems Too Good to be True

I hadn’t heard of the movie Upgrade until a friend suggested it for a movie night.  It sounded intriguing from his description, so we gave it a try.  There was certainly an interest premise in the movie, but the execution didn’t quite work.

The movie is set is the near future and tells the story of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green).  He’s happy with his life rebuilding classic cars while his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo) brings in the big bucks working for a tech company.  They are happy until one night when their self-driving car suddenly crashes in the bad part of town.  They are attacked after the accident.  Grey is left a quadriplegic, but Asha is killed.

Grey is offered a chance at a normal life from billionaire Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson).  Eron has a new technology that could help Grey walk again just like nothing had ever happened.  Grey is supposed to keep this a secret from everyone, however.  But when he returns home, Grey discovers that he has a few unexpected upgrades in his life.  Will they help him find the men who killed his wife?

This movie can’t quite decide what it wants to be.  It is part mystery/thriller.  As an avid mystery reader, I enjoyed that aspect of things.  It is part science fiction movie, with the near future setting and the upgraded technology.  And there are another couple of genres mixed in as well that I don’t want to get into so as not to spoil things.  It’s not that these parts can’t mix.  They just don’t quite seem to completely mix here.

I did like Grey.  The more he is pulled into his strange new life, the more I was pulled into the movie.  I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was going, which was a good thing.  The credit for this goes to Logan Marshall-Green.  He has to carry much of the movie on his shoulders, and he does a great job of it.  This isn’t to diminish the performances of the rest of the cast.  They just don’t have the same amount of screen time he does.

Despite the futuristic setting, there aren’t a ton of special effects.  What there are work well, however.  Likewise, the stunts are good.

There are two places where the movie falls apart.  One of the violence.  There are several pretty graphic scenes that weren’t needed.  They could have gotten the story points across with much less graphic images.

The second is the ending.  It many ways, it felt like the movie just stopped instead of ending.  Part of that comes from some late breaking twists that don’t wrap everything up and make us question why some of the earlier things that happened happened.

The premise for Upgrade was good, but there were some flaws in the execution that made me feel the writing needed an upgrade.

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Flag Day's Sunday/Monday Post

Happy Flag Day!  (At least here in the USA.)  Let's celebrate with a Sunday/Monday Post where I will link up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I got the extra reporting finished up at work.  I didn't make it quite as far with the account recs as I had hoped, but I am in good shape with them.

This coming Monday marks that day I thought I would be working in the office four days a week.  Instead, it will mark the beginning of week four of working from home again full time.  Still rather hard to believe.  I hope they don't change their mind at some point.

I went out paddle boarding again on Thursday.  This time I met up with a friend and his daughter.  They were in their kayaks while I was on my board.  It was nice to chill with them.

And, since today is game day and I have much to do before I go, let's get on with it, shall we?

Joke of the Week:


I wondered why that Frisbee kept getting bigger.  Then it hit me.

(As a retired ultimate Frisbee player, I prefer this version of the joke.)

This Past Week on the Blog:


This Coming Week on the Blog:


Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post
Monday - Movie Review: Upgrade
Tuesday - Book Review: Lost and Clowned by Dana Mentink
Wednesday - TV Show Review: Step by Step - Season 2
Thursday - Book Review: Murder Takes the Stage by Colleen Cambridge
Friday - Friday Post
Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

I've just got three books to tell you about this week.  I can hardly believe it myself.

The first is The Quirky Quiz Show Caper by Sally Carpenter.  This is book four in the series.  I'd gotten book five a couple of weeks back and told you that I should be getting book four soon.  Here it is.  Actually, I've already read it and enjoyed it, so look for that review coming soon.

I also got Mystery Most Senior, the anthology from this year's Malice Domestic convention in April.  Author Ellen Byron did a giveaway for a copy signed by her and Jacqueline Winspear, the Lifetime Achievement Honoree from this year's convention.  I'm really glad I won it since I haven't seen it pop up for sale anywhere yet, and I did want to get it.

Finally, I decided it was time for another audio book.  Since this was a last minute decision, I was lucky to get my first choice, The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly.  It's the next in my effort to read all of Connelly's books in order, and it's one I've been anxious to read since it came out in 2020.  I just had to get here.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Yep, I've already started The Law of Innocence.  I'm not quite an hour into it, and it's is a twelve and a half hour audio book, so I have my listening cut out for me.  But yes, I am completely hooked already.

I'm also working on Pour Choices, the second Mixology Lounge Mystery from Adrian Andover.  I'm about 45% into my eARC of this book and really enjoying it so far.  This time, the comedian at an event the main character is hosting at his cocktail lounge is killed the next morning.  The book will be out June 30th, and I'll have my full review up then.

If everything goes according to plan, I will be on to Murder at Ochre Court by Alyssa Maxwell on Monday.  I'm anxious to get back to her Gilded Newport Mysteries.  Hard to believe I'll be starting July books that early, isn't it?  But I do want to stay this far ahead of my posting dates.

That's it for me.  Have a great week!

Saturday, June 13, 2026

June 13th's Weekly TV Thoughts

I've got two shows this week...for one week.  The Quiz with Balls is taking a few weeks off, I suspect for the soccer tournament.

American Ninja Warrior – From something I read, I thought this filmed last October.  But, you couldn’t update the narration?  I mean, talking about someone hoping to make the winter Olympics team for the Olympics that just happened?  Weird.  There were another couple of moments like that.  Overall, it was nice to see old favorites back and most of them doing well.  I knew poor Lance wouldn’t do well when he went first.

The Quiz with Balls – As always, there are many questions and categories I would have struggled with, but I was almost screaming at my TV during the fictional detective question.  They missed one of the most classic detectives every!  Granted, I didn’t know the one from Miami Vice since I’ve never watched the show or movies.  And yes, the theme was perfect with the World's Cup starting this week.  Almost as if they planned it that way.

Friday, June 12, 2026

Book Review: Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Fun word play and premise
Cons: One less main character would have helped
The Bottom Line:
A school for murder
There is fun to be had here
Needed more focus




Planning the Perfect…Deletion

I think I first heard about Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide when it first came out.  And, I heard such great things about the audio version I put it on my list to get from the library…and forgot about it when it came time to get new audiobooks.  I was locked into my typical rotation.  But I finally checked it out.  While I enjoyed parts of it, it needed some work.

If you’ve never heard of McMasters, there’s a reason for that.  It’s a prestigious and completely unknown place of higher learning.  But, unlike most campuses, it has only one subject matter – murder.  The students come from all over the world to the campus, wherever it might be, to learn how to get away with the perfect crime.  But students are given a rigorous admissions process beforehand to make sure they are going to kill someone who actually deserves it.  We have to be ethical about it, after all.  Once the student graduates, they must complete their thesis (that perfect murder) or face consequences from McMasters.

The book takes us back to the 1950’s and tells us the story of three students who were at McMasters at the same time.  Cliff Iverson wants to get rid of his former boss in order to make sure potentially lethal changes aren’t made to an airplane design.  Gemma Lindley is a hospital administration who is being blackmailed by her boss.  And Dulcie Mown is an actress who is being held to her contract by a studio boss who is interested in only one thing.  I’m sure you can guess what it is.  Will these three learn enough to complete their graduate thesis successfully?

When I first started this book, I thought I was in for a fun ride.  It’s told a bit differently.  It is presented as a handbook for those of us who can’t attend the school as written by an administrator.  Parts of it are taken from Cliff’s journal that he is keeping so his mysterious benefactor can learn how things are going.

And we get some fun word play, like deletion instead of murder or the graduate thesis I’ve already talked about.  Lover of puns and word play that I am, I was eating this up.  And I found the discussions of ethics ironically fun as well.

However, as the book went along, I found it less fun.  The word play became routine with nothing really new to make it stand out.

The biggest flaw, in my mind, was the three stories.  While the characters interacted while on campus, we had to return to the real world as some point, right?  And, for this portion, we try to follow all three of them.  It was hard to really do that since we were jumping into each of the lead’s lives and I had a hard time keeping all of their supporting players straight.  I think if we’d just focused on two characters it would have helped.

For the audio version, Neal Patrick Harris narrated Cliff’s journals, with the rest being narrated by Simon Vance.  Both were great at bringing the story to life.

Yes, I had fun with Murder Your Employer, but it tried to do a bit too much to be a truly satisfying read.

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Movie Review: Supergirl (1984)

Stars: 1 out of 5
Pros: Brenda Vaccaro’s performance is fun
Cons: The rest of the movie is a mess
The Bottom Line:
Story has plot holes
Honestly, not much works here
You can skip this one




“You’re Superman’s Best Friend?”  “No, He’s My Cousin.”

I’d heard bad things about 1984’s Supergirl, but I was still curious about it.  And, since it was available on one of my streaming services, I figured I should give it a chance.  You know those bad things I’d heard about it?  They were all true.

Our story opens in Argo City, a giant floating ship filled with refugees from Krypton.  Among them is Kara-El (Helen Slater), who, when we meet her, is playing with the sphere that powers the entire ship.  Shocking, it gets away from her, dooming all those on the ship unless it is retrieved from Earth, where it landed.  So, Kara-El goes to retrieve it.

Unfortunately, before she lands, it is found by Selena (Faye Dunaway), a witch.  It actually makes her able to do magic, so Selena wants to keep it, figuring it will help her plans to take over the world.  Will Kara-El be able to find it?

This movie had so many plot holes you could have floated Argo City through each of them.  Okay, so Kara-El wasn’t the one who took the sphere in the first place, but still, why would anyone do that if it is what is keeping everyone alive?  Why, when Kara-El lands on Earth, did she bother taking on a secret identity since her parents and friends’ lives were dependent on her bringing the sphere back as quickly as possible?  How did Selena find a way to tap into some of the Superman mythos at random?  Why did Kara-El emerge from her pod in a costume so much like Superman’s?

Okay, so Kara-El’s secret identity was there to introduce us to characters from the Superman stories.  Her roommate is Lucy Lane, as played by Maureen Teefy.  And Lucy just happens to be dating Jimmy Olsen, as played by Marc McClure, the only actor from the Superman movies to show up here.  But still, that seemed to slow down what was supposed to be a ticking clock story.

I don’t know that I feel like the plot ever made up for the plot holes.  While it wasn’t quite as bad as a random series of events, it did throw in some truly random things, as if the writers really didn’t know what to do and had to fill screen time while including things Superman fans know about.  Even so, you can pretty much guess where it is going early on.  It’s just the details you’ll have no way of predicting.

Then there’s the acting.  Most of the cast is playing things so over the top it doesn’t work.  There’s fun camp, and then there’s this.  The exception to this is Brenda Vaccaro who plays Selena’s sidekick with the right level of camp and sarcasm.  I found her fun.  I’ve seen Helen Slater in other things, most noticeably in the recent TV show Supergirl, so I know she can do a wonderful job when given good material.  This wasn’t it.  Same holds true for others in the cast.

Of course, the effects are dated.  This came out in 1984, after all.  Even then, I’ve seen better effects from that time period.  Or maybe, I was just enjoying those movies more so I was more forgiving.

There’s a reason you haven’t heard much about 1984’s Supergirl.  And there’s no reason to seek this out to watch it.

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Book Review: Crown of Chaos by Sarah E. Burr (Court of Mysteries #9)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Page turning story
Cons: Is Jax turning arrogant?
The Bottom Line:
War council is here
Bringing chaos in fire, death
Page turner for fans




Is War on the Horizon?

The Court of Mystery series from Sarah E. Burr has become a mix of mystery and political intrigue.  The ongoing political storyline comes to a head in Crown of Chaos, the ninth book in the series, and I couldn’t put it down.

This series is a bit different.  It’s set in a fictional continent made up of independent nations.  The main character is Jacqueline Arienta Xavier, Jax to her friends, the ruler of the most powerful of the kingdoms.  As she’s tried to introduce some reforms into her own country, she has encountered resistance from some of the other rulers.  This has led her to call for a War Council, a rarely used provision to bring all the leaders to one place.  And that war council is finally set to take place as this book begins.

There is more to the story.  Much more.  So, I suggest you start with The Ducal Detective, the novella that introduced the characters and setting.  You’ll be here before you know it.

As I said, the war council is finally happening, and Jax is happy to be able to present the evidence of the treason that has been happening in the realm.  But even before the council gets started, Jax learns of betrayal among those she thought were allies.  The first session ends with no progress, but things only get worse when a fire and a murder complicate things.  Can Jax figure out what is happening?  Or is she in over her head?

I’ve found the last couple of books struggled to find the balance between the political intrigue and murder mystery, causing the pacing to be off.  That wasn’t the case here.  If you pick up this book at random, you might still feel like the story starts slowly, but for fans, they will be hooked.  We’ve been building to this book for the last several entries, so I was there for the drama unfolding.  Things only kick into high gear later in the book, and I couldn’t wait to figure out how Jax was going to piece things together and get out alive.  Another character gets some of the story told from his point of view, which really gives us the full picture of what is going on.

This isn’t to say that the book is always light.  There are some darker moments, but they are earned and make sense with the direction the series has taken.

There’s a subplot that has been bothering me for the last couple of books, and I am hopeful it has been resolved or is getting near being resolved.

We don’t have all the regulars in this book.  Like Jax, I missed them, but there was more than enough chaos without them.  We still got some updates on what is happening with them in addition to the growth that we saw for the characters who did make the trip.  I’m very curious to see where Jax is going.  I’m noting some arrogance from her that hadn’t been so prominent previously.  It will be interesting to see if that continues going forward.

While this book may have been what we’ve been building to for the last several books, it opens to door to the next arc, leaving me anxious for more.  Jax’s fans will be glad they read Crown of Chaos.

Settle in for the rest of the Court of Mysteries saga.

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Ornament Review: Gardener Mickey - All About Mickey #4 - 2025 Hallmark Release

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Mickey representing gardeners
Cons: I can’t garden as well as Mickey
The Bottom Line:
Highlighting hobby
Mickey shows off his green thumb
Its appeal grows




I Hope Mickey Has a Greener Thumb Than I Do 

I was planning to only buy the ornaments in the All About Mickey series that I really connected with. Yet, somehow, I wound up with Gardener Mickey after Christmas. And I’m glad I got it. 

Each ornament in this series features Mickey enjoying a hobby or interest outside of his movie career. And this year, he’s showing off his gardening skills. He’s dressed in blue overalls with a hat on his head. In one hand, he has a trowel. In the other, he’s holding a potted plant. There aren’t any flowers on it, but it is green and looks healthy. 

And I’m sure all the gardening Disney fans were anxious to get it. Why did I hesitate? Because my attempts at gardening end in a dead plant. Usually, I forget to water, but sometimes I water too much. And the planters I had on my balcony were killed off by a squirrel and I couldn’t get him to leave my planters alone. I wish I could grow some flowers. But I just can’t get them to stay alive. 

But this is about Mickey and not me. 

As I was saying, gardeners will love this one. It’s a cute homage to an important skill and rewarding hobby. 

Mickey is standing for this ornament, but his feet are position such that he is balanced precariously if you set him out. He will likely fall over easily, but it’s best to plan to hang him from your tree.

When you do that, you’ll find he hangs a little to the right, but not enough to be a big issue.  Tree branches will easily hide it.

You’ll find the series marker on the bottom of his feet. 

Gardener Mickey really is a cute ornament. Which is why I am glad it wound up being added to my collection. 

You know it’s All About Mickey, so get more of the ornaments. 

Monday, June 8, 2026

Book Review: Hot Stuff by Don Bruns (Stuff Series #6)

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Growth for the leads, especially Emily; good mystery
Cons: A couple characters under developed; pacing at the beginning
The Bottom Line:
Sous chef stabbed to death
What is Emily hiding?
Penultimate book




James and Skip are in Another Hot Situation

I’m closing in on the end of Don Bruns’s Stuff series. While I haven’t enjoyed every entry, I did find myself enjoying Hot Stuff, the penultimate book.  

The series follows James Lessor and Skip Moore, best friends and roommates who are struggling just to make ends meet in Miami. James especially has dreams of riches, and he’s come up with a few elaborate schemes that have not worked and have put the two in the path of killers. Along the way, the two have become licensed private investigators. 

When Skip is out with his girlfriend, Emily, at a fancy restaurant, the sous chef is stabbed. Emily and the victim, Amanda, had been friends, and she had set Amanda up with James on a couple of dates. The owner of the restaurant doesn’t trust the police to solve the case, so he hires Skip and James to go under cover in the kitchen to figure out if someone on the staff killed Amanda. But Emily is hiding something about Amanda. Can Skip and James solve the case without driving a wedge between Skip and Emily?

The characters in this series can be a bit immature at times. I’m happy to say that they’ve been slowly maturing as the series progresses, and that holds true again here. I especially appreciated the spotlight that Emily got in this book. She had quite a bit to deal with, and we got to see her mature through it. The majority of the characters are new. There were a couple that I had a hard time keeping straight, but for the most part they were well developed. 

The mystery is entertaining. It felt a bit slow to start to me, but I was fully engrossed before too long. The climax was logical and wrapped things up to my satisfaction. 

While these books aren’t cozies, the language and violence is kept to a minimum. Anything else is implied. 

I’m very curious to see how this series will wrap up. Hopefully, I enjoy the last book as much as I did Hot Stuff

Get more stuff with the rest of the Stuff Series.