I managed some television today, so the rankings won’t be so boring for the 3 of you I’m sure read this post. It’s all for you. One love.

1) The Terminal List (Amazon)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Well, spoilers I guess. But in Episode 5, which is not the finale, Reese managed to go after the guy responsible for his brain tumor. And he did it. In the 5th episode. That kind of felt like the big boss at the end, but a well timed car bomb, and a little sidewalk shootout took care of his guards and out King Koopa. So where does the show go from here? I feel like one of two things will happen. We either peak with this episode, or it slips into another gear we never knew existed. Either way, a highly entertaining hour of television that really made me rethink Chris Pratt as a serious action star no jokes needed.

Episode Grade: A

2) Rutherford Falls (Peacock)

English Audio Description?: Yes

You know, not topping this list today is Peacock’s fault, not really the fault of the showrunners that obviously believed a season 3 was a done deal. I’m very conflicted on this, because as a season finale, it did everything right. it wrapped up the storylines for the season, with Reagan figuring out what to do with her land, and Bobby becoming Mayor. But, it also left the door open for season 3 mysteries, as josh showed back up to do a story on Bobby for NPR, complicating Reagan’s love life. And then finally, Nathan, giving up hope that the woman he actually is in love with would ever actually choose him, ends up sleeping with someone else, only for him to finally get that call that seemed to be headed for “I choose you.”, but we were left in the lurch. Peacock does not have long running originals, and cancelling a critical darling like this show, one that features a large indigenous cast, as well as a star like Ed Helms is one of the most baffling streaming decisions this year. This is now a terrible way to end the series, but it is also a great way to end season 2, so I chose to grade it as such. A season finale, even though it became the series finale.

episode Grade: A, Series Grade: A

3) Locke and Key (Netflix)

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

Well, we found out what the grandfather clock/time shift key finally does, which left them in the lurch. It was a good episode, but with 3 remaining episodes, and the Lockes without any keys, I don’t know how they pull this off. Plus, when Duncan manages avoiding a paradox, in order for that to happen, the clock would hav needed to reset time so that it went back to Bodhie never having brought dodge back, perhaps creating a deja vu moment, where the Lockes remember things that give them pause moving forward. But it definitely did not warrant snapping Bodhie’s body out of existence. Where did he go? And their grand plan was really to give Gideon all the keys and have Dodge stab him in the back? Really?

Episode Grade: A-

4) Only Murders In The building (Hulu)

English Audio Description?: Yes

I gotta say, I kind slept on Selena Gomez in season 1, as there really isn’t a way for her to match the energy of martin and Short. But seeing her spar with Michael Rappaport, as well as all the work that has gone into Mabel’s character this season, I’d be shocked if she didn’t manage a nomination next year. Also excellent in this episode was Martin Short, who held up in front of his son, and gave him a great pep talk, only to fall apart when Nathan Lane enters the elevator, knowing the test results.

Episode Grade: A-

5) Maggie (Hulu)

English Audio Description?: Yes

In the strongest episode yet, we almost got perfection. A new psychic came in for mentoring, which led to some old wounds at home, with Maggie convincing her mother how awful it was to be led to believe she was crazy, instead of her mom believing her back in the day. This moment comes brilliantly full circle, and I loved it. Sadly, side characters around this kept trying to do things, which really took away from what was almost a great episode.

Episode Grade: B+

6) Surface (Apple Plus)

English Audio Description?: Yes

The pilot for this episode is a weird one to be sure. It has an interesting premise, where a woman tried to kill herself, and now has almost no memory of anything before the incident, and is working in therapy to regain those memories. but things appear shady, there’s an obvious mystery, and she keeps uncovering new mysteries. My thing right now is that I need our protagonist to make better choices moving forward. Right now, she can see the car crash coming… and seems to just want to ignore it. She knows something isn’t right, but doesn’t have the self preservation required to save herself… yet.

Episode Grade: B+

7) Rap Shit (HBo MAX)

English Audio Description?: Yes

I think, what is holding me back on this show, is that a lot of the characters seem to be the same. They have very little personality trait differences (with a few exceptions). But the more women in one scene, the more they all seem to absorb each other’s personalities and roll into one. This might be a real life thing for close knit crews, but when you’re trying to build a show, it doesn’t help to have so many characters who are almost exactly alike. Just living different lives isn’t really the choice to be made, they have to exhibit different personality traits. I think this group could benefit from someone being noticeably more shy, or someone always trying to be talking about some intellectual nonsense, or someone who is scared a lot about the future. They sometimes try to pull individuality out when there is only one of the women on screen at a time, but as soon as they’re all together, the writers just give up. I’m no longer where I believe the show is a total mess, but even though i wasn’t a fan of Insecure, those characters had very different personality traits. Here, they do not.

Episode Grade: B-