Summer DVR Dump: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 1.01: “Pilot Part 1”

“All your worlds are about to change.”
- Rip Hunter

I have to admit that I am very excited to see where “Legends of Tomorrow” goes. I’ve enjoyed Arrow and The Flash so I am anticipating falling in love with this show. Plus, Arthur Darvill once again being a time traveler kind of makes me giddy. Overall, I thought the first episode was really fun. Yes, it was quite exposition heavy but with so many characters to set up (especially for viewers who don’t watch Flash and Arrow) that was kind of understandable. At least they managed to do much of said exposition through action. When we first find Vandal Savage in London in 2166, he’s killing people left and right, including shooting a little boy named Jonas in the face. Bastard! Cut to one Captain Rip Hunter, Time Master (sorry I kind of just want to call him a Time Agent and pretend for a moment that he and Captain Jack Harkness have crossed paths somewhere before) beseeching the Time Council to intervene in Savage’s reign of terror. They aren’t interested. Their policy is don’t change the timeline which is exactly what Rip wants to do.

So he ventures off to January 2016 and systematically recruits a handful of supporting characters from its parent shows. He nabs Sara from a bar in Tibet and Captain Cold and Heat Wave after they did some looting. He grabs Ray while he’s working a mission with Green Arrow and Firestorm while they’re working on honing their teamwork and powers. Finally, he grabs Kendra and Carter while they were rescuing some random woman. He knows them all out with something that reminded me of the Flashy light from Men in Black. Everyone wakes up rather disoriented on a rooftop where Rip gives them the speech about needing their help to stop Savage and that they all become legends. He gives them a day to think about it and we see the various groups of people consider the offer. Sara bounces ideas off Laurel and Ray does the same with Oliver. The bad boys decide they’ll take up the offer if only to steal stuff before the advent of modern crime scene technology. Kendra loses a fight to Carter so they’re on board as well and Martin drugs Jax so he will go along for the ride. Oops!

Ray and Stein get to geek out a bit over the time ship when everyone eventually joins up to take on the mission of hunting Savage through time. It was kind of adorable how they were trying to figure out how the ship worked. The team’s first stop, 1975 to pick the brain of Dr. Boardman, the only known scholar of Vandal Savage. Rip only takes Stein, Ray and the Hawk duo with him to find the professor. Jax isn’t having any of it and Sara, Cold and Heat Wave are benched because their particular skillset isn’t needed at the moment. So those three (Jax is too young to drink even in 1975) head to a bar and get into a pretty awesome fight. I thought it was hilarious that Sara would fall in the bad boys of the team. Well, she is still fighting her blood lust!

While the trio of terror is getting down and dirty, Kendra and Carter are getting a history lesson they aren’t likely to forget. It turns out unless one of them delivers the fatal blow to Savage, he can be reincarnated from a single cell (hence Malcolm scooping up the ash at the end of the Flash/Arrow crossover). Anyway, it also turns out that Boardman is the son of one of the Hawk duo’s prior incarnations. I should have seen that coming. They know he’s going to die in the next twenty-four hours and so Kendra demands they bring him back to the ship. It turns out Chronos, a bounty hunter has found the ship and is blasting it to yell.

A firefight ensues and the team manages to escape but the ship is in need of repair and Dr. Boardman is not doing so hot. The team demands some answers and Rip comes clean. He’s no longer a Time Master because he stole the ship and the mission isn’t sanctioned. What’s more, none of the team are legends. They’re nobodies so that it wouldn’t mess up Rip’s timeline or future. And his personal vendetta against Savage is pretty obvious, too. Little Jonas is his son. I honestly wasn’t expecting that to be the case, especially the “not legends” part. Since that’s in the title and all and was made a big deal of in the promotions. But I’m sure they’ll get to setting that straight soon. See, the gang decides that they are going to change time anyway (if they beat Savage) so they can just change their own fates, too. So they’re all on board with the mission and so they are off in search of Savage (he’s in Eastern Europe, getting his hands on a nuke).

I am excited to see what the writers have in store for us going forward. I hope now that the major exposition is done, we can really dive into the action and some fun character dynamics. I’d like to see Stein and Ray become more peers and colleagues (since Ray was a student…not that Stein remembers). I’d also like to get more back story on Cold and Heat Wave and see them become more fleshed out as characters. And I’m just happy to have Sara back and out of the drama of being Laurel’s sister and Oliver’s ex-girlfriend. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll cross paths with Nyssa so they can get their final goodbye. And I want to see more of Rip’s history, too (not just the loss of his family). I want to see what made him become a Time Master and maybe the history of that organization as well. All in all a solid start to yet another successful franchise for the CW.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.01: "Josh Just Happens to Live Here!"

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Summer DVR Dump: Heroes Reborn 1.01: “Brave New World”

“Memories are funny things. The good ones fill your life with context, with clarity while other memories can deceive. The ones that make you believe you know the truth, they’re the dangerous ones.”
- Noah Bennett

So like a lot of good shows, I came to “Heroes” late in life. In fact, I binged the whole series this past August in preparation for this show. So I’m quite excited to see if the writers get back to the fun that was season 1 of the original. As the premiere starts, we meet a familiar face, one Noah Bennett. He’s heading to Odessa, Texas for an Evo-Human summit. He’s not spoken to Claire in several years (probably not since she jumped off a Ferris wheel at the Sullivan Brother’s carnival on national TV and outed herself as an Evo). He’s hoping to see Claire at the summit but things go horribly wrong. There’s an explosions and thousands are killed, including we later learn Claire. We then cut to three months after the attack to find a young man in Canada who can turn invisible being chased by a patrol and then a guy who can fly in China a few months after that. We meet Tommy who is just a poor high school kid whose Mom is trying to take him to Canada to be safe but they turn around when they see a guy get Tasered.

On the anniversary date of the attack, Tommy and several of the other people we met briefly gather at a church for kind of a support group meeting. Tommy was hoping for some tips on how to control powers but he’s not in luck. He does get out before the shooting starts. One guy, Luke (played by Zachary Levi) explains that his young son was killed during the attack and so he guns everyone down and sets the church on fire. There’s someone watching over Tommy though so at least he can’t be tied to the church for the police. But he’s got more normal teenage problems. He likes a girl who has a boyfriend on the football team and the guy is kind of jerk to Tommy. Poor kid.

We head briefly to Austin, Texas where we find Noah, going by the name Ted Barnes, working as a car salesman. If you’ve seen the original, you know that was his job before he started getting involved with Primatech and the Evos. It’s quite obvious he doesn’t remember Claire at all which makes me think he had the Haitian wipe his memory. Time will tell. As it turns out he still has most of his memory and Quentin (one of the guys from the little bridge online mini-series) is following him. He needs Noah to know that the number of Evos is growing and Mohinder isn’t a terrorist. This prompts Noah to check some old items he’s got stashed away and it looks like he may be taking a trip to an eye doctor. I still think the Haitian is involved.

And before we head back to Tommy, we meet Miko, a young woman in Japan who is a gamer. Another guy named Ren shows up claiming to have found the address in a video game before she kicks him out. I have a feeling that she is either Hiro Nakamura’s daughter or his friend Ando’s daughter. Either way she’s likely develop powers. Ren returns claiming that she is “Katana Girl” but she kicks him out again. It still doesn’t stop her from questioning if it’s true. She ventures into her father’s study, finds the sword and is somehow transported to a video game where she now has to try to rescue her missing father. This just makes me all the more confident her dad is Hiro (the “Katana Girl” book looked like it had an older photo of Ando on the back).

Oh and we’ve met a guy named Carlos who is a war vet and it seems he’s not an Evo. He’s back visiting his family, including his nephew who is a big fan of a masked vigilante who is protecting the neighborhood. We see the guy in action but he gets shot and has to take off. I’m kind of curious to see if Carlos is linked to it at all. As it turns out, Carlos’s brother, Oscar is in fact the vigilante. Unfortunately, he dies from his wounds, leaving Carlos to look after young Jose. And much like we learned in the original series, powers are genetic. Carlos may not realize it yet but he has super hearing. And Jose can move through solid objects. Poor Tommy just isn’t having much luck with trying to be normal and fit in. He gets a job at the local ice cream shop but finds Luke waiting for him. He doesn’t realize at first that Luke is dangerous until his wife shows up with a gun. Tommy ends up making them disappear (but he doesn’t know where) and the cute girl he likes convinces him his secret is safe with her. He doesn’t have to run anymore.

Noah heads to Austin to check out the eye glasses place and who should he find but the Haitian! I knew he would show up sooner or later. Unfortunately, I was also right that Renee wiped something from Noah’s mind, including the command to kill Noah if he ever showed up again. This sadly result sin Noah shooting Renee. At least Noah is really broken up about killing his old friend. But apparently there’s something coming and Noah wasn’t supposed to remember? That part still doesn’t make a lot of sense but we end the episode with a voice over probably from the original voice over person (who I still think sounds a heck of a lot like Mohinder) about what’s coming and that the heroes might be able to stop it. We see a young woman standing on a beach and she’s controlling what looks like the Northern Lights. But there’s something going very wrong and she says she can’t hold it back much longer. That’s definitely one hell of a way to end the premiere episode.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: UnREAL 1.01: "Return"

“It is not my fault that America’s racist, people!”
-Quinn

For our summer theme this year, we’re kicking it 2000 MTV-style with So Cal Summer. Get ready to pretend you’re ditching on Mission Beach, because we’ll be covering three shows set in Southern California: “UnREAL,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and “The LA Complex.” First up is Lifetime’s “UnREAL,” which tells the story behind-the-scenes of a “Bachelor”-like show called “Everlasting.” We follow the misadventures of Rachel (Shiri Appleby), a talented producer who found herself in legal trouble after a meltdown during the last season finale. Because she’s so good at what she does, executive producer Quinn (Constance Zimmer, aka Rosalind on S.H.I.E.L.D.) blackmails her into returning to work. The suitor for this season is British hotel heir Adam Cromwell (Freddie Stroma), and the ladies vying for his attention fit into all the stereotypes (or, to be more accurate, encouraged to fit the stereotypes) of all the characters you would usually see on a dating reality show.

I am an avid “Bachelor”/”Bachelorette”/”Bachelor in Paradise” fan. I first got hooked on the franchise while watching it with my roommate in college. We had deep breakfast conversations about whether or not we had any right to be disappointed that Jenn Scheft chose no one, since she is a human being after all. While I believe that my college roommate, as a married mother of two, has mostly moved on from the show, I still watch it. An episode with a glass of wine on a Monday night is my guilty pleasure. Therefore I appreciate “UnREAL’s” rather dark, edgy take on what really happens behind the scenes of such a show. While I am (fairly) sure “UnREAL” is exaggerated, there are definitely things that happen on the show that I could see as not being that far from the truth. I’m also impressed at how well the creative team recreates the details central to any season of “The Bachelor(ette).”

Right from the pilot episode, the creative team skewers its real life counterpart on multiple occasions. The show pulls no punches in showing how unglamorous filming a reality dating competition can be. There’s one scene in particular that really stands out on this point. A limo of women has been held up indefinitely while Rachel tries to talk to Adam, who is having cold feet about appearing in the show. The women desperately want to be let of the limo because they really have to pee, but the very young PA who has been assigned to their limo keeps saying “no.” Eventually, they just open the limo door, go outside, and start peeing on the ground. And making fun of one poor woman who makes different personal grooming choices.

“UnREAL” also really delves into the significant amount of psychological manipulation that goes into producing a reality dating competition. They have a psychologist (I think?) on staff, but her job isn’t really to look after the mental health of the participants. Her job is to dig up dirt and feed it to the producers so that it can be used to create more drama. There are two examples of this just In the pilot alone. First, Rachel is fed information about how Mary, an older (for the show) divorcée and mother was pretty badly abused by her now ex-husband. This leads Rachel to stress to Mary how Adam will “keep her safe.” Later in the episode, Rachel needs to coax Britney, who was going to be the villain of the season but was dismissed by Adam, into having an on-camera melt down. The psychologist tells Rachel that Britney had a rough time growing up in the foster system, and Rachel makes her start crying by telling her she must feel like she’s unlovable. Rachel feels terrible about herself afterwards, but she does it.

The Everlasting production team works very hard to make the women all fit into particular roles, and we see that process start in the pilot. There’s Faith, the devout Christian virgin from Texas who competes in rodeos. She catches a lot of flack from the other women for not being very girly. Of course the production team really wants her to tell Adam she’s a virgin as soon as possible, and the plan is a disaster. I already mentioned Mary, who gets the title of “desperate MILF.” She’s got a daughter and a scary abusive ex. Then there’s Britney, who was well on her way to being cast as the villain after grabbing Adam’s ass during their introduction and making fun of Faith. Adam, because he really doesn’t like being controlled by the producers and is only on the show for image rehab purposes (he wants to launch a hotel, but he had a scandal recently involving some hookers), decides to let Britney go and keep Faith around, and the production team has to scramble to figure out new storyline ideas for the season. There’s also Grace the Brazilian swimsuit model, who Quinn wanted to be “wifey” material, but Grace has other ideas. She an Adam sleep together the very first night of filming.

Of course, there is also plenty of drama among the crew. First up, there’s a bit of a love triangle. Rachel was sleeping with cameraman Jeremy when she had her meltdown during the previous season, and they have since broken up. Jeremy doesn’t seem especially thrilled that she’s back. Furthermore, he has gotten back together with his ex, Lizzie, and they are now engaged. Rachel’s just a little perturbed by this. And there’s the matter of Quinn sleeping with Chet, the really gross, often high creator of the show. There’s also a bit of a professional rivalry going on between Rachel and Shia, another producer who had to try and clean up the mess after Rachel’s meltdown. As much as she tries, though, Shia just isn’t as good at the job as Rachel. Which is probably a good thing, because the job really entails being a master manipulator. Shia really resents Rachel being invited back to the show and taking all the best contestants. She completely messes up her attempt to get Faith to reveal her virginity to Adam. Tying a couple of these plots together, there’s a big scene where Shia shows Lizzie the footage of Rachel’s meltdown. Clearly the stage has been set for the most dramatic season of a fictionalized account of a dating reality competition ever!

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3.18: "The Singularity"

“It’s time we took back this planet. Made a home Inhumans have always deserved.”
-Hive

For the most part “The Singularity” felt like it was kind of marking time between the big reveal that Daisy has been infected by Hive at the end of the last episode and whatever the season’s endgame is (the defeat of Hive, presumably). All of the characters had to deal with the fallout of what happened to Daisy, and some handle it better than others. They also, of course, want to try and save Daisy from Hive ASAP. The thing is, though, Daisy doesn’t want to be saved. There’s something about the parasites that comprise Hive that make hosts addicted and euphoric. He’s making Daisy feel complete and like she has a family for the first time (although I thought her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Inhumans made her feel that way), and she doesn’t want to go back. One plot that did really progress in this episode was FitzSimmons exploring a romantic relationship. They “crossed the event horizon” as they would put it, and while the timing was kind of weird, I’m happy they’re happy.

The episode begins in the aftermath of Daisy’s attack on and escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. The damage isn’t as bad as originally feared. Lincoln is able to reboot the computer system quickly. Coulson has a serious leg injury (compound fracture), but he’s powering through. He informs everyone that Daisy was the only Secret Warrior infected by Hive, and he orders everyone into Zephyr One. Mack is briefly concerned that the hangar doors can only open half-way at the moment, but Coulson and May have other ideas. May turns the Zephyr on its side and pilots it out that way. Once they are turned around the right way, FitzSimmons explain to Coulson that they think what Hive does to Inhumans is kind of like addition. The parasites stimulate pleasure centers in the brain. They want to try and find a Dr. Radcliffe, who was fired by the agrochemical company right before Hive took it over. He’s been conducting experiments in the realm of Transhumanism, and he is believed to be in Romania. FitzSimmons and Mack are given permission to go after him. As FitzSimmons get ready to leave, they start dancing around talking about how to appropriately separate their personal and professional lives.

Hive and Daisy talk in an area near where Daisy used to park her hacking van back in her Skye days. Hive calls her Skye, which Daisy isn’t too thrilled about. She still offers her opinion on whether or not S.H.I.E.L.D. might come after her, and she finds herself opening up more and more to Hive. Hive tells Daisy they are one organism now, and he also shares his plans for the future. He wants a world where Inhumans are in charge and everything is perfect.

Mack and his agents have traced Dr. Radcliffe to a Transhumanist black market in Bucharest. FitzSimmons have come to Romania prepared with some eye technology very similar to Deakthlok’s, and they are going to use it to essentially bribe Dr. Radcliffe into helping them. They are going to make their presence known at a Transhumanist party, and they dress up for the occasion. FitzSimmons enter the party and start asking around about Radcliffe. They are quickly approached by a mysterious woman named Anon who offers to take their eye tech to Radcliffe. Anon consults something implanted in her arm and tells FitzSimmons to wait at the bar. While they are waiting, they go off comms and try to have more of a conversation about their relationship. I was glad to see FitzSimmons finally address the elephant in the room, and this is where Simmons also compares their having sex to crossing the event horizon. She also says she’s not afraid of it, even though it will change everything.

Coulson takes a team to retrieve Alisha, the multiplying Inhuman we have seen in a previous episode. Lincoln in allowed to join in the mission only if he wears an explosive vest that will be detonated if he demonstrates signs of being infected by Hive. May calls Coulson on being on being willing to sacrifice Lincoln but not Daisy. Lincoln finds Alisha, and she says she hasn’t seen Daisy. It’s quickly apparent that Alisha has already been infected by Hive, however, and she attacks. May joins in the fight, but one of Alisha’s doubles takes her gun. Lincoln threatens to electrocute the other double, but the double with the gun shoots her first. Coulson then dispatches the double with the gun.

Having already recruited Alisha, Daisy and Hive are now after James. They arrive at his house, and Daisy introduces Hive as the ancient Inhuman he had been talking about. While Hive and James are talking about the Kree orb, Daisy drops the Terragen crystal, and James starts to transform. Alisha, who is waiting outside James’ house, feels the pain from her doubles being killed as all of this is going on. His Terragenesis complete, James starts exploding everything he touches. Hive immediately infects him and starts controlling him. James then tells Hive where he buried the other Kree artifact, and Daisy goes and digs it up. Hive informs the group that the artifact is the only thing that can kill him.

Lincoln is upset about what happened to Alisha, and Couson decides to take him out of the field until FitzSimmons can find a cure for Hive infection. Coulson then finds May and apologizes to her for their earlier conversation about Lincoln and Daisy. They talk about Daisy and Coulson’s father/daughter-like relationship, but they are interrupted by a report of seismic activity in South Dakota. Coulson (even though he is on crutches) and his team move in on James’ compound, but they don’t find much of anything left. A large area under the house has been excavated. May and Coulson investigate, and Coulson quickly realizes that the place is rigged with explosives.

FitzSimmons are finally rejoined by Anon, who takes them in an off-the-grid elevator that leads them to an operating room. Anon instructs FitzSimmons to implant their eye tech into the waiting patient to prove that it works. FitzSimmons decide to do the surgery, but Simmons ends up stabbing the patient’s eye with a syringe because she recognizes it as synthetic. The patient is actually Dr. Radcliffe, and he waxes poetic about science and art as he examines their tech. FitzSimmons reveal themselves as S.H.I.E.L.D., and Anon immediately freaks out and calls for reinforcements. FitzSimmons try to quickly explain that Inhumans are real, but Simmons is taken away. Coulson manages to protect everyone by using a light shield Fitz installed in his prosthetic arm. Talbot calls, and the team returns to the Zephyr to watch the ATCU take out all of Hive’s infrastructure.

While Fitz is still trying to talk to Radcliffe, Daisy bursts in and Hive kills the guard who took Simmons. James wreaks some havoc by making glasses explode in the bar upstairs. Daisy hands Radcliffe off to Alisha, then she knocks Fitz down. Hive, meanwhile, channels Will in an attempt to connect with Simmons, and he tells her that he’s glad she made it back to Fitz. Daisy and Hive then give identical warnings to Fitz and Simmons respectively that they should back down, because they won’t survive their next meeting. Simmons shoots Hive in the chest (with a gun given to her by May) and runs. Simmons meets Mack back at the rendezvous point, and she’s pretty upset that Fitz isn’t already there. Mack can tell something is going on between them because Bobbi and Hunter used to play the “comms are down” trick on him all the time. When Fitz does eventually make it back, he and Simmons only briefly argue before kissing and heading for the bed. FitzSimmons have officially crossed the event horizon, people! In less important news, we learn at the very end of the episode that Hive has created a whole town for his Inhumans to live in. Because of course he did.

Summer DVR Dump: Lucifer 1.01: “Pilot”

“Do you think I'm the Devil because I'm inherently evil, or just because dear ol' dad decided I was?”
- Lucifer

If you can’t tell already, I’m usually a big fan of procedural with a twist shows: see Blindspot and Sleepy Hollow. So when I heard that the reviews were rather middling for “Lucifer” I was a little skeptical. But having watched the pilot, I have to admit I loved it. Tom Ellis and Lauren German have amazing chemistry together and Lucifer is just so smarmy that you can’t help but laugh (and the accent doesn’t hurt). I also think the show used some great “devil” music for the score. It really made it feel exciting.

When we first meet Lucifer, he’s driving down the streets of LA at a rather high speed and gets pulled over. But he uses his power (to make people confess their deepest desires) to get the officer who pulled him over to take a bribe. That scene totally sets up just how powerful Lucifer thinks he is. He is immortal after all. He heads to his strip club (because of course he owns a club) and meets up with a young woman named Delilah (who is now a big recording artist). She gets kind of down on herself about all the drugs and alcohol and drama she’s put herself through since Lucifer hooked her up with a producer but Lucifer tells her that she needs to pull it together. Sadly, she won’t get that chance because a guy pulls up and fills her full of bullets. Lucifer gets a little information out of the shooter (who drives into a bus) before he dies.

Enter Chloe Decker. She’s all about the facts and not falling for Lucifer’s smarmy attitude and tricks (and he tries very hard to get her to fall for them). That in and of itself is intriguing to both him and the audience. I certainly want to know what makes Chloe so special. Lucifer decides (despite a visit from fellow angel Amenediel (played by DB Woodside of Buffy season 7) warning him to go back to Hell) to pursue Delilah’s killer. He ends up crashing her ex-fiancé (and producer)’s wedding to a supermodel and learns that Delilah was seeing some rapper. So naturally he heads over to make some threats and learns that Delilah was sleeping with a married guy. Man, the girl got around! Just as Lucifer gets information on the therapist that Delilah was seeing in secret, Chloe shows up and arrest Lucifer for threatening the rapper. He convinces her to let him ride along to see the shrink and she agrees that if his tip pays off, he can help her work the case.

While Lucifer’s tip pays off, he and Chloe have a stop to make along the way. Her seven-year-old daughter, Trixie, got into a fight at school with a bully who was cyber-bullying her. So Trixie punched the girl in the vagina. Interesting move, chica. Lucifer doesn’t seem to like children even though Trixie takes him almost instantly. We also learn that one of the cops at the original crime scene that told Chloe to wrap up the case as an easy open and shut is her ex-husband and Trixie’s dad. Lucifer detest him almost immediately. I am kind of hoping that they don’t go the “pair up the two leads” route. It tends to be more fulfilling as a viewer if they can work together and have good chemistry but be friends.

At the therapist’s office, Lucifer gets the shrink to reveal who Delilah was sleeping with. He has to promise her sex in return for the answer but to him it’s a small price to pay, I suppose. It happens to be a former co-start of Delilah’s. He denies the affair at first but then Lucifer gets him to admit it (right in front of the guy’s wife). She knew about it and was banging his bodyguard. Gotta love Hollywood. After sharing a little backstory (Chloe tried being an actress first and then became a cop and then saw a cop shooting differently than everyone else and got ostracized for it), Lucifer figures out who the person was that ordered the hit on Delilah. So he and Chloe storm a recording session with Delilah’s former producer. It turns out he produced the soundtrack to one of the films Delilah was in and it boosts sales. Lucifer, being immortal and all, tries to get in the guy’s face but he shoots Chloe. So Lucifer gets really mad and tortures the guy before letting his soul pass on to hell. It was very interesting to see Lucifer (who didn’t care about leaving hell behind and the fact that no one is there to guard all the demons and damned souls) get super pissed that he’s not there to make the guy’s afterlife hell, no pun intended.

It wouldn’t be much of a series without the female lead so we know that Chloe survives her gunshot wounds. And it looks like Lucifer might have ingratiated himself enough with her to help out again once she’s out of the hospital. But Amenediel and Maze (Lucifer’s right and woman and bartender) aren’t pleased with how he’s acting. He’s the Devil after all and he should act accordingly. Of course Lucifer thinks that maybe he’s perceived as evil because God dictated it. I also want to know more about our angel friend because while at first he seemed like a messenger from God, the second time we see him it sounds like he might be more evil than we assumed. Since Lucifer doesn’t have wings (and we haven’t seen Maze do much yet), it’s hard to know if fallen angels (the other ones who left with Lucifer back in the day) have wings, too. I am very eager to find out what happens next and see how Lucifer and Chloe work together. And we definitely need more scenes with little Trixie because she’s a spitfire and makes Lucifer so damn uncomfortable that it’s hilarious.

Fresh off the Boat 2.20: "Hi, My Name Is . . ."

“It’s not a big deal. Names are meaningless. Did I ever tell you the story of how I got my name?”
-Jessica

“Hello, My Name Is . . .” is another great example of a “Fresh off the Boat” story that most other shows on television right now couldn’t do. “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” or “Dr. Ken,” perhaps, but that’s it. Neither of those shows could tackle this topic in quite the way “Fresh off the Boat” does, however. As per usual, this episode struck a great mix of comedy and treating the topic at hand and the characters with respect. The topic, as you might have guessed, is the importance of names. Many Chinese immigrants, including the Huangs, choose “American” names when they immigrate. This episode is a funny and thought provoking look at the connection between names and identity, particularly as it relates to immigrants and second generation Americans. We also get to learn the stories behind the names of all the Huangs, so there’s some nice character history wrapped in as well.

It’s breakfast time in the Huang household, and Eddie has decided it would be a good idea to make a Pop Tart and bagel sandwich, with Pop Tarts being the “bread” and a bagel being the “meat.” Unfortunately, Eddie’s experiment breaks the family toaster. You can get a free toaster for opening a bank account, so Jessica and Louis decide it is time to open an account for Evan. They can teach their youngest about money and replace the toaster for free all at the same time. Evan is super excited. He hasn’t bought candy in three years, so he has a substantial amount of money to deposit at the bank. The whole Huang family goes to the bank together to open Evan’s account. Evan says how excited he is to sign his name to his first official document because his name flows so well. Louis and Jessica have disappointing news, though. They really didn’t put that much thought into Evan’s name. They named him after one of the nurses at the hospital – Nurse Evans. This throws Evan into a serious identity crisis.

Jessica tries to tell Evan that names aren’t important, and to illustrate her point, she tells the story of changing her name when she arrived in the United States. At first, she was committed to keeping her Chinese name. She though people should make the effort to learn how to pronounce it (which is probably right). When she arrived at “Maryland College,” however (which looks suspiciously like my grad school alma mater, aka the Old Line State’s flagship research university), this becomes a problem. The other students in Jessica’s lecture are all played by Jessica’s current neighbors. I loved the little detail that Marvin is wearing a Maryland Lacrosse hoodie, because there isn’t much that’s more Maryland than lacrosse, except maybe crabs. Somebody involved in the production is a Marylander for sure! Anyway, Jessica’s business professor refuses to call on her, even though she is the only person to raise her hand in response to most of his questions. When prompted, the professor says he doesn’t call on Jessica because he can’t pronounce her name. He suggests Jessica “rebrand” herself. She’d still be the same person, just with a name that makes people more comfortable. She eventually takes the advice and chooses Jessica because of her love for the Allman Brothers.

Jessica’s story just makes Evan more confused. Now he has to decide if he should use Evan or his Chinese name when he signs the documents for the bank account. Jessica tries to strengthen her case that names aren’t important. Apparently Emery’s name was inspired by Jessica using an emery board, and Eddie was named after Edward from the Chronicles of Narnia. Eddie thinks that’s pretty awesome, actually. Louis tries to tell Evan that he chose his American name just because he liked Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk. Evan starts to buy the whole name is unimportant thing until Eddie calls Louis on lying. Louis actually hates the Incredible Hulk because he gets so angry all the time.

Effectively called out, Louis tells the real story behind his American name. There was a bigshot aquarium owner who was a frequent customer at the restaurant where Louis worked when he first moved to the United States. His name was Louis, and he had serious swagger. Louis decided, naturally, that he should imitate this guy. Louis and his friend Barry are having dinner at a low-rent seafood place when Louis feels sick to his stomach. It’s food poisoning, and there’s a whole lot of similarly situated people waiting in line for the rest room. Next to Louis in line is Jessica. He lets her go ahead of him, and when he tells her his name is Louis, he never wants to use another name again. The “real” Louis is at the restaurant too, and he’s pissed that Louis is trying to imitate him. They go into the alley to fight for who will get to use the name, and our Louis manages to win basically by projectile vomiting all over the original.

Eddie offers a third alternative. Instead of his American or Chinese names, Evan can use the name “the streets” gave him. We get a pretty hilarious sequence where Eddie imagines himself as a mogul named Topaz in the future. He talks with President Shaq and does a deal for fly military uniforms. He also gets Busta Rhymes to agree to do a concert on the Moon. The rest of the family, of course, thinks this whole thing is ridiculous. Evan goes to the restroom, where he runs into Grandma. She has the best advice of the bunch, of course. She says that your name doesn’t make you, you make your name. She also says that Evan will always be thoughtful and trustworthy. Evan returns to the desk and says he’s ready to sign the forms, but we don’t see what name he signs. And, of course, Eddie manages to break the new toaster almost as soon as they get it home.