Deola’s Corner: Another Week Of TV (Edition 12)

DISCLAIMER: The following article contains spoilers from TV Shows and Movies. So if you detest spoilers, then I suggest you leave while you can. If you don’t mind spoilers, by all means read on and lets ki-ki.

Apologies for my absence; school came calling and Yours Truly had to answer. I’m here now. Let’s dig in.

REVIEW OF THE WEEK: How To Get Away With Murder – S02E15 (It’s a trap)

So in the short time I was away, we find out how Wes’ mother, Rose died. It turns out she really did kill herself. We also find out what happened to Annalise’s baby, sad stuff this one. Murder Brother goes “missing” (yeah right). It also turns out Wes’ daddy is Wallace Mahoney, you know, the evil Mahoney father?! Laurel drunk-spills to Annalise about Frank killing Lila, and Annalise flees to her mama’s place. And the most shocking of all, Michaela hooks up with Asher! EWWWWW!

We open the finale with the Keating kids + Oliver in the Keating house. Michaela is all freaked out, talking about, “Annalise is missing, Caleb is missing”. Uhm, no he isn’t. Anyhow, Laurel tells Frank that she spilled to Annalise and Frank has this gloomy look on his face. It’s never made sense to me why he wouldn’t tell Annalise that he killed Lila. It finally did in this episode though.

We flashback 10 years ago to that random woman that Frank was hooking up with; well, it turns out she isn’t random. She offers Frank a stack of cash that looks all too familiar and makes him an offer – to plant a bug in Annalise’s hotel room. And because Annalise verbally abused him, Frank goes ahead to do the random woman’s bidding.

Back in the present in Memphis, Annalise is sleeping and look! It’s someone next to her. Annalise frets, but don’t worry, it’s just her sister who introduces herself to us by saying, “I forgot you are around murderers all the time.” LMAO! I like her already! Can we keep her? They banter and their mother makes her entrance and orders Annalise to go take a shower. Apparently a welcome home party is being thrown in Annalise’s honor. Annalise comes down to a room full of people, and I coulda sworn this was the set of one of those Madea movies.

Annalise and her mama are talking in the kitchen about stuff, when Annalise sees a man and gets this look on her face; it’s not quite her trademark death stare. It’s more a resting ‘Amma smack you’ expression. And the man she’s giving the look to? Her long lost father. And he has been around and back together with her mother. Annalise obviously doesn’t trust that he is here to stay, and when he tries to talk to her, she isn’t having it.

Wes and Laurel also catch up. He tells her that Annalise told him about Wallace Mahoney being his father. As they talk, the two get close and it looks like they are going to smooch again. But Frank walks in just in time. Before he interrupts them though, I found myself not recoiling at the idea of Wes and Laurel together, as much as I did the first time. As much as I don’t want to see them together, I can’t deny the chemistry between them. Laurel goes on to talk to Frank, telling him she and Wes only kissed once (would have been twice if he hadn’t so rudely interrupted). She says nothing is going on (LOL. How come when people say nothing is going on, it most certainly means something is?). She says they were only talking about their crappy fathers, and then she drops the bomb by telling him that Evil Wallace Mahoney is Wes’ father.

Back in Memphis, Nate has come to see Annalise. They step out to talk and both Annalise’s mother and sister peep from the window and drool all over Nate. I believe every human has this reaction when Nate gets in the room, yet this was hilarious to watch. Nate is talking to Annalise about the warrant that is out for her arrest. They trade words for as bit, which gets interrupted by Annalise’s mother, who like any competent TV mother, invites him to stay over for dinner, dinner during which the family grills Nate, causing Annalise to wish the ground to open up and swallow her.

In the flashback, Frank meets up with the not-so-random lady and tells her he’s planted the bug. “Nice to meet you,” he says. “Don’t worry, we’ll see each other again,” she replies. Yap, something tells me we shall definitely be seeing her next season. Back in the present day, we see Frank with that suitcase of cash. This time at least, we know where it came from.

Asher and Michaela are alone, and – oh dear, they are going to do it again, aren’t they? Yep! They go at it again, but then Michaela decides, “Meh I’m not doing again.”

Meanwhile, Oliver has hacked the police again (I swear, this pikin is getting on my nerves). They see Annalise’s arrest warrant, but then most of it is redacted, so it’s useless. They suspect that someone is informing on Annalise and wonder if they have a traitor in their midst. They eventually find out who the rat is.

Back at the dinner table in Memphis, Annalise’s mother says none of her children has given her grandchildren. Her father says it makes sense, seeing as Annalise and her sister are career women. Annalise’s brother asks, “What’s my excuse then?” And the old man replies, “You just haven’t found the right woman.” “Or man,” Annalise’s sister quips without missing a beat. LOL! This part killed me! See why I like her already? She hasn’t been with us for long and she is already spilling that TEA!

Even at the dinner table, Annalise and her father are still not getting along, and her mother makes an offhanded comment, saying, “Maybe this is the reason why you and that husband of yours never had any babies, maybe it’s because you never learned to stop acting like a damn baby yourself, still as selfish as ever, only thinking about yourself.” Annalise drowns out the rest of her comments and looks so sad I just wanna hug her. She gets up and dances it out.

Eventually, she opens up to her mother about her baby that died. Pretty shitty of her not to have told her mother all this time; but then it’s typical, she doesn’t open up to anyone.

There’s a flashback, and via that bug that Frank planted, Not-So-Random lady overhears Annalise’s plans of going to the police about Rose’s death. Not-so-random lady phones Evil Wallace Mahoney and he says, “Take care of it.” And then we see the crash that changed Annalise’s life forever.

Consequent upon Annalise opening up to her mother, the older woman wakes her up in the middle of the night for her to say goodbye to her baby. It’s a small burial ritual, and there’s just so much sadness in this scene. It’s sad and amazing to watch these two awesome actresses together.

The next morning, Annalise’s father brings her phone to her, and tries to talk to her some more. But nah, she’s still not here for that. Her phone gets some charge and immediately, messages start rolling in, one of which is from the new Assistant District Attorney, ADA Denver, who tells her that she had better show up at the station by 5pm that evening. Michaela’s call comes in just then, and Annalise answers. And Michaela tells her they know who the rat is! It is Murder Brother, Caleb aka Michaela’s boo AKA the one who was supposed to be missing. I’m sorry but this doesn’t surprise me. If anything, I feel vindicated. I have never liked Murder Brother, and he was always my prime suspect for all those murders. Dude is just creepy. Annalise tells Michaela – and by extension, the others – to sit tight, that she’s going to handle this. She says goodbye to her family and heads back to get to business.

She is at the station, you know, meeting with ADA Denver. LOL, this ADA is funny, he needs to watch it or else we will introduce him to Asher. One would think he learnt his lesson after Annalise went all…well, Annalise on him the last time and played him for a fool. But alas, he hasn’t. This time he thinks he has her and she just laughs in his face and shows him her receipts. Through flashbacks, we see that night that Murder Cousin attacked Annalise in Wes’ apartment. What we didn’t see before now is that he tells her he is innocent and that Murder Brother murdered his mother, you know, racist Aunt Hapstall. Murder Brother just so happened to be wearing a fitness tracker on the night he went out for a “jog”, the same night that Racist Aunt died. The tracker puts him at the scene. Also, it turns out that mumu Murder Sister now wants to testify that on the night their parents were murdered, she went to her brother’s room, like she did every night, and didn’t find him there. She says they never had sex, just cuddled and kissed. GURL, PLEASE! I DON’T BUY IT! And why didn’t she say all of this before? Oh, that’s right. She was clearly in love – with her brother! Mtchew! Mumu girl! Biko shift.

In the wake of all these revelations, the news begins to report that Caleb is the murderer of the Hapstall murders. And next thing, we are looking at Caleb motionless in a bathtub filled with blood. Is he dead? Did he commit suicide? Or is this another murder?

Meanwhile, Oliver answers a call and he is whispering, he’s saying that he IS Connor Walsh. Wait, WHAT!? Turns out that Connor got into Stanford, and Oliver, who clearly doesn’t want the imminent relocation, declines the admission and deletes the acceptance mail (Don’t forget the trash folder, Ollie!).

Flashback: We see Frank rushing into the hospital to meet Sam, who tells him Annalise lost the baby. Frank is distraught, and spills his guts to Sam about the role he played in the tragedy, and says he wants to confess to Annalise. Sam commands him not to. And so, now we know what Sam had on Frank that got him to kill Lila. And now Annalise knows too.

Next we see Wallace Mahoney in all his evil glory. Wes walks up to him, all puppy-eyed and says, “Hi daddy, it’s me, Wes.” And before he can go any further, the evil man is SHOT DEAD RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM!

Season 2, Complete.

Other Tidbits:

1. I love how the flashbacks from 10 years ago were so integral to the events that were going on in the present.
2. I always thought it was weird that Frank seemed to have that much money just lying around. It makes sense that the guilt behind how he came about the money is what stopped him from spending it.
3. Annalise’s family intrigues me. I’m sure we’ll see more of them next season.
4. We haven’t seen the last of the Mahoneys, that’s for sure. You can be certain we’ll see the mother and son next season.
5. Seriously, I never once bought that Murder Brother wasn’t a creeper. Michaela’s taste in men is once again suspect. Sis can’t catch a break! LOL.
6. And what does all this mean for Murder Sister? Is she still gonna serve time or…?
7. I think we should now let Wes have his craziness. Dude has now seen two of his parents murdered. Knowing Wes, this probably means he’ll murder someone next season. If I was this new ADA, I would watch my back.

Rating 8/10: How To Get Away With Murder made a mistake that most hit shows make in their second season. Just ask Empire. They take the winning formula from their first season and make it bigger, not knowing that less is more and bigger isn’t necessarily better. In HTGAWM’s case, they gave us more murders, more twists, more turns, more flashbacks and flash-forwards, more hookups. And as such, the writing became uneven and choppy. When the Hapstall Murder case started, it was intriguing, but it got drawn out way too long past its due date. As such, the resolution was otherwise unsatisfactory (I mean, did you really care that Murder Brother died?). The case stopped being intriguing and instead you just wanted it to be over and done with. The finale also made the mistake of giving us filler material for the first 30 minutes. Make no mistake, I love it when Mama Annalise shows up, and I want to know more about Annalise’s family, but not in the FINALE! This sort of character development should have happened in episodes 12 or 13. It weighed down the finale and made the pacing uneven. On one hand, we had the fast pace stuff going on at the Keating house, and then the pace just slows down whenever the scenes with Annalise’s family came on. It’s no coincidence that the finale finally kicked into gear after she got back to work and left Memphis.

Season Rating: 7/10. As a whole, this season was weaker than the first. It started out very strong, picking up the pace from where the first season left off and even increasing it. The flash-forwards to the Murder Night at the Murder Mansion always made for terrific viewing. Eve’s introduction was an early highlight, and so was Levi’s. The ninth episode where it all came full circle and we saw who shot Annalise was the pinnacle of the season. That episode was HTGAWM at its best.

Sadly the show went on break and returned slow and flat. We got the ghost baby episode, which was a mess. And suddenly we had three plot threads – the 10 years ago flashbacks, the Hapstall case, and the current time events, which were mostly the repercussions of the murder night. The Hapstall case should have been solved quickly, so that we only had two main plot threads to worry about. First half of the season – Great! Second half just wasn’t. Here’s hoping that things get simpler in the third season. This is still a great show and is still one of the best out there…for now.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF TV THIS WEEK

Marvel’s Daredevil returns on Netflix: It seemed like March 18th would never arrive, but it did and brought with it the second season of Daredevil. This season was promoted as Daredevil Vs The Punisher, and it was just that. The Punisher was an awesome anti-hero. As usual, the acting on the show was spot on and the choreography for the fight scenes were mostly hits; a few misses were some of the scenes that looked sloppy. Mystical elements were also introduced this season and that plot brought along Elektra, who was freaking badass. Her mystical ties to the show got a bit confusing toward the end, but I’m sure we’ll get better explanation when next we see her. If you’re a fan of the slow building nature of Netflix shows, then you should enjoy this as it’s almost as good as the first season.

Shades of Blue shines through: It turns out Jennifer Lopez can play the role of a cop convincingly. I was quick to shoot down this show after seeing the first two episodes, not because of JLo’s involvement but because the plot seemed generic. And it was. The great thing though is that the show has slowly gotten better and by its eleventh episode, had become a fast-paced, tension-filled drama. The show still has its flaws but it knows its strengths and plays to them. Jennifer Lopez does great work here, and so does Ray Liotta. Their performances are a huge part of what makes you ignore the show’s letdowns.

The messy glove (American Crime Story): Remarkable, isn’t it? We all know he did it, evidence supports that argument. OJ Simpson committed these murders, and yet, somehow he got acquitted. American Crime Story has done a great job so far of showing the steps that the prosecution took which lost them the case of the century. None was more damning than the damn glove though. Chris Darden really should have listened to Marcia Clark and not had OJ wear the gloves. But you see, ego is a terrible thing. He got OJ to try on the gloves, they didn’t fit, and in that moment, right there, you could see that they had lost the case and he was going to get away with the murders. I had little hopes for this show, seeing as it’s a Ryan Murphy production, but it’s been incredible so far.

Quinn calls Olivia out (Scandal): Scandal is a shell of its former glorious self, and one of the reasons is that Olivia and her firm are a shell of the gladiators they used to be. I was waiting for someone to do it, and Quinn finally called Liv on her attitude. Let’s hope this leads to some repair in Olivia Pope Associates, and that the show will follow suit. It seems so as there are a couple of promising storylines: Hollis Doyle returning and running for president has endless possibilities. Mellie and Susan Ross running for presidency is also intriguing. Abby’s rise in the White House is actually nice to watch. Cyrus running Governor Francisco Vargas’s campaign is just juicy! The one storyline that is a mess – the Papa Pope, Jake NSA, and what-is-up-with-his-girlfriend storylines! Yeah, that’s going to keep weighing the show down. It’s like Shonda thinks Scandal needs a B6-13 edge to it before it can work. This storyline needs to be dumped as the coming election storyline has more than enough drama in it. Seriously, the first season of the show had no conspiracy, black-ops organisation storyline, and it is considered to be the best season of the show. Coincidence?

RuPaul Season 8: Calling on all the drag race lovers! Season 8 premiered 2 weeks ago, and we’ve already had some drama. This season has started out quite slow for me, as no single drag queen seems to have caught my eye as an outright frontrunner yet. At this point, in previous seasons, one could always tell who the really strong players were. I guess this season is taking its time. KimChi is creative and does stunning makeup but her walk is a snooze-fest; she is also lacking as a performer. Bob The Drag Queen has been playing it safe so far, she is yet to really impress. Derrick Barry seems like a mediocre William/Courtney Act clone. Naomi Smalls has body, but what else? Chichi Devayne is a good performer but then her fashion is way off. Acid Betty is just a bitch and she seems set up as this season’s villain. I’m really waiting for a queen that’s going to make a gag, and so far none are stepping up. Having said that, I like KimChi. I am still rooting for her and I hope she goes far. This week’s lip-sync? Sigh. No words. A queen who can’t lip-sync “I will survive” and put on a show really has no business being in this line of business. Thankfully RuPaul thought so too. I wonder who she calls at the end of the episode though. We’ll have to see.

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TV NEWS

Renewals Galore: So CW and ABC renewed basically all the shows on their schedules. For CW, Arrow, The Flash, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Legends of Tomorrow, Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Jane The Virgin all got renewed. For ABC, Scandal, HTGAWM, Grey’s Anatomy, Agents of Shield, Modern Family, and its other comedies got renewed. So Yay!

The Catch Premieres: The Catch is that new Shondaland drama that’s going to replace HTGAWM now that it has ended, and it will premiere on the 24th of March. Having seen the trailer, I really don’t know what to make of the show. Still gotta be worth a check at least.

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GAY THEMED MOVIE/SERIES I THINK YOU SHOULD WATCH

I thought I should start recommending gay themed movies and series, seeing as this is a gay blog. Every other week, I’ll recommend a gay themed show or movie that I think you should check out.

This week’s recommendation is the film, Weekend. Weekend was released in 2011, and it stars Tom Cullen and Chris New. It is a low budget movie. But one doesn’t need millions of dollars to make a motion picture that resonates with the audience. And this movie did just that. Like the name suggest, the movie takes place during one weekend: two strangers meet at a bar and what follows is about one of the most relatable and purest stories about two strangers meeting. At a point, one forgets that this is actually a movie as somehow, due to how incredibly these characters are written, one starts seeing them as something more, because you definitely will see part of you in them. Weekend feels real and true and that’s what makes it incredible. The cinematography is also beautiful as it gives the film a weird sorta documentary feel that somehow works here. The acting between the two actors is amazing, and once again, I am astounded as to how some actors can sometimes play such true characters that never once feel like a stereotype or caricature.

When Weekend ends, you’d probably be left wanting more, wanting to know more, wanting to having more than just a weekend to know these characters and their story, but the weekend, this short time span, is definitely what makes you appreciate the gem that the movie is.

Rating: 8/10 – A small but beautiful film. Definitely one of the better gay themed movies I have seen in a while.

And that’s it for this week, folks! Sound Off.

PS: If you haven’t seen the fourth season of House of Cards, get into it!

Written by Deola