Movie Review: Murder at Moseby - The Jane Mysteries

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Interesting mystery; the singing

Cons: Undercover made little sense; high dose of low budget cheese

The Bottom Line:

Fifteen-year-old case

Was there even a victim?

Uneven movie

“Looking at That Photo, I Know I’m Not Crazy, Right?” “Well, It’s Hard to Say.  It Has Been a Few Years Since I’ve Seen You.”

I was excited to see that Hallmark was bringing another movie that originally premiered on Hallmark+ to cable.  In this case, it’s been nine months since Murder at Moseby, the third Jane Mystery, originally aired.  While there were things I enjoyed, it was just okay overall.

The Jane in this case is Jane Da Silva as played by Jodie Sweetin.  She’s a singer who has come home to Maryland after the death of her uncle.  She’s started working in his organization to work on open old cases and seek true justice for victims.  Working alongside her are Detective John Cameron (Stephen Huszar) and her aunt Sadie (Paris Jefferson).

In this case, it’s someone from Jane’s past who brings them a case.  Fifteen years ago, Jane was a student a nearby Moseby College.  The night of the first Poe festival at the college is forever imprinted on Jane’s mind since it was the night her mother was killed in a hit and run.

But Jane’s old boyfriend, Anthony (Rainbow Sun Francks) just found an old roll of film.  When he goes to develop it, he finds a picture that brings back a memory of seeing something weird happening in the parking lot during the festival.  Now, looking at the picture, he knows he really saw something, and it looks like a dead body.

With no victim and no suspects, Jane goes undercover at the college in the days leading up to this year’s Poe festival.  Can she figure out what happened all those years ago?

I have so many questions.  Not about the mystery itself, which does reach a logical conclusion.  But, why does Jane need to go undercover?  I suspect it was only to allow her to play dress up, something that is a staple of these movies.  But, why couldn’t she just show up as Jane?  I guess because she was a college dropout, but her performing background seemed like a good thing for what she was teaching.  There are some other things that happened with the undercover part in the second half of the movie that just made me scratch my head.

Then there’s the plot point in the second half of the movie that was so obvious to everyone but the characters.  Why they didn’t think to double check this themselves earlier is beyond me.

This movie has a larger than normal dose of low budget cheese as well.  There are times that the staging and coincidences are bad.  Some of the performances could have been stronger as well.

Yes, I know I’m being very critical.  But there was stuff I enjoyed.  I enjoyed getting a little more about Jane.  I’d forgotten about the story with her mother, and that gets some development here.

These movies always include some music, which is outside the norm for Hallmark mystery movies.  As always, I really did enjoy that as well.

And the mystery was interesting.  Things are explained at the end, although it wasn’t the best solution to a mystery I’ve ever seen.

I’m glad I finally got to watch Murder at Moseby.  I’m hoping that the final (at least for now) Jane Mystery proves to be stronger than this one was.

Mother's Day's Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to Mother's Day weekend and another Sunday/Monday Post.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

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

Our weather was wild this week.  Monday, I went out for a run at lunch time.  It was in the 60's and overcast, and I wound up taking my sweatshirt with me, which I was glad I had.  I never got so warm I was ready to take it off.   Friday, I went for a run before work because the temps were supposed to get to the 90's, which would be too warm for a lunch time run.  Ironically enough, it was in the 60's when I left for my run before work Friday, but I was fine in my shorts and a T-shirt.

What a difference a few days makes, right?

As much as I am a summer person and prefer warm weather, my preferences are temps in the upper 70's and lower 80's.  I would love some of that before we hit summer weather.  But it's supposed to drop to the low 70's on Monday and then I think we'll get some of those temps I love next week.  But we'll see.

As you can see, nothing much happened this week if I'm using all my pre-post chatter on the weather.

Saturday is the monthly game day my friends host, and I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I did have happen is that someone really hit my blog with spam comments.  In an hour and a half, they'd hit my newest post with about 30 comments.  That's usually the only one I allow comments to go live on without my approval, but I locked that down.  They still try one or twice a day, so I guess I'm leaving that setting as is for now.  (And sadly, none of them were fun ones I could mock.)

Pun of the Week:

The shovel was a groundbreaking invention.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Lost Without You

Tuesday - Book Review: A Killing Way by J.R. Sanders

Wednesday - Ornament Review: Syndrome

Thursday - Book Review: A Killing in Costumes by Zac Bissonnette

Friday - Friday Post featuring Bait and Swiss

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: The Jane Mysteries - Murder at Moseby

Tuesday - Book Review: Bait and Swiss by Korina Moss

Wednesday - TV Show Review: Extended Family

Thursday - Book Review: The Tale of the Tenpenny Tontine by P.J. Fitzsimmons

Friday - Friday Post

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

After all those books I got at Malice Domestic a couple of weeks ago, I took a week off from getting any books.

LOLOLOL!  Did I fool you?  Of course, I got new books!  Actually, most of these books were Kindle deals I got over a week ago, I just didn't post about them last week because my book haul was large enough as it was.

The first book I snagged was Peril in Pink by Sydney Leigh.  It's set at a B and B in the Hudson Valley.  And it's been on my radar for a while, so I couldn't pass up a sale.

Movie Scripts and Madness by Melissa Baldwin was more of a spur of the moment purchase.  I don't remember hearing about it before it was on sale, but it sounds like it could be fun.

I'd actually heard a rumor that The Wolf's Treasure by Brent Towns was going on sale a couple of months ago.  Turned out it didn't go on sale then, but I kept an eye on it, and it turned up now.  (Not that regular price is exactly expensive.)  It sounds like it could be a fun treasure hunt caper.  With only two books in the series, if I do like it, it won't take me long to catch up.

Dead Man's Dish was another spur of the moment sale purchase.  This series from Audrey Alden featuring a former PI turned cruise director.  It could be lots of fun, so I had to check it out.

As always with these purchases, who knows if or when I will get to them.  But you can't have too many books, right?  I mean, what if you run out?

These last two I know I will get to in May.

The first is Night of the Living Bread by Mary Lee Ashford.  After a long hiatus and a publisher change, this series is back!  This is book four, and I'm part of the blog tour for it.  I'll be posting my review in a couple of weeks, so I will be reading it soon.  Like when I finish the book I've just started soon.

Finally, I'm due for an audiobook.  Overdue, actually.  Haven't gotten many of them in yet this year.  I went to my library and snagged Two Kinds of Truth, the next book I need to read in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series.  I'm looking forward to catching up with the characters.  I haven't started it yet, but I'll probably be starting it Monday at the latest.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Friday night, I finished up What Comes Around by Annette Dashofy.  This is the final book in her Zoe Chambers series, and it was a fantastic book to end the series on.  Look for my review on the 20th.  (Yes, I even drafted my review already.  I was feeling very productive.)

That means, as I'm typing this, I've barely started my next book, Root of All Evil by Liz Milliron.  And this is not a coincidence.  Annette and Liz are good friends, so the fact that I will be reviewing books by both of them in the same week is fun, at least for me.  This is the first book in Liz's first series.  I'm up to date on her others, but I haven't started this one yet, so I'm looking forward to it.

That about does it for me.  Have a great week!

May 10th's Weekly TV Thoughts

I know I don't normally worry too much about spoilers in these posts, but I want to give a heads up that I've got spoilers for just about everything this week.  In case you also watch these shows, be forewarned.

Tracker – A good twist in the episode.  But they have got to stop their addiction to random murders just for shock value.  Even if they were going to kill off that character, seems like there was another way they could have done it.  And, even worse, it would have made the story the villain was trying to tell completely unrealistic timeline wise.  Or maybe I’m expecting too much of forensics based on reading too many mysteries and they wouldn’t have been able to tell if the time of death was that different.

Suits LA – I’m so confused on the backstory timeline.  He’s won the case and put the gangster in prison, but his brother is still alive?  I thought his murder happened before the trial was over.  Did enjoy the modern day stuff, but nothing really driving the narrative forward all that much in the episode overall.

Night Court – A couple of good episodes to close out the season.  Still not the best sitcom, but a reminder that it can be fun when it tries.  I knew that Simon Helberg was guest starring, so I kept waiting for it.  Even knowing that, I was still shocked by the ending.  Should have suspected something like that.

Wild Cards – So I called the commissioner being the mole.  She was rather obvious.  But I didn’t see that ending coming.  Wow!  What does that mean for the show going forward.  And how are the two of them going to get partnered up again?  Speaking of which, I knew she would miss the boat.  And I’m glad what they were planning wasn’t a con job.  Still illegal money, but it was left for them.  Glad the show has been picked up in Canada.  I hope that the CW will continue to air it.

Survivor – I thought I’d been spoiled for the episode, so I really was buying what they were selling as far as Joe going home.  So I was very surprised when it turned out Mary actually went home.  Considering I thought she was a goner pre-merge she did very well.  I wasn’t quite rooting for her, maybe because the writing was on the wall for a few weeks now.  I’m a bit surprised since I usually root for the underdog.  Either way, she played a great game with the hand she was dealt.  For all the talk, she did get everyone’s votes, which was interesting.  And I loved seeing Camelia win immunity.  I always love it when someone like her wins since that would be me out there.

The Amazing Race – It’s been a long time since I was actively rooting for a team, or at least a person, to lose as badly as I was Jonathan.  I’m sorry I have to put up with him more.  This goes to prove that even strong teams can have a bad leg and they just can’t catch up sometimes.  I couldn’t believe how badly the one team used their Express Pass.  Probably did save them, but at that point, you skip the next task.  Yeah, they didn’t necessarily know there would be a next task.  I get it.  As much as they fought there, at least they pulled through it before the end of the leg.

May 9th's Friday Post

Welcome to this week's Friday post.  I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

This week, my teasers from the first three will be coming from Bait and Swiss by Korina Moss.

This is the recently released sixth entry in her Cheese Shop Mystery series.  I've already finished it, and I enjoyed it.

These books opens with a description of cheese, and this book is no exception.  Willa is talking to two of her employees for the first line:

"Raclette. It's an Alpine cow's milk cheese that's been popular since the Middle Ages."

Okay, not the most gripping beginning, but it does play into the theme well.

However, page 56 gives us a great quote:

"Shh!" He shushed me harshly. "Are you trying to get me killed?"

What's going on there?  I'll leave it for you to read and find out.

As I already said, I enjoyed this book.  I hope you'll come back on Tuesday to read my full review.

Meanwhile, let's switch over to this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question is:

Have you ever looked at the young adult book section in a modern bookstore and felt out of touch or old? 

I can't say that I have.  I skipped over the young adult section when I was that age, and I have paid little attention to it now.  I do pay a little more attention to middle grade, but those don't make me feel out of touch or old.

That's it for me.  Hope you have a great weekend.

Book Review: A Killing in Costumes by Zac Bissonnette (Hollywood Treasures Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Jay and Cindy in an interesting mystery

Cons: Writing style makes it hard to get into the book at times

The Bottom Line:

Competitor dies

Can duo clear their own names?

Overall, I liked

Memorabilia to Die For

When A Killing in Costumes crossed my radar, the premise appealed to me. It only took me two and a half years, but I finally picked up the book. While this fiction debut from author Zac Bissonnette had some issues, I enjoyed it overall. 

Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were on their way to being the next Hollywood It couple back in the 90’s. With jobs on a soap opera and a concert tour, they were gaining fans. That is until they divorced when they realized they were both gay. They maintained their friendship, and now they have reunited as business partners to open a Hollywood memorabilia shop in Palm Springs. 

However, business isn’t exactly booming, and their store, Hooray for Hollywood, might close if things don’t change soon. 

Enter Yana Tosh, a diva who, at ninety, has decided to sell her collection of vintage costumes. She has contacted Cindy and Jay about the job, something they are both eager to tackle since it could spell the salvation of their store. But Yana is considering a larger firm as well, and when their chief competitor dies, the police look at them as suspects. Can Jay and Cindy figure out what really happened?

As I said at the beginning, I mostly enjoyed this book. But there were some weaknesses, mostly in the writing. The style kept me just a little outside the story at times. When we’d get into a scene, I’d feel more at home, but any exposition was less welcoming. I think part of this was due to us being told things instead of shown them. Yes, it really does make a difference. 

But I did enjoy the book overall. 

We got a couple of chapters introducing the characters, including the suspects and victim, before he dies. Once that happens, we have several great twists along the way to the climax. I was surprised by the ending, but it made sense when Cindy and Jay laid out how they reached that conclusion. 

And make no mistake, both Jay and Cindy are lead characters. We get scenes from both of their third person points of view. Their deep friendship comes through easily, and I enjoyed following them around as they solved this case. The rest of the cast are interesting as well, and the suspects kept me guessing. 

And there’s the Hollywood component. Anytime there was a mention of a prop or costume from a particular movie, I smiled, even if I hadn’t seen in. Jay especially likes older music, and there is plenty of talk about those songs as the book goes along. 

Since this book came out in the summer of 2022, I’m guessing A Killing in Costume is going to wind up being a standalone rather than the first in a series. That’s too bad because I would like to revisit the characters. But this book does leave everyone in a good place, which is nice. 

So, if you’ve hesitated to pick up this book, give it a shot. I’m glad I did. 

Ornament Review: Syndrome - 2024 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great representation of Syndrome

Cons: Only if you wanted to display him without putting him on your tree.

The Bottom Line:

Another villain

Piece for anniversary

Will look good on tree

A Villainous Anniversary Ornament

Hallmark released a couple of ornaments to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Incredibles. One of those was a limited edition piece of Syndrome, the villain of the film. While I was tempted to get him earlier, I didn’t break down and buy him until the after Christmas sales. 

Any fan of the movies will recognize him right away. He’s dressed in his super villain outfit from the end of the movie. His outfit is mostly black with silver gloves and boots and a giant silver “S” on the front. His red hair is shooting off the top of his head like flames. And his blue cape is behind him. 

My hesitation to buy the ornament had nothing to do with whether I liked him or not. I’m not the biggest Disney/Pixar villain collector, but I do have a nice collection of the villains ornaments going. No, it was only a space issue. I really need to clean out my condo of some of my collections. But on sale, I couldn’t resist. 

Any fans of the movie that didn’t get this ornament will want to give it a second look as well. He looks just like you’d expect him to look, and it’s a great piece to have if you are a fan of the movie. 

Since Syndrome is standing on his feet, you might be tempted to set him out to be displayed.  But his feet are so small my guess is he will tip over just about any time anyone walks by him, so I don’t recommend it.

If your plan is to hang him on your tree, you’ll be delighted to learn that he hangs straight. 

Syndrome was a fun villain in The Incredibles, so it was nice to see Hallmark add him to their ornament line. If you are a fan, you’ll be glad to have him in your collection. 

Book Review: A Killing Way by J. R. Sanders (Nate Ross #4)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong, fun mystery with characters we like

Cons: Some characters could be a little stronger

The Bottom Line:

Hunting for painting

That was stolen by dead man

Another fun case

Tracking a Painting Stolen by a Dead Man

There seem to be certain times and places I am drawn to in my historical mysteries and one of those is old Hollywood. The Nate Ross series has continually provided a fun glimpse into that time period, and A Killing Way, the fourth in the series, is no exception. 

Nate is a former police officer who had to leave the force. He’s set up shop as a private investigator. While he’s not a fan of motion pictures and tries to stay out of the business as much as he can, he keeps finding himself involved in cases that involve the business. 

For example, his latest client is silent film star William S. Hart, a man famous for his many Westerns. He’s recently had a portrait done by renowned artist Charlie Russell stolen from his house, and he wants Nate to get it back. He even knows exactly who took it. 

Sounds easy, right? It would be except the thief was recently killed, the victim of a deadly accident on the set of a Western that has divided the community of cowboys who are day players in the movies. Nate wanted nothing to do with the case or the controversy, but now he has to wade in if he has any hopes of finding the painting. Can he do it?

I’ll admit, I probably wouldn’t have heard of William S. Hart if it weren’t for the fact that he lived in the town I call home here in Southern California. It was fun meeting him via the page. There’s a key scene that takes place at a local landmark, which I enjoyed as well. Although I had to laugh at myself as I was reading those scenes. I struggled not to picture how it looks today, almost 90 years after the book is set. I know it would have looked very different back then. 

The mystery was well done. There were several great twists as the story unfolded, and I was always anxious to see what was going to happen next. Good thing it was a quick read with lots of action to keep us glued to the page. The book reaches a satisfactory conclusion, and I felt the various threads were wrapped up. 

Fans of the series will be happy to hear that we see all the usual supporting characters and get to meet some fun new ones as well. A few of them could have been a little stronger, but that’s my only critic, and it’s a minor one. 

Being a PI novel, there is a tad more violence and language than the cozies I typically read. But it’s a very small amount. 

A Killing Way is a great addition to the Nate Ross series. Fans will be glad to be back in Nate’s presence, and if you haven’t started this series yet, I recommend you do so today. 

Do check out the rest of the Nate Ross Mysteries.

Movie Review: Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Lost Without You

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Story and characters work perfectly to pull you in

Cons: All cons got lost

The Bottom Line:

Tracking a package

Film shows what franchise does best

Will delight the fans

“Do You Have a Bucket List?”  “No.  But I Do Have a List of Buckets.”

When I watched the sixth Signed, Sealed, Delivered movie, I was disappointed in it.  But, since it was the first time the franchise hadn’t hit the mark for me, I hoped it was a temporary blip.  Having now watched the next movie, Lost Without You, I’m thrilled to say my faith was rewarded.

As always, the movie follows the four members of the POstables, the team who works to send mail that may have been damaged on its way to where it should have gone.  And their newest case is intriguing.  Someone dropped a package and letter in a prop mailbox.  It’s been very mangled and has all kind of stains on it.  They have an idea of what part of town it was mailed from and where it might be going.  Will that be enough to figure things out?  Even more puzzling, the package appears to be a bucket list.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Shane (Eric Mabius and Kristin Booth) are working up to take two on their first date.  That is if Oliver doesn’t go camping with his father, Joe (Gregory Harrison).  And Norman (Geoff Gustafson) is trying to act a little more boldly after getting a job offer in DC.  What might that mean for his relationship with Rita (Crystal Lowe)?

Just about everything that wasn’t working for me in the last movie worked here.  The mystery of the package was interesting with a couple of good complications and surprises along the way to the solution.  While Norman and Rita’s subplot might have been a little safe and ordinary, Oliver and Shane’s was anything but.  The way everything came together at the end was wonderful.

Now, I’m not saying that we didn’t have predictable moments along the way.  But I didn’t care.  I was so caught up in the story that I wanted to see them happen.  We got some beautiful nature shots as well.

In the end, this movie had some very interesting character growth for Oliver.  To a lesser extent, it did for Norman as well.  I’m curious to see where they go with that in the next movie because I’m sure they will go somewhere with it.  They are way too careful with their continuity to miss it.

And, once again, the acting is top notch.  The four leads of the franchise make their characters, who could have been caricatures and less than interesting, into people we love and love to root for.  I can’t emphasize enough just how much I keep coming back to see what is going to happen next to them.  The rest of the cast is just as good.  I found it fun to see Jesse Moss here.  He’s popped up in quite a few of the Hallmark Mystery movies I’ve watched over the years.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was how much this movie talked about faith.  Yes, that’s always been part of the series, especially coming from Oliver.  But this movie really talks about it.  The theme really does fit the story perfectly, and, as a Christian, I really appreciated it. 

If you’re like me and trying to catch up on the Signed, Sealed, Delivered franchise, you’ll be happy when you land here.  Lost Without You shows exactly why Hallmark has kept this franchise going for so long.  You’ll enjoy every second of it.

This movie is part of the Signed, Sealed, Delivered Movies 5-8 Collection.

May the 4th Be With Your Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  And, as my title indicated, welcome to Star Wars Day as well. (May the 4th be with you.)  No plans to celebrate myself, but it's always fun to mention.

Anyway, as usual, I am linking up to:

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

Last weekend, I didn't check in because I was at Malice Domestic.  It's a convention for mystery writers and readers held just outside of DC every year.  This year, among the honorees was Dorothy Gilman.  They always highlight one deceased author who has made a contribution to the genre, and this year, they picked Dorothy Gilman.  I love her Mrs. Pollifax series.  In fact, it's where I stole Carstairs.  Anyway, Thursday night, before things officially kicked off, I co-lead a book discussion of The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, the first in the series.  What really made me happy was that the people who showed up were was about half long time fans and half people who had just read the first book and fallen in love.  Always great to make new fans for this great series.

Anyway, we had somewhere between 30 and 40 people there.  Not too bad for an event that was before things really get going.  I talked to some people who would have been there, but they always take Thursday night to do other things in the area, so they couldn't come once it was announced.  But the people who were there really participated in the discussion, and I got lots of good feedback on it.

The rest of the weekend was talking to authors and getting books signed and buying books.  Boy did I.  Wait until we get to the Book Haul section.  Ironically, I had a list of books I was going to buy, and most of them weren't for sale (random middle books in series and there was limited space for books to be for sale).  But I more than made up for it.  My suitcase had room for more books, but it was at 44 lbs. coming home.

Another highlight was getting to meet Meezan of Caboodle of Cozies.  We play Words with Friends and chat some online, so it was great to actually meet face to face.

Pun of the Week:

It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Candy Review: Hershey's Kisses - Butterbeer

Monday - Movie Review: Viva Las Vegas

Tuesday - Book Review: Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg

Wednesday - April's Reading Summary

Thursday - Book Review: #Throwback for Murder by Sarah E. Burr

Friday - Friday Post featuring A Killing Way

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Lost Without You

Tuesday - Book Review: A Killing Way by J.R. Sanders

Wednesday - Ornament Review: Syndrome

Thursday - Book Review: A Killing in Costumes by Zac Bissonnette

Friday - Friday Post

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

As I mentioned above, I have a lot of books to talk about this week.  So, instead of trying to talk about each one like I normally do, I'm just going to list them all.

Short Story Collections:

Malice Domestic 16: Mystery Most Diabolical

Malice Domestic 18: Mystery Most Devious

Malice Domestic 19: Mystery Most Humorous

Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy

Every Day a Little Death

Regular Novels:

Bait and Swiss by Korina Moss

The Tell-Tale Homicide by Daphne Silver

Murder in the Master by Judy L. Murray

The Last Line by Scott Lyerly

Saving the Guilty by Liz Milliron

Framed! by James Ponti

Weeding Out Lies by Jackie Layton

Curtains for the Condo Casanova by Barbara Barrett

The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B.Jackson

That should keep me busy for quite a while, right?

What I'm Currently Reading:

Actually, I have finished one of those books.  Bait and Swiss officially came out this last Tuesday, but I was lucky enough to snag one of the early copies they had for sale at the convention, and I devoured it.  It's the sixth in Korina Moss's Cheese Shop Mysteries.  And it was as delightful as the rest of her books.  As I type this, I've got to write the review, but I'm aiming to review it on the 13th, so I've got some time yet.

I've started on my next book, The Tale of the Tenpenny Tontine by P.J. Fitzsimmons.  It's the third in a historical series that is as much comedy as mystery.  It's set in England in the 1920's, and it's filled with dry wit and is so much fun.  I'm about 20% of the way into it at the moment and really enjoying it.

That's it for me.  Have a great week.

May 3rd's Weekly TV Thoughts

A little catch up this week.

Wild Cards (4/23) – Those are some nice cliffhangers they’ve got there.  I really can’t wait to find out where they are going with all of this.  If only I didn’t have to wait until next Wednesday since they’ve got something else going on instead this week.  Sigh.  I’m betting the commissioner is behind it, but we’ll see if I’m right.  And I’m curious what is going to keep everyone together for a potential third season.  At least I hope there’s a third season.

Survivor (4/23) – It still amazes me the people who think they get to order people around and never have to listen to them.  I think that’s only worked for Boston Rob, and then only on one season of the show.  As much as I wanted to see the strong guys stick together and win, I’m actually not that sorry to see David gone.

The Amazing Race (4/23) – It was obvious early on which team was going to be eliminated.  Made it anticlimactic the rest of the leg.  Still, I was impressed with how the gamers came back.  And misreading the clue didn’t turn out to be what took the team out anyway.  But this does bring us to the question of how people pay for things on the race these days.  We aren’t told how much money they are given.  Seems like you’d need more money for taxis than public transportation.  Finally, it was nice to see them have to translate/decipher a Bible verse.  But I would have struggled there since I’ve memorized the verse slightly differently, so I would have put the last few words in a different order.  Doesn’t change the meaning, but it would have been rule incorrect, as it should be since I’m not translating what they have for me.

Tracker – I know I complain about the weird cases, but I didn’t feel like this was one of them.  It pretty much worked for me.  Pretty sad with the motive, but I was happy at the end overall.

Suits LA – A different flashback.  And what does it say that I found that more compelling than the current storyline?  I honestly think the show would have been served better without the flashbacks at all.  Focus on what is happening now and the power plays and we might have a compelling show.  But it’s harder to work in original Suits characters without the flashbacks.

Poppa’s House – You can tell they weren’t writing for a series finale since that was a cliffhanger on the romance they’ve been teasing.  But, honestly, it was too sudden on everyone’s parts.  I just didn’t see the romance building between those characters.  And, honestly, isn’t there a big age difference between them?  I never really bought into it.  So maybe that’s why it felt so sudden to me.

Night Court – The A story was pretty funny.  The B story?  It was okay with some good lines, but overall, it wasn’t that great.  What’s funny is, I can picture episodes where that would have been the best part of the episode.

Survivor – They got me.  I really thought it was going to be Mary.  It will be interesting to see how they plays out next week and going forward.  I am thinking the final three aren’t going to have too many friends on the jury this time.  I’m a bit surprised.  Just because someone doesn’t want to play your game doesn’t mean they aren’t playing a good game.  People seem to have forgotten that recently.

The Amazing Race – So much fun this episode.  Yeah, I would have struggled making the pizzas, too, but I would have had fun trying.  Okay, would have felt the pressure, but had fun.  And they would have had to work hard to keep me from eating all the cheese in the first challenge.  I’m not a fan of the siblings since they bicker so much.  I was hoping we’d finally seen the last of them, although I wasn’t that surprised it was a non-elimination leg since we hadn’t seen any other kind of twist in the episode before that.