I was turned on to Animal Kingdom a year or so ago by a friend. It was a little bit before season 4 aired and I liked the show so much I ran through the first three episodes fast enough to catch season 4 as it aired.
In short, Animal Kingdom is about the Cody crime family that lives in Oceanside, California. Janine “Smurf” Cody runs the enterprise with ruthless efficiency. She’s a career criminal, starting in the late 70s, raising her two kids while running from the law as she does multiple heists with her crew.
Starting with season 4, the show gives a glimpse of those early days with flashbacks that weave in and out of the present day story with her adult children and teenage grandson.
This show hooked me because it’s about a messed up crime family pulling heists. I’m a sucker for a well-told story in this genre and the show consistently delivers. Smurf steers this family around, her three kids, one adopted son, and her orphaned grandson toeing the line. Of course, questions are asked, deals go bad, the cops (and the feds) come sniffing around, threatening the Cody family’s way of life.
Season 5 is different because the order of the family changes. With Smurf no longer calling the shots, the boys are forced to communicate more and work together differently. A lot of family secrets are floating around and without the threat of the almighty Smurf around, competition and allies look at the Cody’s differently.
This was probably the worst season as the pacing feels slower. More time is given over to late 70s-early 80s Smurf to show how she started her criminal empire…and did no favors to her son and daughter. The present day story focuses more on the internal strife of the boys than ever. Pope has to go find himself so his journey leaves his family behind for about a quarter of the season. There’s a challenge of changing leadership and a ton of resentment of how Smurf seemed to favor J, her grandson, over any of her kids that have been her tools their entire lives. Plus, she screwed them all on the way out so the pressure for them to keep their heads above water never lets up. That leads to a lot of risk taking (a hallmark of the show) with interesting heists and two rouge cops strutting around.
While I say it’s the worst season, it’s still a great show and there are plenty of great moments in this season. It took a long time for the boys to come together, but that isn’t surprising. If they only spent 2-3 episodes on such heavy material, it would’ve felt rushed and unsatisfying. Each man is coming from a different angle and they all have their own problems to deal with (which come back to the family). I was expecting a messier season finale, but the set ups for the final season are massive. There are a ton of plot lines in the air and the challenge will be to address them all. Thirteen episodes do give a lot of room and I’m wondering how much more flashbacks we’re in store for. I’m looking forward to watching next year. The identity of the show and characters are well established, it’s just a question of who is going to survive and what condition they will be in at the end. Can any of the Codys be happy?
I published The Darkest Winter three years ago and I’m not entirely sure where that time went. I quickly came up with two sequel ideas to make it a trilogy but the basic ideas never went anywhere. Book 2 felt like it was going to be difficult to make original and interesting. It would cover a lot of the same scenarios as TDW. The third, while pretty separate from Book 2, would take the series in a different, larger picture idea set years later. None of it felt interesting to me every time I tried expanding the concepts. Then Covid-19 lockdown happened and writing about miserable things fell completely by the wayside.
That led to a new concept about how to stop terrorism based on religious zealotry. A major real-world thing, obviously. I like my concept but cannot break the story. I have the very beginning but making the story plausible is a major mountain to climb. All sorts of action sequences are possible but so much can go wrong that I haven’t been able to make the basics of the story work well enough to make it more than a short story or what I’m really afraid of, simply a more elaborate outline that ends up going nowhere because nothing is fleshed out.
I’ve written a few short stories, most of them I like a lot. I could do some editing to make each one stronger, but my favorite is ultimately Harry Potter fan fiction. I can’t do anything with that. But it was a valuable exercise. It’s about 40 pages long and I took some concepts that aren’t talked about much in the books to explore. I like my original characters, there are a ton of deep cut Potter references, but again, it isn’t mine. I really like fantasy but I don’t know if it fits me well enough to keep going with. I did have a lot of fun writing this, but I’m using concepts that were made by someone else, which was inspired by tons of other work. Can I bring something new to the table? I keep coming back to that idea in everything I write. If I do anything with this story, I’d have to strip it bare to my concepts and make a totally different world. Would it be worth reading and investing in? I keep running into that idea and it’s holding me back. Like if I can’t make a new genre, I shouldn’t bother. That’s a ridiculous thing to think of as all art is built on the art that comes before it.
But I now have a new idea that I like a lot. It’s about ghosts and humans, something that veers into the Beatlejuice headspace. While the concepts aren’t new, I think the angle is. I’ve written the start of it, but I’m going to rewrite it because the perspective doesn’t work. I’m also doing research to get ideas going. I want this to be weird and funny, an approach I want to ape from author Simon Rich. Right now I have no clue of what the end is and the rest is just a jumble of ideas that don’t point me to a story arc yet. The difference between this and my other ideas is that this feels like I can find a path to follow and see where it goes.
For I May Destroy You on HBO. It’s her show based on events that happened to her. Writer, producer, director. To say her future is bright is an understatement. Her acceptance speech aimed mostly at writers is powerful and poignant.
Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn’t comfortable. I dare you — in a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to in turn feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success — do not be afraid to disappear from it, from us for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence. ….I dedicate this story to every single survivor of sexual assault.
Juggling a lot right now, just got a trial of Disney Ploose so I’m going to check out The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and any movies that catch my eye. I’ll watch WandaVision if I can fit it in. I watched 2 episodes of What If…? and I don’t find it too compelling, so I’ll skip the rest.
HBO Max has a 50% off deal this week, so I’ll grab a sub for that as there are a ton of shows that are running now or coming up that I want to watch. First up is finishing Season 3 of Titans, then the new season of Doom Patrol starts, followed by the new season of Succession.
On Netflix, I just finished watching the new season of Kid Cosmic, which was awesome. Love the art style and the music rules. A great story arc for Jo and the set up for the next season opens up the show a lot. They’ve done a lot in only 18 episodes.
I also have my toes in The Punisher (never watched the last season for some reason), the Cocaine Cowboys limited series, New Cherry Flavor, The Outer Banks, and I think the next movie I will watch will be Kate. Season 3 of Sex Education just came out so I’ll be on that soon.
On the non-streaming tip, Season 3 of Miracle Workers just ended and it was fantastic, no big surprise there. This season’s theme was the Oregon Trail and they managed to get a lot out of it. Dan Radcliffe commits to every role he does and he did some wild stuff for this season.
Animal Kingdom on TNT is getting close to the end of the season and I’m liking it a lot. It’s quite a bit different without Smurf controlling everything and this week’s episode (10 iirc) had one of the biggest payoffs of the season. The flashbacks with Smurf and Andrew are filling in background detail (essentially the start of how Andy becomes Pope) and in the present day, the boys are starting to gel at the most important time. Feels satisfying and the problems they are facing keep escalating in good ways.
What We Do In The Shadows (FX) is the funniest show on TV right now, by far. This show makes me scream in delight it’s so crazy. This week they went to Atlantic City and the whole thing is insane. I didn’t see the end coming at all, the writers take this show to crazy extremes, I love it.
I’m catching up on the final season of Brooklyn 99. I had no idea it had started and I discovered it with like 2 episodes to go. I’m halfway through and like it a lot. They gave Doug Judy a legit send-off which was a nice surprise. He’s Jake’s greatest foil so it was fun to watch their last spin together play out.
I’m still watching The Walking Dead for some reason. The last season was so disjointed because of the pandemic so it’s hard to remember anything that’s happened. I have very little investment in the remaining characters. Maggie, Daryl, and Negan being the only ones I’m really interested in. Aside from Gene, I don’t think I remember anyone else’s name.
It’s been two months since my last post, I don’t think I’ve ever gone that long. I know I didn’t post anything in August but I didn’t realize I’ve been away since the middle of July. All this month I’ve been meaning to put an update up and I never get to it. Been busy.
I’ll start getting back in the habit with a New York Rangers update. I don’t have much to say so, this will be easy.
The regular season starts in less than a month and I cannot wait. Pre-season starts 2 weeks before that, and I’ll tune in for all 6 games. I have high hopes for the changes that have been made over the off-season. I think the start of the season will be way better than last season, which was a disaster so that’s not saying much.
A few pieces were moved around in the last few weeks, new guys from the draft. It’s real inside stuff and I won’t pretend I know what I’m talking about. Truth is, no one knows the starting lineup yet. That’s going to be determined in development camp with the rookies right now. Then the whole team hits the ice soon for training camp and pre-season is where the ice chips settle for opening night and beyond. There’s a lot to figure out and smart people being paid to do that are going to figure it out in time.
I have high hopes for coach Gallant, I’m expecting energized veteran players right from the start so I think there is a big upswing to look forward to. We’ll see what shape last year’s rookies are in now too. I know they’re chomping at the bit to prove themselves further and if this team can jell together, watch out.
The seemingly unstoppable force turned out to be unstoppable. Despite dazzling the entire Playoff run through 3 rounds, Montreal couldn’t figure out how to handle Tampa Bay. Their only win was a hell of a fight and one other game they could have won. But close calls don’t give you wins so the Cup finals was only 5 games.
This was a brutal season for everyone. A condensced season with very few days off and then right into the unrelenting playoff schedules. Tampa was the favorite all season long and now one of the very few teams to win 2 Stanley Cups in a row. The only question is how much of this team will stay together because this team, as a whole, shows no signs of slowing down. Seattle will be playing their first season and the regular season is currently planned to start on time in October with a full 82 games, so the standard grind will be back. Way more traveling for teams (no more division bubbles) and reasonable breaks between games. Right now, there’s no reason not to believe Tampa will have another fantastic season.
The expansion draft for Seattle is next up on the 21st and then the normal entry draft about a week later. Expect to see a ton of trades after that. Many teams will have many changes in place come October, and the New York Rangers will be on top of that list. New coach, new assistant coaches will be announced soon, roster changes, then training camp to figure out who goes where.
With this break, we can all look forward to a wild NHL season starting in just a few months. A lot to keep an eye on.
The underdog keeps jumping on top of the bodies it leaves behind.
Montreal, a team only the most wishful thinking die hard Habs fans thought could get anywhere, beat Las Vegas 4-2. It’s an incredible story, it’s hard to believe anyone got this year’s bracket 100% right and very few would put down this Cup match up.
It’s the team in last vs the team in first. As much of a surprise it is to see Montreal here, Tampa Bay has been the expected finalist from the jump. The Islanders fought hard against Tampa and got close, a tremendous effort. Montreal vs Islanders would have been amazing. One team who last won the Cup in 1993 and the other in 1983.
Every single round, no one thought Montreal would win. They swept Winnipeg in Round 2. Now against Tampa, the odds haven’t changed. The hands down favorite is Tampa and rightfully so. I don’t think Tampa will run them over, these playoffs have proved that. It’s going to be a hard series that I think will go 6 games. Goal tending will be clutch. If Carey Price can keep his magic going, this series will forever be etched in the history books. I’d like to se Montreal keep Tampa from being back to back champions.
I completely lost track of time and missed writing about the second round which completed last night.
Las Vegas beat Colorado 4-2. I thought this one would go seven games but something fell apart inside Colorado. Looked like the killer instinct came through only for Vegas.
NY Islanders beat Boston 4-2. Another series I thought was going seven games, the Islanders successfully smothered Boston. Outside of their killer first line, Boston doesn’t have as much offensive options. Islanders played to that weakness and is a good indicator that Barry Trotz out coached Bruce Cassidy.
Tampa Bay beat Carolina 4-1. This was a solid beating. Carolina came in with a lot of wind in their sails and Tampa didn’t think much of it. I was thinking six game series and Tampa was in no mood. They are riding a serious Defending Stanley Cup Champions wave that doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
Montreal beat Winnipeg 4-0. Montreal is the Cinderella story of the season and crushing Winnipeg sends the message: everyone stop underestimating us. With the only sweep of this round, Montreal gets the biggest break between games. It’s also sorely needed, the team played an insane amount of games to end the regular season and into a late start, rapid fire post-season schedule for the North division.
We now have the final four.
I’m rooting for the Islanders. It’s been a long time since they’ve won the Cup and it’s the most local team to me. A Canadian team hasn’t won in ages either, so the underdog story for them is the strongest. No one thought they would make it through the first round against Toronto but here they are. So they say the same thing about beating Vegas. It certainly won’t be easy, but I think Montreal has a good chance. With a good amount of time to rest and prepare, Montreal will be ready. Vegas can’t let their guard down or they are going to get into trouble. I can see this going 6 games.
In comparison, the Islanders are better matched up against Tampa Bay. This series should be incredibly intense. I know Trotz is going to come up with every game plan imaginable for this series and he’s going to need that extra edge to get his team the win. This will not be an easy round for either team. At least 6 games, I wouldn’t be surprised to go 7.
I’d say the betting odds are for a Vegas/Tampa Bay Finals but as of now I’m leaning towards Vegas/Islanders.
The Rangers’ season ended more than a week ago and the regular season was extended for a few teams to make up for missed games due to covid stops. The Playoffs started this past Saturday with Capitals v Bruins while some Canadian teams were still finishing their season.
I didn’t write anything until now because the end of the Rangers’ season hit a brick wall and I waited for the fallout from that to happen to get a better perspective of what’s possible going forward.
With a week to go in the season, the owner of the team, Jim Dolan, fired GM Jeff Gorton and team president John Davidson. It was a shock to everyone. It also put a direct target on coach Quinn. After the season ended with the Rangers beating Boston, stopping a brutal 5-game losing streak, Quinn was let go too. Not surprising. Along with him was the release of all coaching staff except for the goalie coach, Benoit Allaire.
It was a weird and strenuous season, and that goes for every team. The Metro division is the most stacked so the odds of making it into the playoffs was a reasonable goal, but still a long shot. There are still depth issues on the team and there are a lot of rookies that are still finding their game. There’s a lot of potential we got to see this year and a lot still left to be wrung out. And that’s what the new GM. Chris Drury will be focused on this off-season. Getting the right staff and moving the right pieces to find the missing players to get to the playoffs. Drury is an accomplished former NHL player and he’s been with the organization for many years. I think everyone feels positive that these decisions are in the hands of a capable person. He also has to deal with major looming cap issues, so money is going to be an issue for the foreseeable future. A lot of smart moves need to be made or the rebuild is going to go from a wavering point to a full stop.
The most damning thing about Coach Quinn this year was the lack of adjustment during games. The same plays, the same problems, no adaptations to fix them. Just different line ups that didn’t really work.
So now Gerard Gallant is the current front runner for a head coach. It’s public that he’s going to be interviewed. Landing a new, appropriate head coach is the first step (anyone who thinks Torts is coming back is nuts. He’d be an awful fit.) Then he gets to pick his staff. He did wonders with Vegas so it’s easy to see why he’s the favorite. We really need a face-off coach. I’ll leave it at that.
The playoffs end in July, which leads us right to the Seattle expansion draft. Nothing can really be done roster-wise until Seattle’s selections are finalized. Then everyone knows what pieces they have to work with. Then the regular draft. The Rangers need a fantastic veteran center and defenseman. That’s the minimum. I think there will be an aggressive play for both.
So, all of that is months away. I always observe this level of stuff from afar as I have no idea what the right choices are to make. Time will tell. I engage with the team when the team comes back together for training season (Sept).
That leaves the playoffs. The safe front runners to get to the Finals: Vegas, Colorado, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Capitals.
Florida could upset Tampa Bay. Islanders could make a serious run this year. Bruins look fiesty. Pittsburg had a tremendous end of the season but they almost always look good going into the playoffs and the past few seasons they got obliterated in the first round. The decade-old core of that team is still together and they are fantastic. But they aren’t as good as they used to be. And competition has caught up with them. When the screws are turned to kick in the Playoff Push Thrusters by the competition, Pittsburg struggles to hold their opponents off.
Edmonton has basically slapped around everyone in the North. The question is, do they have the depth to make it past the 3rd round? Two amazing players can’t fend off an entire team for a series.
It’s going to be an excellent and hard fought two months.
It’s been a very long time since the last live-action Mortal Kombat movie. The video game series has fallen off in popularity, but the 9th game, which was a reboot in 2011, revitalized the franchise. The following 2 sequels have been very popular so what company can stay away from expanding a hot IP?
The 1995 movie is arguably the first game brought to life as best as you could do. Earthrealm had lost the Mortal Kombat tournament 9 times in a row. One more loss and Outworld, a hostile (to put it mildly) dimension, will be able to invade Earth. So, the world is at stake for a few chosen Earth champions. Critics didn’t like it but fans did and turned out for it. The fight choreography is a standout for an American action film for the time. It stands up well today.
The 1997 sequel was so bad another movie wasn’t made until today.
This 2021 movie restarts the story but it doesn’t repeat the plot of the 1995 movie exactly. Outworld is one win away from invasion but sorcerer Shang Tsung is taking no chances at grabbing the brass ring. He’s cheater in previous tournaments and this time he’s decided to go on the offensive. Assassinate the chosen Earthrealm champions before the tournament, insuring his warriors can dominate whoever Earthrealm defender (and thunder god) Raiden can scrape together for a final showdown.
This change subverts the expectation of seeing a Mortal Kombat tournament in this movie. It never happens because all the fighting is done before the tournament starts, it’s basically all survival to get to the tournament. I have no problems with this change, it fits Shang Tsung well.
Fan-favorite ninjas–Sub Zero and Scorpion–are the highlights of the movie, as you can see in the poster above. The first scene sets up their rivalry, making Scorpion a specter of revenge and Sub Zero as the big bad of the movie.
Let’s start with what I liked. The casting is terrific, as are the costumes. The production as a whole looks good if limited at times. There are a few catchy tunes in the soundtrack, though most of the music is rather forgettable. The SFX are by and large very good. Sub Zero’s ice effects are fantastic, character-specific special moves such as Liu Kang’s fireballs, Kabal’s sprint, and Mileena’s teleport are well translated too. Goro and not-entirely Reptile (it’s his species, but it’s not Reptile) are complete CG characters and they both look and animate extremely well. There’s a lot of great compositing work done, just about everything looks like it fits together. The pops of horror gore for the Fatalities are really well done too, so fans can check that box on the list.
There are some dumb lines that don’t fit here and there, but I think the acting is great for everyone. Josh Lawson as Kano is hilarious, Ludi Lin brings the serious Liu Kang to life and Hiroyuki Sanada and Joe Taslim as Scorpion and Sub Zero are perfectly cast. Joe as Sub Zero is a scary dude. He’s completely menacing and intense in every scene he’s in, I’d call him one of the best villains in any action movie. I like Lewis Tan as Cole Young. Cole is a character created for the movie, a representative of the audience of sorts as he’s the only main character who doesn’t know about the weird stuff that’s been going on out of sight from the public. He’s got a good story arc that starts in a low place and ends on a high.
The disappointment comes from a lot of areas. The story is very simple and many characters are undeveloped because of it. There are so many beloved MK characters that making Cole isn’t necessary. I can understand why they did it, but his story is far from fresh. It’s easy to predict what’s going to happen for him.
Many characters don’t do much. Shang Tsung is mostly shown standing and talking. Sure his robe looks sweet, but he’s never that imposing. He gets to do his Fatality from MK 2 which is a treat but I expected more from him. Raiden gets even less screen time and he’s basically a jerk the entire time. Nothing he does is explained too well and he holds back needed information for no reason. You see Kung Lao train Cole more than fight a villain. Mileena, one of the most popular characters is used as…a bodyguard of sorts? She completely misused, has no back story, and gets very little screen time. She looks fantastic though and Sisi Stringer plays her appropriately sinister. I’m willing to bet she’ll be a focus of a sequel where they bring in Kitana and they can get into their story. You really need the sisters to make that whole part of the extensive MK lore work.
I was also expecting way more from the fights. Many of them are filmed up close with many cuts. It’s edited quickly so it can be hard to follow. The first and last fight scenes are the best. Really well shot, very creative, and exciting with a story between the men being told. Jax vs Sub Zero near the beginning and Kano and Sonya in the trailer are the other notable scenes. The attack scene with Reptile is a lot of fun too. It’s really hard to pull off a fight with something that’s invisible look real and it’s done well. Since Reptile is all CG, a lot of planning was done beforehand and it shows. The audio and blocking in the scene work.
The rush to get to fights makes for a very fast-paced movie (which feeds into the ‘not much story and development’ problem). In the third act where the heroes go on the offensive, they have multiple fights going on at the same time. It isn’t handled well. Rapid cutting to each fight takes away from the better fights’ pacing and impact. It comes off as disjointed and amateurish. Jax vs Reiko is a joke. There’s barely any choreography and they try to make up for it with a Fatality. You don’t get to see Mileena, Kabal, or Liu Kang do much hand-to-hand combat. Which is what fans want to see.
For everything the movie does right, there’s something that holds it back. There’s some great fan service sprinkled in and some of it doesn’t work (like trying to get too many catch phrases in). There’s a lot of dumb stuff you have to suspend your disbelief for. Additions were made that don’t work well enough and feel like a waste of time. Like the odd choice to use the dragon mark from the terrible MK: Annihilation movie to get into the tournament or learning how to unlock your special powers. I can see why they thought the ideas were good (it is a nice victory to see Sonya get her dragon mark) but they’re half-baked ideas in the end.
I was hoping for more but I still had a fun time watching this. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s ultimately a goofy movie adaptation of a goofy video game. Through most of the movie, I felt like they were holding back. Very few locations and many of them feel very narrow like you can tell there is nothing behind them. The scope of the movie feels more like it’s set on a stage than in a universe. It’s like the goal was to simply get this movie off the ground for it to do well enough to make a much bigger sequel. They can go anywhere with this series and it is a challenge to pick the strongest parts to make a coherent live action movie (there’s a lot of stupid stuff in MK). They could just do a Scorpion and Sub Zero movie and make fans happy.
A more experienced action director and better fight choreographers are needed moving forward. The bar for action movies is very high and Mortal Kombat doesn’t go close or above that standard nearly enough. What stands out for this franchise are the wild characters and their abilities. That’s where the creativity in the action lies. You can make Mortal Kombat fall between the bombastic action of the Marvel movies and the visceral violence of The Raid movies. The potential is there for something really special. With ninjas, gods, sorcerers, and the reanimated dead.
I’ve had my ideas for how Shameless could end for a number of years now. I like getting closure, it feels good. That’s hard to do and with a cast as big as this one, not terribly reasonable. Plus, getting definitive answers doesn’t mean you’re going to like them. Shameless could go on for many more years since most of the cast are young adults. Their stories could be continued to be told for years to come until actors want to leave or some dramatic story element takes them off. The latter part has happened a lot in this series.
Shameless, while dramatized and exaggerated at every opportunity, stuck to the basic premise that life is never perfect and requires a lot of struggle and work to get where you are going. No one really knows where they’re going, but there is constant movement. There is no such thing as an easy out on this show and there are consequences to actions. The writers kept to that ethos to the final frame. The decision to end the show was made some time ago, but the Gallagher’s aren’t over. We’re given a look at what could be next for everyone.
Frank is found comatose on the couch with the needle still in his arm. He’s still breathing with a weak pulse but since he’s in such bad health and he clearly made the decision to OD, they decide to wait and see what his body does. This isn’t the first time he’s done this and he comes back every time. This is his MO. While Frank is knocked out, Frannie uses the note he left the family to color on. In a few hours, he wakes up alone and leaves the house. Liam, as usual, is the only one who looks for him.
Kev and V’s commercial real estate agent comes to The Alibi and Kev is still anxious about selling the bar. When a prospective buyer comes around, he has no intention of keeping the space as a bar. Most likely some kind of tanning salon/health store combo. This is the worst news possible for Kermit and Tommy, and Kev gets more apprehensive. V feels the pressure as well, essentially being part of erasing part of South Side’s history and culture. They get an offer lower than they want, estimating that they’d clear about 30 grand.
Deb spends some quality time with Heidi. The normal stuff for new couples, like sex and stealing a car. It’s the kind of life mix Deb is used to and is looking for; an exciting person that will be by her side no matter what. Deb is terrified of being alone and she thinks that Heidi will be committed to her. Doing shady stuff is in her DNA so stealing stuff doesn’t scare her off. But, she doesn’t really know Heidi.
Carl settles into his current law enforcement pocket by issuing tickets to people taking handicapped parking spaces illegally. He’s sticking it to the wealthy and making the city a small fortune, so he’s doing well. Tipping swings by for a visit and Carl, having met Heidi that morning, has Tipping look her up to see if she has a record. It looks like she’s been arrested for almost everything possible. He’s not surprised Deb has found another wildcard, but this one is way beyond the others.
Lip picks up a food delivery job to help make ends meet. He rides around town and sees how others are doing (one looks like a tech incubator). On one delivery he gets a horrible tip after seriously helping out a day trader. This doesn’t help his psyche and he runs into an old friend who is looking to buy the empty lot next to the Gallagher lot. He can only offer $75k, a far cry from the $200k Lip missed out on, but it’s something. Tami comes by and they talk, before she leaves she reaffirms her commitment to their relationship…and gives the knowledge that she might be pregnant again. Two kids with no money will be an even greater strain.
Ian and Mickey work towards moving out of the Gallagher house. Since it’s obvious they now need to get furniture, that’s their first priority. They take the mattress and dresser from their room, swing by a furniture store where Ian gets into a funny fight with a woman wearing a Stop the Steal t-shirt, and stop by Kev and V’s to get first dibs on what they are selling in their yard sale. Ian wants to take the old crib and that throws Mickey for a loop. They never talked about having kids. Mickey rattles off some logistical issues but it comes down to his fear of being a terrible father. He only has Terry to go off of and he was a living nightmare so it’s an understandable fear. Ian believes in Mickey though, he knows that Mickey would steer away from being his father.
This all leads to the final, pivotal scene at The Alibi where Mickey has arranged a surprise wedding anniversary party. Ian had no idea, thinking Mickey forgot.
A lot of celebrations have gone down at The Alibi. It’s been the public hub for the series from the start and with Kev and V leaving, it looks to be likely the last one. Certainly the last for all of these people to be together in one place.
Frank has been out walking around alone for the entire day. At first, I thought it was aimless wandering but he goes to Patsy’s Pies, the diner where Fiona first worked and then managed. It’s been shut down and boarded up and upon recognizing it, he looks shocked that it’s no longer open. He looks inside and we get a final glimpse of another major location of the series. It’s in terrible condition. I think Frank went there looking for Fiona, not remembering she moved away.
He then walks into a church, confused about where–and when–he is. He runs into the back thinking he’s back in his altar boy days and he gets dressed and looks for matches to light the candles before mass. The father in charge is kind to Frank, goes along with what Frank wants, and calls for an ambulance instead of the police. On the way to the hospital, the creeping suspicion that Frank, like Patsy’s Pies, is beyond repair cannot be ignored.
Since Frank’s liver transplant in season 4, I’ve thought that the series would end with Frank’s death. He is the nuclear reactor that everyone navigates around. I also thought he’d die away from any family members. With how he’s lived his entire life, it’s hard to predict anything else.
My biggest hope for this season was for Emmy Rossum to come back. Fiona was my favorite character and her appearing in at least one episode felt necessary to bookend the finale of the Gallagher story. She was the parent to her 5 siblings for most of their life and part of almost every major plotline. Due to covid protocols for traveling and the many disruptions to the final season’s shooting schedule., it became impossible for Emmy to come back. While I didn’t get my wish and that’s disappointing, she was shown in a meaningful and beautiful way.
In the ER, he’s getting a bunch of tests done to figure out what’s wrong with him. He doesn’t have an ID so no one knows who he is until one of the doctors recognizes him as their most frequent patient. Frank is in haze from his dementia and what turns out to be covid, taking him in and out of consciousness. When he wakes up, he thinks the nurse attending to him is Fiona. He compliments her, happy to have found his eldest. He blanks out again and sees Fiona at her best from his memories, happy and healthy. If I don’t get to see Fiona come back, seeing how much she meant to Frank is a gift I will gladly take and remember forever.
As he slips in and of consciousness, he thinks about all of his kids. What we’re shown is the kids in the early seasons of the show, what I perceive as Frank going back to when he was happiest. Monica was still alive, his kids much less opinionated; aka less of a pain in the ass and easier for him to get his way.
The Do Not Resuscitate tattoo does what Frank wants, no extra measures are taken to save his life. Frank dies without any family near him, the nurse whom he thinks is Fiona holding his hand as he passes. She turns off the monitors, lays his bed down flat and the hustle and bustle of a hospital ER with everyone covered in PPE continues without pause.
Frank ODed with no one home and left the house without seeing anyone. In a touching narrative, as Frank’s body gives out, his spirit goes to The Alibi where he sits on his stool at the bar and watches everyone he cares about celebrating Ian and Mickey’s anniversary. He’s in his element: drinks, a party, celebration. He even enjoys a drink…something he’s wanted since the last one he tried made him vomit. When he puts the glass down, it refills on its own and he smiles. The show ends as it started, with Frank’s narration giving a lecture on life while everyone has a good time around a burning car. No one may have read his farewell message but the audience is given that closure as Frank’s last words to us is what he wrote to his family. He gives his honest opinion of everyone, in the most Frank way possible.
In The Alibi we get to see everyone together for the last time and the possibilities of what could come are left on the table. With Kev and V’s uncertainty on selling the bar, Carl and Tipping come up with the idea of pooling their money to buy it. They’ll keep it as is, make it a cop bar to get more regulars. Kev and V may have struggled to always make a profit but this could work. I can’t see Carl ever leaving South Side so I think this is a perfect fit. I like where we got to see Carl go. He was a juvenile delinquent and he still has a lot of issues. But the writers didn’t take him down the obvious path of a criminal for life. He’s done time, he’s done a lot of shady stuff, and he’s clearly not the smartest one in the family. He makes mistakes all the time. But he does have a positive moral compass. He’s loyal to his family and he wants to make the world better. There’s hope and promise in his future.
While Carl knows how off the wall Heidi is, he doesn’t tell Deb. He thinks it’s best to let it play out and he’s probably right. Telling her to ditch Heidi may push her further into her. Deb is the biggest wildcard of the family. She, as Frank says, is most like her mother. She’s just as crazy as Carl but she goes through life with more of a romantic view of the world. Heidi invites her to run off out of state. Take Frannie along, you can find some work repairing stuff while I do some business with my friend. It’s a terrible idea because Deb doesn’t know the extent of how nuts Heidi is so the idea of being with her new girlfriend, being asked to go, kid and all, is something new to her. Heidi is legit into Deb so that’s really enticing. I can’t see her going as she’s so phobic to change, but if she does go I think she’d end up coming back pretty soon after Frannie’s life is put in danger. There is no way that wouldn’t happen. I can see Deb going from one dysfunctional relationship to the next for the rest of her life.
This was a reassuring episode for Tami. She commits to Lip whole heartily. He’s been in a bad place for a long time and she supports him through everything. She likes that he’s picked up a job hates to make ends meet because it means he’s trying. She knows it’s temporary and he’ll be able to move back into the career that makes him happy in time. They’ll make decisions together for their family. And if she is pregnant, they’ll make it work. Lip has grown up a lot too. The younger Lip would have done something really terrible to the day trader. The most likely immediate future for Lip is starting his own motorcycle shop.
Lip tells Ian about the potential sale of the house–for way less money. Ian puts his confidence in Lip making the right decision for them and Lip wonders why. “You’ve basically been our father,” Ian answers. That nearly killed me. It was so honest (and true) and it embarrassed Lip a little. Lip is the smartest one in the family, he’s the betting favorite for being the most successful of all of them. The tight bond between Lip and Ian goes all the way back to the start, when they were smoking cigarettes in the busted car in the backyard and Lip was the first person Ian told he’s gay. They’ll be close no matter what happens in the future.
Ian and Mickey share something special. It’s amazing that not only did Mickey remember their anniversary but he organized a surprise party for it. That’s probably the biggest change of a character in the entire series. It’s safe to say Ian will continue to shave off Mickey’s rough edges. The biggest being getting Mickey to be less aggro about everything. It’s hard to imagine them apart, lord knows Mickey would never be happy with anyone else. Still, the possibility of going back to prison, Mickey at least, is pretty high. With Lip’s hesitancy of having another kid, it’s not out of the realm for these two to take on a large role in a future Gallagher’s life.
Liam proves to be Frank’s final friend. He’s the only one worried about Frank when he goes missing. It isn’t because everyone else doesn’t care or love Frank, it’s that they are numbed by years of this cycle. He’s the youngest of the original 6 and has the fewest memories of all the times Frank has gone on a bender. He has no memory of Monica, he didn’t experience what she put them through. At the start of the show, it was Deb who would fret over Frank the most, her older siblings have become numb to it. It didn’t take much longer for her to join their frustration of helping someone who doesn’t want help. Lip talks to Liam about this and tells him they just have to wait for him to show up again. He always does. When Liam gets to the bar for the party, he’s disappointed that Frank’s not sitting on his favorite bar stool.
As Frank passes, Liam senses that Frank has done so. A calmness comes over him as he looks at the empty barstool and then looks up before joining everyone outside to enjoy the Tesla that’s caught fire. A wealthy schmuck watching his money go up in flames, it’s something Frank would have loved.
I can see Liam going far. I think if he lives with Tami in Lip that’ll give him the best environment to do well in school. As a young Black male, he knows he faces a different world than his family. While they have all struggled he’s going to have to push even harder to get equal footing. He wants to achieve more than he’s seen them do and I think he’ll be able to do it. I can see him being an entrepreneur right out of college.
So the show ends with possibilities, not closure. Three days after the finale has aired, I feel like that’s the best way to end the series. The Gallagher kids are moving on, just more independently from each other than they have before. More kids will be born (I can see Lip and Tami having 6!) and all of their lives will be wild and memorable. There are a lot of questions we can ask. How will they react to Frank’s death? Will Lip sell the house? Where will Deb go? Fiona hasn’t been mentioned since the start of season 10 so how she is doing and what she’s doing is completely up in the air. Fiona’s void in this ending is my biggest disappointment. If that’s the biggest one for 11 seasons and one due to a bat shit crazy pandemic, it’s not so bad. But, that’s life. There are no easy answers and nothing has a black or white solution. It’s up to you to fill in the blanks. You can pull a lot from what was and wasn’t said in the finale (like Frank leaving Fiona out of the note contrasted with how he remembers her). I am happy that they managed to give Frank one final funny gag fitting for his legacy.
I’m going to miss checking in on the Gallaghers 12 times every year. A void has been created. We watched half of the cast literally grow up. I’m attached to everyone, even Frank, a degenerate who caused more pain to those around him than anything else. I can’t even count how many people left South Side to get away from him. Still, I was wrecked by his death.
It’s the power of storytelling and the people creative and brave enough to make it.
Everybody is moving at warp speed and it’s getting tough for anybody to hang on.
Kev and V quickly sell their house for more than it’s worth to a developer that slipped a flyer in their mail. This puts The Alibi on the fast track to be sold, shocking Kermit, Tommy, and Deb. Cleaning up The Alibi makes Kev nostalgic and any second thoughts from V end when the money (minus paying off the house) shows up in their account. When Lip finds out about the sale he’s taken back by losing his lifelong neighbors and the shock that their house was sold with no effort.
Lip jumps at the chance to talk to the developer, who is looking to buy 3 houses on the block for a new development. Lip can stop putting time and money into the house and end most of his stress. With the Ball house and the Milkovich house sold, Lip is in prime position to make the last sale to the developer and asks for $275k. While he waits for a response, he’s over the moon and decides to sell the new stuff he put into the house to get more of his money back. Tami is shocked to hear their fortune has turned but she’s skeptical that Lip should be so happy until the paper work is done. In Shameless fashion, it doesn’t work. The developer goes the other way down the block and buys the house to the left of the Ball’s for $200k. Lip accidentally priced himself out. It was a good idea but he rushed into it, not considering any competition. Frustrated, he goes to the Ball house to talk to Kevin after he blew him off earlier when he found out about the developer from V.
Deb’s feelings of abandonment spiral further down as she goes to Tami for relationship advice. She gives her some real talk, saying it’s not her fault she hasn’t had a healthy relationship, her parents were so dysfunctional she had no chance. This turns Deb on Frank and she jumps him at the Alibi and he gives her some parting Frank advice: find a bigger loser than you and they won’t leave you. Later in the day, Deb runs into (accosted is the better word) a woman named Heidi. There’s a good chance this woman won’t leave Deb for anything, but there’s a good chance Heidi will get her killed. Deb’s level of desperation will be tested.
Carl continues to rage against the machine and gets himself demoted to meter maid. Turns out he likes cruising the streets but getting disrespected for being a meter maid left and right isn’t a perk. He turns his job into a moral positive though, giving tickets only to wealthy people. He runs into Tish and they have a good talk. Impressive considering how things were left between them. She’s also super pregnant and Carl asks her if he’s the father and she doesn’t answer him. With his career in question, what can we make of a possible surprise…would Carl be a good father?
Mickey is having a hard time fitting in at the West Side apartment. Ian bops about looking to make friends and settle in and Mickey is like a dog after a cross-country move. The changes are so great he can’t handle anything. Everything feels foreign to him, he hates everyone he meets and it bubbles over into a hilarious fight at the pool. Ian, champion of being an understanding adult, is able to eventually talk his husband down from his anxieties. Mickey is a lucky guy, it’s hard to believe he could find another person who would be able to care for him so deeply.
Frank’s day starts on a rough brown note and once again Liam is there for him. They go out and do fun Frank stuff; scamming people out of money and then spending it. After his rough encounter with Deb at The Alibi, Frank can’t handle any booze and it tilts him. The time we’ve seen Liam and Frank together has been meaningful. Liam represents a lot to Frank and the show at large. Liam accepts Frank as Frank and that’s probably the most Frank has ever wanted in life. The end of the episode sees Frank writing a note to his family and shoot a life-ending amount of heroin from a secret stash into his arm.
One episode left and I’m dreading it, I hope it’s as satisfying as I want it to be.
