Supergirl: Daddy’s Home

Some comic book humor
 from Instagram Search Meme

     In a brilliant casting turn, last year’s Supergirl pilot brought in former TV Superman Dean Cain playing Kara’s earth father, Dr.  Jeremiah Danvers. Of all the parents that face their grown children in this show, Dr. Danvers is by far the one with the most baggage (see comparison below). In a convenient plot twist, Dr. Danvers appeared in a few flashbacks because he died in an “accident.” Later in the first season, Kara (alias Supergirl, played by (Melissa Benoist) and her adoptive sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) discovered their dad was still alive, held captive for over 13 years by a top-secret organization called  Cadmius. I had to look it up, but Cadimus is a top-secret genetic engineering project, for those of us not up on our comic book lore.  The women also learned that their dad was part of the same alien protection agency (DEO for short) that the sisters joined to protect earth from bad aliens. Kara, recently kidnapped by Cadimus to drain her powers, was freed from the compound by dead old dad. It was only a matter of time before we saw him again. This week, Jeremiah escapes the organization's convoy and comes home.

     Dr. Danvers is eager to jump back into his family life. A family dinner was called with wife Eliza, the girls, and their beaus, Mon-El (Chris Woods for Kara) and Maggie (Floriana Lima for Alex), Mama Danvers makes things very clear to her estranged husband. He’s been missing for a decade and  half, and they can’t just pick up where they left off.  Dr. Danvers is also physically limited from his previous work. He is missing a hand, a punishment for helping Kara and Mon-El escape.  Dr. Danvers asks to come back to the DEO, and his old friend Director Henshaw (the delightful David Harewood)  invites him back with open arms. The two have a very interesting past.*

     The gentleman working at the DEO ( Mon-El and Kara's friend Winn) both are overly suspicious that Dr. Danvers is a spy. The sisters refuse to believe their dad would betray them, even though he was held captive and possibly brainwashed  for almost 15 years. For those of us that loosely understand the Superman folklore, Cadimus is evil. The group wants to rid earth of aliens and it's run by the mother of all baddies, (literally) Lillian Luthor. The big action is that Cadimus was supposed to be transporting a chemical bomb when Dr. Danvers escaped. The bomb used Kara's power from her captivity and it will blow up the whole city if the DEO can't stop it. Of course, Dr. Danvers was corrupted by Cadimus and is stealing information from the DEO to help Cadimus. Most importantly, he accesses the master list of all aliens on earth. I'm sure the same list could be put together just walking into the local alien bar (which reminds me of  Angel's demon karaoke bar Caritas). In the last minutes of the show, Kara stops a train from crashing, after the bomb blew up the train track over a ravine. (Back to the Future much?) Alex confronts her father for stealing from the DEO, but lets him escape because she cannot deal with bringing him in for punishment. It's heartbreaking, it's real, and it's not over yet. Tonight we should get more closure on the issue, but I cannot see how Dr. Danvers will ever be a good guy again.  Here is how Dr. Danvers fares against other parents on the show:

Kara’s real alien parents:

     Kara Zor-El’s mom and dad were wise rulers back on the planet of Krypton. Kara held them in high regard and would reach out to their holograms in season 1 when she found trouble on earth . Being sent away from her home as a pre-teen, Kara had issues opening up to people. She finally had the opportunity to get together with her pal James (Jimmy) Olsen (Mechad Brooks)  toward the end of last season, but she abruptly changed her mind and walked away. I’m going to chalk this departure up to psychological trauma and abandonment issues.  Despite her lovely earth family and the resilient Mrs. Doctor Danvers, Kara formed a close parental attachment to her boss, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Ms. Grant called Kara by the wrong name, sent her on stupid assignments and chastised her for disappearing in the middle of the day. Secretly, I think she knew Kara was always a bit distracted because she was out saving the city. Ms. Grant took an abrupt sabbatical from her company at the beginning of this season, ruining everything. She promoted Kara from assistant to reporter and Supergirl has been super lost all season. 

     In other disturbing family news, Kara’s alien prison escapee Aunt Astra (Laura Berlanti) came to earth last season to bring eco-terrorism! Through many fights, Kara’s feeling about her parents got taken down a peg. Were they as perfect and just as they claimed to be back home? It also didn’t help that Astra was Kara’s mom’s identical twin. It gave me enough of the heebie jeebies, I imagine it was a head trip for Supergirl as well. In last season’s battle royale, Alex killed Astra, leaving her adopted sister with no other blood relatives. This messed with Kara’s head to the point that being trapped in delusion of being on her home planet sounded better than reality.  Astra’s creepy husband came earlier this season for revenge, and the group had to take him down as well. This left me with big questions: 

What is the Zor-El side of the family tree like? 

Will we ever see Supeman’s alien parents? Are they nice?

Is Kara's dad named Zor-El Zor-El? 

General Lane, Dad of Lucy and Lois:    
     General Lane is not a nice man, much like the real Hank Henshaw. He is an army general with a heart of steel. He made life for Supergirl very difficult, vehemently opposing aliens and refusing to accept her help in taking down some very bad creatures. We are left with the impression that he barely speaks to eldest daughter (and Superman's gal) Lois. His younger daughter Lucy (Jenna Dewan Tatum) joined the family practice, becoming a lawyer for the army. He forced Supergirl to fight an army-created android, and took over the DEO, torturing alien prisoners. When Lucy learned Kara was Supergirl, she wanted her dad to lighten up, but he could not change his thinking about aliens. These daddy issues made things between Lucy and James rough at a time when we were all rooting for them to break up and James to declare his love to Kara. By the time it happened, Kara's issues got in the way and Lucy left the gang.

Winslow Schott Sr., Winn's Dad    
     Winn's dad is a literal mad scientist. The brilliant Henry Czerny (Revenge) played the jailbird with ease. Also known as Toyman, Winn Sr. weaponized toys to make them do evil things. He tried to get Winn to help him, but he turned him down and helped capture him. 

Cat Grant, Adam's Mom
     Cat revealed to Kara that she is the mother of two sons. Kara gets stuck babysitting the precocious tween Carter while Cat goes out of town, but she later learns Cat has another son. Cat gave up Adam for adoption when she was about 20 and she has always felt bad about never reaching out to her son and building a relationship with him. Kara tracks down Adam and reunites the pair, and the begins dating Adam. It all ends badly, the pair break up and Cat goes back to being tough on Kara.

Lillian Luthor, Lena and Lex's Mom
     Two episodes ago, we got a deep dive into the backstory of the Luthor family. Off-screen Lex Luthor (a known nemesis of Superman) is criminally insane and rotting in jail. His younger sister Lena (new to the cast this season)  and has taken over the family business Lexcorp to try to rebuild and re-brand. It was revealed that Lena was an illegitimate child, taken in and raised as a proper Luthor. Lillian (Brenda Strong) was against the idea, and she always cared more for her biological son than her adopted daughter.  Lena was offered her mother's love once this season, but turned it down and helped put her in jail for her sketchy criminal activities. Remember, this woman is the head of Cadimus. Lena was recently framed for breaking her mother out of jail, but Supergirl helped prove her innocence because the two have developed a sweet friendship. Kara and Lena also have a lovely reporter/subject relationship that has developed, which may take the place of Lena's crappy family.  

The Henshaw/Danvers connection:
* Dr. Danvers and the real Hank Henshaw were members of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations. The pair went out to retrieve a martin as part of their DEO assignment. Henshaw, a cruel human that hated all aliens, died on the mission. The martian (J'onn J'onzz) assumed Henshaw's physical form, bringing about a friendlier DEO. From then on, the DEO set out not only to capture aliens, but to assist good aliens like Kara and her cousin Clark.

Remember That Decade: The Goldbergs Bring the 80's Back

     The Goldbergs is a unique family sitcom based on the real life of Adam F. Goldberg, who grew up in the 1980's outside of Philadelphia. Adam is the youngest of three kids, and he follows his family (a real cast of characters) with a video camera. You may recognize these types of people in your own family.  You may have been a kid in the 80's and relate to some of the very humorous story lines. You may even enjoy watching with your own family to be grateful they're not this neurotic. If you family is this neurotic, let's chat!

     The most recent episode pitted siblings Erica and Barry in a fight about a school dance, which Erica planned with a Dirty Dancing theme (which school administration and Mrs. Goldberg changed their mind about after thinking what qualifies as "dirty"). Barry insists he will show up at the dance dressed like Kevin Bacon from Footloose and encourages Erica to dance out her frustrations in an "angry dance" scene. In the end, Erica gets humiliated and then has her spotlight dance with Barry's friend Geoff, who is obsessively (Say Anything boombox-style) in love with her. In another recent episode, Adam also tries to sneak into the movies to see the R-rated Weekend at Bernie's, shocking his mother and making poppa Murray proud.

     In a third hilarious episode (Laney Loves Lionel), Barry decided to create a clay bust of his girlfriend Lainey for valentine's day in honor of her affection for the Lionel Ritchie song Hello. It does not end well as Barry has a short temper and very few artistic skills.   I love this show and it's made it three seasons full of amusing anecdotes and embarrassing coming-of-age stories, similar to the beloved early 90's classic, The Wonder Years. Older Adam (voiced by Patton Oswald) narrates the beginning of each episode and a video tape is inserted into the VCR to begin the story. Here are the reasons to watch and catch up.

Photo from the web. 

Murray- Dad (Jeff Garlin)
     Murray comes home from work and drops his pants, taking up residence on.the armchair. He loves football, watching football, his dog Lucky, and calling his kids morons.  He does not like to talk about mentions and you will rarely see him dance, but he's got a deep heart in there somewhere. He also has one friend, Bill.

Photo from Pintrest. 

Pops (Beverly's Dad) (George Segel)
     Pops lives nearby in a retirement community, but he hangs at the house on a regular basis. The kids get upset when pops buys a timeshare in Florida because he might not be around as much. Adam regularly declares Pops is his best friend, and pops dispenses advice to everyone, whether they are ready to hear it, or they are too stubborn. He attempts to bail Erica out of jail, despite not having a license. Most important, Pops agrees to go along with all of Adam's crazy ideas (filming an alternate ending to Transformers, auditioning for Double Dare, bringing two girls to the school dance).

Beverly - Mom (Wendy McLendon-Covey)

Photo from Pintrest.

     Adam's mother is often called a "smother" because she mothers to the umpteenth degree.  She calls all three kids schmoopie (or schmoops) and tries to get her "snuggles" in with each of them whenever possible. She does not want the kids to ever meet anyone they will love more than her, which can cause a lot of problems. She also scares the high school principal into getting her way often.

Photo from the web.

Erica - Sister (Hayley Orrantia)
     Adam's big sister Erica is 1980's cool. She wears crop tops, ripped lace and rocks a scrunchy like no other. She gets invited to cool parties with beer, sneaks out to go to concerts, sings in bands, tries to get out of her mom's clutches, and at the end of the day always has her brothers' backs. Beverly and Erica's conflict drives many of the stories, including one where Beverly  showed up at Erica's department store job to constantly use Erica's associate discount.. It's important to note, Adam Goldberg doesn't have a sister, he had two older brothers. But they would not have looked as good in a fringed jacket as she does. Erica's best friend Lainey (A.J. Michalka) is a close adopted member of the Goldberg family and slowly grows to love Barry, much to Erica's disgust.

Barry- Brother (Troy Gentile)

Photo courtesy of pintrest. 

Barry is the middle child and likes ka-ra-tae (and he is terrible at it). Barry is good at one thing and one thing only, a made-up game he and Adam play called "Ball Ball." When the school jock joins Barry's ball ball club at school, Barry is kicked out and competes in a series of events Adam sets up that only Barry could win at. Barry chases after his sister's friend Lainey for a good chunk of time before she finally gives in and begins dating him, although she is a quintessential cool girl and sometimes embarrassed by Barry' bold declaration of love (See Laniey Loves Lionel). When he has free time, Barry can be found trying to rap under the name "Big Tasty", break dancing, or hanging out in the WaWa parking lot with his friends, the JTP (Jenkinstown Posse).

Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone)

Photo from the web.

     Adam is a cute little middle school pipsqueak beginning puberty (or as Barry calls it, "The Pubening.") Adam carries a hefty video camera around to record his family's actions and to recreate his favorite movies, His best friend is pops, although he is also close with an elementary school pal Emmy, called Muscles Mirsky. Their clash over auditioning to Double Dare was priceless, as Adam got jealous of Emmy teaming up with the class jock, and he demands that pops be his partner. Pops is disgusted with picking through noses and kiddie pools of slime to find a flag and ultimately both kids lose out of the tryouts. The ultimate 80's fanboy, Adam is always found wearing shirts from his favorite movies, Star Wars, The Goonies, Tron and Transformers. Adam is the most willing to let mom indulge in her smothering, promising snuggies for small bits of freedom and dates with his first love, Dana, who moves away to Seattle.

Grinder (noun)

"What does it mean, 'to grind' asks Dean Sanderson's (Rob Lowe) new therapist, played by guest star Maya Ruldoph.

Dean responds, "Doing whatever it takes to find justice, no matter how hard the grind... and the grind is the everyday struggle."

     FOX took a chance this season with a sitcom called The Grinder (not the Grindr) about adult brothers who start (reluctantly) working together in a law practice. Have we seen this type of plot before? Of course…. (Hyperion Bay with Mark Paul Gosselaar >comes to mind). The difference in this show is all in the casting. The brothers are two of my beloved 80’s and 90’s actors. I could not be more excited for Fred Savage’s (Stewart)  return to acting and the return of Lowe to comedy. This is Savage's first foray away from the director's chair since the sitcom, Working (1997-1999).
     

     Let it be known that while I favored his real life brother Ben Savage (Cory from Boy/Girl Meets World for many years, I am back on Team Fred when it comes to choosing which Savage I love. Savage's Stewart runs Sanderson and Yao, a law firm in Boise, Idaho, a firm started by his dad, Dean Sanderson, Sr. (William Devane). Dean Sr. is ticked to have his son home after Dean Jr.'s many successful seasons as TV lawyer, Mitch Grinder.

    Mitch Grinder is his own unique character.  Rob Lowe does what he does best here: he plays an actor playing a lawyer,  and both characters are a bit self-indulgent. It’s basically the best of teen Rob Lowe’s boyish charm (St. Elmo’s Fire, The Outsiders) and adult Rob Lowe’s commitment to #truthandjustice mixed together (The West Wing,The Lyon's Den, Brothers and Sisters). The scenes from the show with a show are pretty dramatic with emotional outbursts, clawing out of a coffin in the ground, romantic trysts on the confrence table, and the last-minute proclamation that "grinds" (pun intended) the case to a swift halt.  In every episode of the show, the Sanderson men, along with Stewart's wife Debbie (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, the waitress from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and teen kids, watch episodes of "The Grinder" and Dean shares his motivation for the episode, with ridiculous things like getting a teenage son in one episode to show his character's emotional depth.


In the episode first mentioned above, Dean's therapist suggests that in order for Dean to move forward in life (or at least move out of his brother's house), he has to let "The Grinder" die. This should be simple because in the new reboot of the show, Grinder: New Orleans, Dean guest stars to give his new TV brother Rake (played by Timothy Olyphant) some advice, and decides his character must die to complete his character arc. This plan took some convincing and entailed a very confusing courtroom scene where Stu showed up as their third long-lost brother and also offered to die on the show, via poison. As for Olyphant, he has done some great work playing a Hollywood version of himself, making Dean look  a little more human and sparking a romantic triangle (at least in Dean's eyes) with Sanderson and Yao's associate, Claire. Other guest stars have included Christina Applegate as a closeted fan pretending she had never seen Dean's show, Jim Rash as a potential client, Jason Alexander as "The Grinder" director.

“We watch The Grinder, we talk about it while we’re watching it, and after we’re watching it, and it feels to me like we should operate more in reality.”  - Stu

“Were you at the bar this whole time, just waiting to interject at the perfect moment?”

      -     Client (Jim Rash) to Dean

Blackish: Neighbors and Sterotypes

 

   In tonight's Black-ish, titled  Sink or Swim, Andre (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) once again confront and challenge the stereotypes plaguing their neighborhood in an effort to teach their kids something. Much like the modern day Cosbys, they want to be treated like everyone else that is white. This usually leads to some major blow-up that embarrasses their four kids. First, the twins Jack and Diane both enjoy the activities of the other twin's boy/girl scout group. After some lying gets to be too overwhelming, Jack bakes a casserole and Diane ties ropes and saves her dad in the pool. Much to their grandmother's disappointment,t the twins defy the stereotypes set out for their genders. If only it was so easy for their parents....

     Andre fusses over not getting invited to their across the street neighbor's house for pool parties, just because he thinks she is biased against their black family and assumes they cannot swim. Dre finds no love at work as his coworkers pick apart more of his flaws (too much cologne, touching all of the doughnuts, etc..), When Dre confronts Janine (Nicole Sullivan from King of Queens and Mad T.V.) about the lack of invitation, she honestly confesses she thought the Johnsons didn't like her and her family (due to several overheard conversations). In an earlier episode, Jeanine wouldn't let her kid stay over because Dre kept a gun locked in a safe in the house, and she went postal on Halloween about teen kids (possibly from a bad neighborhood) coming for their good candy. After securing a friendly invite to the pool party, Dre's children find out he is the only family member that can't swim, due to his "heavy bones". A failed swim lesson later, Dre attempts to go in the pool and almost drowns to prove to Jeanine that he is more than a stereotype. Then he is rescued from the pool by his ten year old daughter and swaddled by his mother.

     Bow tackles self image and worth with her teens, trying to show them there is more to life than likes and being a "woman of leisure." She makes up flimsy excuses to get away from the "Mom Mafia" at school, who try to pressure her into signing up for committees and invite her to a grueling schedule of midday yoga classes. After countless reminders that she is a working mom with 4 kids (and a cardiothoracic surgeon), Bow decides to tell one mom off at the pool party. After shaming the mom for her fancy clothes, lack of purpose in life, feeding her husband, Bow discovers this mom is also a doctor, and she somehow has this work/life balance thing together. In the end, Junior and Zoe toll their mom they're proud of her and they look up to her as a role model for their grown-up dreams. They also show her a video the moms made of Bow yelling at the other mom while Andre helplessly splashes around in the pool, calling for help. This is humiliating image for the parents, but the kids wouldn't have their parents any other way.

Chinese New Year Off the Boat

     Tonight was a winning episode of Fresh off the Boat, one of my favorite shows of 2015. Just in time for Chinese New Year, the Huangs are planning a family trip to Washington D.C. to celebrate the special holiday. Treasures such as fireworks, red envelopes of money and pork buns await, but they missed their flight by a whole day. Now, the family is stuck in Orlando, trying to find another Chinese group to spend the holidays with this year.  First, Louis and Jessica look through the phone book for other Chinese families. "Yang is the Chinese Smith," remarks Louis. They also try to track down a Chinese man they saw when they were on a city bus. After a failed attempt at the Orlando area Asian American group (AAAoO for short) and make several jokes saying "Ayy" like Fonzie and "Ay-Oh!" like Tony Danza. The group is of course, a disaster and a disappointment as it was formed by members from all parts of Asia, with people from India and Russia populating the event), and a terrifying dinosaur dancing like it came from a basketball halftime show. Then the family return back to their restaurant, where the neighbors and staff throw a great party to celebrate the Huangs' tradition. In the end, Jessica explains that nearly everything is meant to bring luck and wealth to the family.

     This is one of the episodes where the family dynamics truly make the episode, similar to the season opener where Jessica and the boys tag along on Louis' business trip. (In that episode, Jessica fights the hotel about the number of guests they are paying for in their room, among other things). Eddie and his little brothers are completely upset about missing the trip because they won;t get any little red envelopes full of lucky money. While Eddie hopes for enough to afford new Air Jordans, baby brother Emery wants to start a business by buying a Snoopy Sno-Cone maker (an amazing toy that my friends had when we were little) and middle brother Evan is so worried about grumpy Grandma,who will not give out any money in red envelopes. Truly brown in the wrong era, oddball Evan hopes to buy a fedora and bring back an era of rail travel, and dressed up in a suit in the hopes of the airline upgrading him to first class. Sweet little Emery puts on a Seinfeld-esque comedy show to cheer up Grandma. In an amusing moment, Grandma explains to people that their supposed "Chinese symbol" tattoos don't mean what they thought they did. This episode is a must-see and hopefully it will become a traditional episode in the coming seasons.

The Time I Saw Ol' Bocephus

USA's Playing House:
The Bocephus Disguise

     According to Urban Dictionary: Bocephus is a common nickname for Hank Williams Jr. Hank got the nickname from his famous father, who looked in the cradle and just called him "Bocephus." Bocephus is a common phrase airbrushed on 1984 Ford F-150s.

     I won tickets to attend the third day of a three-day country music festival in upstate New York. It happened to be on Father's day, so I got my trusty pop to be my plus one. We were hoping to arrive early afternoon after a family lunch and we would catch acts like Thompson Square and Thomas Rhett. The first two days of the festival had amazing headliner acts like Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, and our Sunday night juggernaut, ol' Bochphus.

View from the top of the ski slope.

     A long story short, we ended op getting very lost. My GPS on the phone was picking up signals beyond 1x data,  I think guidance was likely from spaceships. When we arrived, we were able to park nearby the camping area, outside of the ski resort t for no additional fee. Other told us they had paid $30.00-$50.00 to park their cars there. The staff managed to find two more bracelets to admit us in, and into the breach we went. Thank god for real bathrooms! We were also relieved to find there was still some beer.

Ol' Junior. 

     Just in time for the last set, we struggled to make a list of songs we knew from Hank Jr. We came up with the Monday Night Football Theme and the original version of "I Fought the Law." We were treated to renditions of songs by his father and Jerry Lee Lewis, we we were very much out of sync with the rest of the crowd. There were so many mud-stricken people there, dirty and drunk from three long days of partying, and covered in terrible sunburn. Halfway into the set, dad asked I wanted to head home, and I couldn't have been happier to head back to civilization.  I can safely say I would never have enjoyed Woodstock.

A Note About Seeing the Footage on TV

This past Friday night, I saw the episode of Blue Bloods I watched being filmed! -Refer to my September 16th entry about seeing Blue Bloods filmed.

The episode was about an off-duty officer who is shot in a diamond heist. During her family's grief, the NYPD and the Reagan family's quick time frame to catch the criminals and bring them to justice. Commissioner Dad, officer Jamie, Detective Danny, prosecutor Erin, and even retired commissioner grandpa worked on the case.

Here is my horrible cell phone photo from the set.