Reviews

Even though it is not #1 vs. #8, this felt very similar to the Boston Celtics vs. Atlanta Hawks series from 2008, when every home team won and you wondered if the Hawks would pull off the upset to the recently assembled Big 3 team.

The Magic are a young team and maybe next season they will experience a rise like the Thunder have this season, but the Cavs have the better roster right now. At least with Donovan Mitchell playing the way he has the Cavs can be hard for anyone to beat.

I have not watched that much of this series, but this was a good game. Home team falls behind big and pulls off the comeback. Who doesn't like that?

I am not the biggest fan of Keegna Michael Key, but I feel like this was good casting for this role. He had enough of the snark to play your typical bad guy, but did the rich dude act a little bit differently than normal.

Elsbeth finessing him to do dancing (something he often embraced on Key & Peele) and in turn spill the keys was another way of how she is so much smarter than efveryone else without overtly showing it.

Elsbeth has turned into a show that I look forward to each and every week and I hope the rest of the season is able to keep up this quality. CBS definitely has something with this show.

Elsbeth has yet to have a really bad episode, but this one was a little bit uneven for my liking. Gina Gershon never got as villainous as maybe the character should have been, and I feel like they did not get as superficial as they could have with the whole plastic surgery angle.

The Good Wife universe has always been about being over the top when it comes to the superficial elements so I feel like that was a missed opportunity, but so far this show continues to be the kind of mystery I look forward to each and every week. Even the clunkers are better than a lot of the procedurals we get elsewhere.

Elsbeth is slowly but surely finding its footing and this was the best way the format of her constantly pursuing one suspect can go. I am a tennis fan so that definitely played into my enjoyment, but Blair Underwood was perfectly cast here, as was the ball girl and her overtly teenage slang.

The story was still a little bit shaky and I think people on shows like this discuss killing a little bit too much in the open, but for the most part there are almost no complaints I have about an episode like this. Enjoyable from start to finish, some funny moments and the bad guy faces their justice. That's all you need.

We went from one bad sitcom actor in Jesse Tyler Ferguson last week to another one in Retta this week, but I didn't mind this episode at all. Having someone like her actually be the bad guy and the killer, and not the stuck-up privileged woman was a refreshing change of pace.

Overall I am definitely starting to really enjoy Elsbeth. Just like when The Good Wife was one of the few good broadcast dramas on TV, now Elsbeth is one of the few good ones left too. I am not crazy about her always getting the right target from the get-go, but I have to admit I am not bored yet by how the concept has been playing out.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is awful, so seeing him get "the big name treatment" in this episode was disappointing, but he was not as bad as it could have been. I feel like the whole reality TV angle is way too played out at this point though, and the story did not even seem to make that much sense.

It looks like they are not going to abandon the show's central concept of Elsbeth knowing who it is immediately every time and trying to trap them though. I wish she would explore other characters too, but it feels like that is not the master plan for what the writers have with this show and their goals this year.

Really weak cold open, although nothing new for this show on that front as that has been the case for a really long time.

The episode was not that bas though. They tried to give us a really serious storyline for Harris and I think that was definitely a positive. The show could use more of that because when they do tap into these kinds of things I feel like we get the best out of the cast and it feels like we actually get episodes that don't leave me shaking my head.

But they never go beyond the 30 minutes to address the problem. I suspect they will rarely mention Harris' issues in any forthcoming episodes.

I guess as a fan of old school sitcoms I should appreciate running for the school board and a plot that seems ripped from the TV Gudie episode description of something from the 80's or 90's.

But this was just not that funny. They don't know what to do with Jackie with her seemingly acting more absurd by the week.

I guess the Ben and Dan dynamic was interesting, but there was such a weak payoff in it. I wish we had seen or heard a bit more of Dan's attempt at writing too, but overall there was just not much there to that storyline.

This show is not having a great season, but it is also not as bad as some past years.

Not sure why there are more episodes of The Conners than a lot of the other broadcast shows that came back from the writer's strike. I guess the lower quality of these makes it easier to churn them out.

It was not horrible, I like the idea of Ben and Darlene growing a little bit and getting back to writing, but the stuff with Becky all felt really forced. We know that she has emotional mood swings and can get overly invested in stuff, but obsessing over the "patients" just seemed so random. I was thinking to myself if I had missed something from a previous episode where this came up, but nope.

One of the advantages of bringing in Alden Parker to replace Gibbs is that he can be in the field a bit more and give us some more interesting episodes and concepts, and we definitely got that here. This had a little bit of comedy thrown in, but definitely had some excitement and some action to it. This is the kind of episode that NCIS should give us a lot more of: there is real danger for one or more of the characters, there are immediate stakes with an early death, and we are left watching until the end.

A standout of the season, even though I know they can still give us even better than this one.

This season of NCIS has definitely been hit and miss and this episode was much more miss. They tried to go for some kind of Yellowstone episode with the setting of the ranch and introducing some Southern characters, but it really missed the mark. By the time the reveal of who the bad guy was came I don't know if anyone really cared.

NCIS appeals to an older audience and does not ever really go too detailed or too in depth with their premises. Even as a slightly younger viewer I am okay with that for the most part, but I want a little bit more originality than this. I know the writers can do better than this.

NCIS wraps its strike-shortened season with an okay episode.

They tried too hard to create this powerful episode, but I never really believed any of these castmembers were in danger so it was hard to buy in that much. They tried too hard to create this powerful moment with Alden seeing the ghost of his dead sister, but this is not the kind of stuff that works well or translates to a CBS kind of audience. Save this for HBO and Showtime.

It was not bad, but overall this season was a little bit uneven. I feel like they definitely could benefit from adding another female agent to the mix. Kensi from NCIS: LA would be perfect.

Swerve and Castagnoli had a solid match, but it feels like this is the kind of thing they could have built up for. These are two of the best wrestlers and the biggest names in the company and this could've been a PPV level feud.

Rush's return will hopefully add to the program, but I just doubt they will ever push him. Remember they had those vignettes for Andrade and all of the cartel stuff, and it ended up going nowhere.

The Acclaimed vs. Grizzled Young Vets was okay, but I just don't know if the latter will catch on in AEW. It doesn't seem like there is a fit for them right now in the division.

On my birthday I was hoping for a good episode of AEW Dynamite and instead we get simply more of the same.

The Chris Jericho Learning Tree gimmick could work, but they need to embrace why it worked for Brian Myers in Impact. Funny backstage segments. They need those, but Jericho doing the same thing in the ring won't change anything.

The rest of the show is just the same old thing. They have such a deep roster and now finally people like Claudio Castagnoli and Brian Cage are getting on TV, but the writing needs to improve. There is not a single feud worth watching or that has me intrigued right now.

I think that ROH is the best weekly show on TV by a wide margin at this point, and they accomplish it with not the deepest roster in the world.

But this Jacksonville show was a bit of a throwaway. It was difficult to watch with the daylight and the camera, but there were way too many squash matches. Over half of the card should not be squash matches.

They are building up Queen Aminata well though and this should be another good match for Athena in the near future, before Aminata likely heads back to the main AEW roster.

The Infantry have been the breakout team the last six months and hopefully they get pushed soon too.

It kind of dragged a bit early on as they introduced the character and the setting and gave some of the worst vibes of Only Murders in the Building that we have seen.

But once it got going it was fun. I just worry about the show becoming repetitive with Elsbeth immediately knowing who did it and pursuing the big name celebrity guest star throughout the episode. That format can get a bit tiring.

This is clearly CBS' version of Poker Face, but that didn't use the same format and style every week. Shaking it up slightly is what made it work. I hope we get one episode where Elsbeth is wrong or she at least is confused early on.

An uneven episode for sure, but there were some decent things.

Willow Nightingale is still awkward in these in-ring promos, but this feud with Mercedes Mone is not working. After Double or Nothing they both need to move on to their own things.

Chris Jericho using Brian Myers' gimmick from TNA feels tired. We all knew what Big Bill was going to say when he came out and it seems like Jericho is rebuilding yet another stable.

Tony Khan is akward as a character, but the main event final segment was certainly funny. Let's see where this goes, but they've successfully rebuilt Jack Perry as a top heel now.

Ring of Honor is definitely my favorite weekly TV show when it comes to wrestling, but this was an underwhelming episode. Blake Christian getting all of these main events when he is not a regular is a slap in the face, and feels like it is done to appease GCW and nothing else.

Leila Grey getting back in the rotation is a good move.

Acknowledging Maria's relationship with Mike Bennett was important and there could be a good dynamic at play if they start a feud with Griff Garrison and Cole Karter.

Overall, kind of underwhelming show though. They can't all be great episodes but let's move on after this one.

Pete having the power to leave the property is definitely a huge development and a good use of the character. This could come into play in a big way whenever this show does decide to wrap.

But the scenes at the big box store were not funny at all, and everything with Thor and Flower is really, really bad, not to mention the basement ghost.

This show has a cult following and people love it, but week to week it is just not compelling television. They had a chance to shake things up with a new castmember in the mix but it looks like they already dropped the ball with that move and didn't even show her today. Oh well.

"Not a Ghost Yet" attempted to give us an emotional ending and a potential series finale sendoff if that was the case, but at this point I don't think it matters. They set up things for Duncan to return as the owner of the building and reappear if they get a third season.

It was just not funny though. Gina Rodriguez is doing her best, but there is just not enough material here. Maybe give her a permanent love interest, or add another writer to the mix, but this is not working and if the show does come back it needs a serious overhaul to try and gain some fans. Otherwise, it would surely end after a third season.

There was certainly a good twist ending here with Duncan potentially passing away when we all just thought he was randomly scolding Nell, but overall this is just not the kind of comedy we deserve.

Not enough laughs and not just enough good content tonight for me to enjoy the show.

The Lexie character is really terrible and feels like a caricature of a caricature and not anything that great. It is painfully unfunny at times and I just wonder why they have not been able to fix this character and write her best since the first season, but at times it almost feels like it is getting worse week to week.

I do not like describing something as physically painful because I feel like that is insulting to people actually going through pain, but "Aleria" may warrant that kind of description.

This was just a bad episode of the cast sulking and sharing their feelings, but still not really advancing the storyline(s) forward in any meaningful way.

We are prepping for a big battle and a fight for "humanity" at the end of the season, but the writers truly have no idea of how to get there.

This was not good at all and it ran for far longer than the last episode which only amplified how ineffective the show was.

As a Brooklyn Nets fan it is difficult to figure out who to try and root for in this series as I intensely dislike both teams, but probably the 76ers winning would be the better result.

But no such luck here. Philadelphia let game one slip through their fingers, and they let this one get away too with an unbelievable collapse in the final few seconds.

The Knicks have a special team and as a Nets fan I hate to see it. If the 76ers can't win with Jalen Brunson having a terrible shooting night, this series could be over relatively quickly and they could be heading home earlier than they anticipated.

Will Ospreay and Claudio Castagnoli had a solid match, but I feel like it could have been a lot better. Will is rightfully saving himself for the PPV and the dream match against Bryan Danielson.

Deonna Purrazzo needs some sort of character shift and that pains me to write as a huge fan of hers. Definitely not a heel turn yet, but maybe a feud with someone else, away from the title picture, just to give the fans a different kind of look.

Willow Nightingale very well may get her crowning moment at Dynasty and I hope so because she has organically grown as a star in ROH and more recently now with AEW.

I guess this may have been better than the season premiere, but I am not even sure of that.

The scenes with the Spartans doing their training and working together and having a laugh, that felt real and good. That is the kind of dynamic that made shows like Yellowstone with the ranchers and army dramas over the years connect with the audience.

But there's just not a lot of drama going on. We had a shocking end to what was in store for Dr. Halsey in Season 1 and they immediately killed any interest we may have in that character moving forward.

I am just not picking up what this show is putting down right now.