Warning: Spoilers all over the place.

They could have named this season Flight of the Phoenix. The seasons starts with Mutiny starting to make a name for itself and not even by the end of the season, it’s all ashes.

Out of all of Joe’s failings, Ryan’s death was the worst of all of them. Ryan was young and inexperienced in just about every way. Like Cameron, brilliant, but he didn’t make it out the other end. Cameron got burned but her situation had a simpler path out of the rubble. Ryan never thought of (or knew of) how Joe makes his business moves in secret. This made him pull the trigger, for what he believed would be in helping and defending his mentor, when it actually was the worst thing he could have done. Plus, Ryan found out he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. That’s rough for a guy who thinks he’s the smartest person in every room. He thought he could cover his tracks only to find first hand that there was tech out there that he had no idea about.

Episode 8 I’ll call The Coup. Donna and Cameron had always been a great but dysfunctional team. They made it work for awhile, but those last few times where Cam would disappear (and she always held up progress on Mutiny because she insisted on doing everything herself) pushed Donna over the edge of tolerance. In this episode, Gordon is little more than a passenger, Voting Cameron out of the company is probably the best scene in the series so far. Intense and crushingly sad. Donna had her reasons and as everyone else did back her, it wasn’t a crazy idea. Cut off like a diseased limb, Cameron goes to Japan with Tom to work in the videogame industry.

Episode 9 sent me for a loop. They jump ahead 4 years to 1990. Donna’s plan failed. Mutiny collapsed. She’s divorced from Gordon and has made partner at Diane’s VC company. Gordon has managed to make the networking plan that he and Joe were working when Ryan killed himself to its fledgling status.  Joe is all alone day trading stocks by the look of it. Cameron has been in Japan the entire time making Space Bike into a successful series with Atari. When Donna finds out Cam is going to be at Comdex, she reaches out to Joe to help get all of them together to discuss a new business venture.

It was great to see Joe and Cameron together and having fun. Their scars healed over a little too much. Seeing bullheaded Donna was quite a bit different. So the big idea is the World Wide Web. In 1990 the Internet was still tiny. A few companies had access to it, it was tiny and was more or less just for academia. These people, the visionary, the engineer, the coding savant and Donna could be the ones to build the door that gets the public online.

The contempt in the room is a hurdle, to say the least. Joe butts heads with Tom (everyone more or less does that with Tom) but the real sticking point is between Cameron and Donna. When Cam admits that she’s as much to blame for the implosion of Mutiny as Donna, is a big revelation and admission for her. Then the other revelation comes on just as strong: she can’t work with Donna again. A flip comment about ditching Joe if Cam wanted to was all it took. What they originally had, what made their work so fun and exciting, is gone. She can never trust Donna again. Given the ultimatum, Donna leaves only to book a flight to Sweden. This leaves the original trinity to work together, for now.

A lot happened this season and it was all pretty great. It’s confirmed that next season will be the last and the fallout from season 3 has me teed up and ready to go for it.

Swipe, Fuck, Leave

This was a follow-up episode. With everyone’s paths on a certain track, we rolled along them to the next station.

Frank escalates his occupation by barricading the second floor of the house for his own use after Fiona knocks a hole into the bedroom door and throws all his things out. That starts a war of escalation where the kids cut off his water, he lets a raccoon loose in the house and the kids finally bust through his cement block walls. All the while Frank lets everyone know about his disgust with them and will be disowning them all.

Debbie continues her Craigslist steal and flip until she almost kidnaps a baby. The money has been so good I’m sure this won’t deter her, she’ll just be more careful. Every time she steals I’m shocked she gets away with it. As an aside, where Deb sleeps during Frank’s occupation is never mentioned. Best I can tell she was on the kitchen floor.

Ian has boyfriend trouble where he can’t come to grips with Caleb’s assertion that he isn’t cheating when he sleeps with a woman. This sends Ian reeling and actually sleep with a random woman to see if “no one is actually 100% gay” like Caleb says. Well, Ian is 100% sure he is 100% gay. Looks like his happy and healthy relationship is coming to an end.

Lip gets an internship at some new tech company and when the feds come a knocking to confiscate some servers, he witnesses one of the head guys deleting info. This makes Lip really curious and this could turn into Lip’s leverage to turn his internship into a paying gig. Not too sure of the play just yet. Meanwhile, he’s walking that narrow line of sobriety. When popping into The Alibi for a beer, as per his set rules, Frank comes in with Liam and that exchange convinces him to skip this drink. Later, he goes out with Fiona and her new employees…

Fiona gets total control of the diner. After a rather tense situation when going to Chad’s office she’s given full reign to get the diner in shape (or it’s being shut down). With that fire underneath her, she hires some new girls and fires off who she sees as dead weight. With new outfits for her new staff (short skirts!) Fiona is pushing to get the diner into the black at warp speed. She goes out with her new hires for the first time since her disastrous wedding day, gets plastered and uses Tinder for the first time. After having a successful night, Fiona goes to V’s to share her joy at 2am and V shuts her down, telling her it’s gotta wait for daylight. Fiona’s reaction was hilarious. Now about Lip. One of the new hires has the hots for him and it’s pretty clear they are so right for each other in all the wrong ways. He’s apprehensive about drinking in such an environment, knowing it’s dangerous for him. There will be no happy ending for these two.

Carl is on the mend and has to see his doctor twice after ripping his stitches. At the very end he hits his goal of 72 hours of healing and it’s game on underneath the stairs with Dom.

The neighborly threesome hits the rough patch. Kevin is given house husband duty while Svet and V work the bar. Feeling like he’s being put well below his station and not appreciated, he’s inspired to start a new business. Nook & Fannies might work! Might.

Hiraeth

Shameless is back three months early! I have no idea why but I’ll take it. We rejoin the Gallaghers a month after the season six finale. What are my favorite degenerates up to?

The title is a Welsh term for being homesick. That would be Frank as he wakes up from a coma in the hospital. After lamenting that no one came looking for him (he forgot he was tossed into the river) he wheels himself to The Alibi where the “transgressions” against him come flooding back. Insulted he heads home only to get dragged out of the house when Fiona finds him there. Frank is beyond insulted that his family has exiled him for simply “telling the truth.” Always the defiant one, he manages to hole up in Fiona’s room.

Liam! He’s grown up since last season but remains mute.

Lip leaves rehab and is now on the road to getting some sort of life back on track. He was expelled from school and has no intention of going enrolling somewhere else. He rolls the dice a bit to score an internship from Prof. Youens contacts. After getting into so much trouble with alcohol, he sets up all new rules to keep safe but still enjoy a drink. Or two. He’s Frank’s son so we can all see where this is going (as seen on the faces of V, Kevin, and Svet when he outlines it all). For money, he visits Fiona at the diner and she puts him to work immediately as a dish washer.

With Sean gone, Fiona has taken over manager duties at the diner. Working all the time with all the stress and little compensation, she manages to get a dollar raise an hour from the owner (or the rep for the owners I think. Pretty sure his name is Chad). She puts forth that she’s off of dating, she’s just going to focus on herself for once. With the relationship with Sean scattered on the rocks, you can’t blame her. She’s very busy but it looks like she’s in a good place right now. She continues to be oblivious of the trials and tribulations of everyone though (not like the Gallagher’s are great about talking to each other, so it’s to be expected).

Carl is going hot and heavy with Dominique but when she reveals she’s not a fan of his foreskin, he goes into investigative mode. I guess it’s good that the only thing for him to be concerned about now is how is dick looks, he’s doing okay on the Gallagher scale. He makes a rather rash decision with his rainy day fund. “I don’t feel a thing!” “You you will.” We’ll see if his oral experiences improve for him.

Deb is in full panic with Francine. Yup, being a single teen mom sucks! She’s exhausted and is struggling every single minute of the day. After almost giving up, she goes to the park to think and see other mom’s. After getting some shade from a well off mother, she notices how nice the stroller is this mean mom has left unattended….ladies and gentlemen Deb is now a kleptomaniac. She’s flipping the baby gear for series cash on craigslist and I give her a week before she’s nabbed for it. You can’t sell the stuff you steal in the exact same neighbourhood you stole it from.

Ian is going strong as an EMT and is still with Caleb. Things are great! Wait, nope. Suspion sets in when Caleb tells him he’s been meeting an old friend. It’s a woman though, so he has nothing to worry about. Ian doesn’t buy it and enlists Lip to help him follow Caleb. That’s where they scope him making out with this woman in public. Drama ahoy!

Finally the lovely menage a trois of V, Kevin and Svetlana. These three have things figured out. Their working as unit for The Alibi, the kids and each other! Everything is scheduled out and going well. With Svetlana being awesome with math, she’s been put in charge of the bar’s books. She fixes some stuff V can’t figure out and then V asks her to look at their personal finances. Svet comes to the quick conclusion that they are doing nothing for their future. Little income, no savings, no future plans. It’s time they think ahead.

Carl’s story is the real comic relief right now along with Frank being Frank. Deb has come up with her own scheme and her lack of experience at being shady is going to shut her down quick. I like seeing the start of Fiona putting herself first, but knowing her she’s going to start paying attention to Chad simply for some relief from her exhausting family. A girl needs an escape, which judging from the previews may be more literal than figurative.

The gang is back and they brought a few gallons of blood with them. We join our main trio enjoying the hiatus from hell that Ruby granted them at the end of last season. That comes to a screeching halt when the Evil crashes their party (with gruesome results).

Turns out Ruby isn’t as powerful as she thought. She’s lost control over her demon children and they’re trying to take the Necronomicon from her. That can’t happen so she’s got to turn to Ash for help. The attack in paradise ends their agreement and Ash is none too pleased to be roped back in. But when the survival of mankind comes knocking again, he doesn’t have a choice. Being with Ash, Kelly and Pablo don’t have a choice either.

The premiere is all Evil Dead so it’s great. More Ash, more mayhem, it’s giving me what I want. It’s a tough mold to screw up and this adventure is looking promising so I’m all in again.

Sometimes I feel like I watch Fear more out of some strange sense of obligation than actual enjoyment. The show often just plods along. Being a spin-off of a zombie show, it checks the same zombie bullet points of the genre, just with a different set of characters (and location).

There seems to be more boring characters (less interesting anyway) than good ones and it’s like I’m just waiting for someone to deservedly get eaten. The writers do tend to eventually get to point and it’s enjoyable and that’s where the entertainment comes in.  I just don’t have that connection to any of the characters like I do with the main series. I wouldn’t be bothered if the whole cast got wiped out. I completely forgot about Ofelia. I don’t remember when she left the main group. So seeing her hoof it on her own sometimes gets nothing more than an “alright” out of me.

The last two episodes of this season were far and away the best. Chris’ story with his dad completed and turned out well. Significant character changes and it led to quite a bit of carnage and threw everything into the air again.

The laziness creeps up in this show too much. Those moments where they need something to happen (namely action) just for something to happen and it’s done all wrong. In this season, the random bad guys who show up to shoot a small horde on a wide empty road. Despite having long range guns and plenty of room to back up (or just get out of the way) they all die. Literally just stood there for the walkers to get to them. Brain dead stuff.

I keep telling myself to dump the show because I don’t think I’m going to miss anything. I never go through with it. Considering I liked the finale, I’m in for next years premiere. We’ll see how it goes.

If you notice the station logo, yes, FX has brought us more greatness.

Atlanta– The star and initial draw of the show is Donald Glover. The greatness extends much farther than him, though. Earnest is a college drop out doing his best to provide for himself and his daughter (the mother has little faith in him). When he finds out his cousin Alfred (who he rarely talks to) has made a name for himself in the rap game, Earn reaches out to him to be his manager. Atlanta is a unique show, I’m not sure if there is another show like it on. It’s a slow burn that takes its time in every scene. There’s no rush to get to the end. With Glover as the creator and star of the show, you’d think Earn would be the main focal point. He’s not and that gives Alfred and his friend Darius their own time to be full characters that Earn works his way into. The main three guys are fantastic actors. Keith Stanfield as Darius often steals scenes. Often getting the best lines, Darius is a clear presence in every scene he’s in despite being a dope. He can hold his own though so he’s not a waste of time and he makes things happen. I’m often surprised by each episode. I feel like I’m a silent observer to three real people, waiting to see if they fail or succeed with each step they take.

Better Things– The easiest way to describe this is the other side of Louie. Switch coasts, and instead of a single dad who’s a stand-up comedian, it’s a single mom who’s an actor. Co-created by Louie CK with star Pamela Aldon (she had a great run in Louie), Pam is getting her chance to talk about her life as Sam. Aldon has been in the game for a long time, she’s done a ton of voice work (look at her resume and you’ll definitely see she’s been in something you’ve watched), I know her best from Californication. I like her a lot so seeing her get her own show was all I needed. It’s shot much like Louie so it feels similar that way too. But, the perspective is different and her world is lived in by different characters (look out for her mother). That makes me want to tune in every week, I’m all in on seeing Sam hustle from gig to gig while maintaining some grasp of sanity.

Sam Esmail brings her in for a landing! After what I consider a rocky penultimate episode last week, the season finale was a lot of fun and the end is just ripe to pick for next year. Let’s dive in, quite a bit went down.

As we saw, it has been confirmed. Cisco was killed in the diner. Dom knows Darlene is her only chance at closing this case. After some back in forth, Dom decides to go all in and show Darlene her hand. By being more forward with Darlene (whom Dom relates to), she figures she can break through. We all get some new info here. First, Romero wasn’t killed by The Dark Army. It was a dumb stray bullet from his neighbor. The initial panic was over nothing. Dom has quite a bit on Darlene, but it’s mostly circumstantial. It is some concerning stuff, though. Then we get to see the spider web Dom has been working on. At the center: Elliot and Tyrell. Darlene gets a shock from that one.

We find out who’s been calling and tormenting Joanne, who’s at that address Elliot found in episode 10. It’s Scott, the husband of the wife that Tyrell killed last year. He’s been stirring the pot for some semblance of revenge and Joanne goads him into attacking her. Without a husband, but now with a new mission, she takes a whooping to finish off Scott. The last we see, Joanne is convincing her boyfriend to retaliate. She is a delicious level of twisted.

Tyrell (is it?) brings Elliot to the hideout The Dark Army set up. It has all the gear they need to go ahead with Stage 2. At this point, Elliot still doesn’t know what that is. He looks at what’s on their computer for some more puzzle pieces when Tyrell points out a building that’s just down the block. E Corp is bringing all their physical records to this location to rebuild the database. They don’t have to attack a bunch of remote locations to shutter E Corp for good. It’s just one and it’s next door. It all rushes to Elliot. Mr. Robot has been in control of this plan from the start with The Dark Army and working with Tyrell. He’s kept Elliot on a need to know basis to keep him from “overreacting.” Mr. Robot is a complete split personality from Elliot that can and does work autonomously. fsociety was never Elliot’s. With brownouts rolling through the city, the building is stuffed with UPSs to keep the database from shutting down while it’s rebuilt. With the backdoor and malware that Elliot wrote, they have full access inside the building and the means to level it.

Elliot panics and says no, this isn’t going to happen. He’s been completely blindsided and betrayed by his other half. No matter what he’s done he can’t get an advantage. He got himself lockup, Mr. Robot got them out. He tried ODing to get rid of him and that didn’t work.There was no truce, just a shell game to keep him in the dark while Mr. Robot worked. Elliot puts his foot down and sits down to work on removing the backdoor and delete the malware. Convinced that Tyrell is another construct of his mind that Mr. Robot uses to control him, he doesn’t back down when Tyrell pulls a gun on him. He rolls the dice that he’s right, Tyrell is really gone. Much to his surprise (and Joanne next season I assume), Tyrell shoots him in the stomach. On the ground, bleeding and slowly losing conscience, Tyrell says it’s weird that Elliot told him to stop anyone, even himself, who may try to stop them at all costs but now he understands. Mr. Robot’s last words of the season are that this plan had to go all the way. Once started, that was the commitment to change the world.

Whiterose’s talk with Angela worked. She’s got another pawn at her disposal. In Angela’s only scene in the finale, Tyrell calls her after he shot Elliot. She’s been filled in with what’s going on and calmly tells Tyrell what to do. She’s on her way to be by Elliot’s side when he wakes up.

And the stinger of the season: Trenton and Mobley are together somewhere in California. They work at a Fry’s Electronics store and while on break, Trenton is trying to convince Mobley to take a look at something she found. She thinks they can undo what they’ve done. And then Leon walks up to them and asks what time it is…

The blocks of the show are all in interesting spaces. The Dark Army found Trenton and Mobley, what are they facing now? Elliot isn’t dead as alluded to by Angela’s dialog, so our unreliable narrator isn’t done. What’s Darlene going to do? She’s completely on her own and faced with some rather startling revelations by Dom (I didn’t see Whiterose on that board). She’s in a really weird position. Are we going to see brother’s evil side vs sister next season? When is Joanne going to find out about Tyrell and is she going to continue to burn everything alive around her (Scott who is already broken is screwed and her boyfriend is about to step into a bear trap set and sharpened by her). The clock is ticking on E Corp. Tyrell said that all of the material will be moved into that new building in about a month and then it’s duck and cover time.

Quality season, the show is just as interesting to watch as it ever was. Everything came together really well and left me on a high note. I expect season 3 to be another animal entirely now that the whole plan is out in the open. We gotta wait a year for more, but in Esmail we trust.

Didn’t like this episode much. It was super weird and obtuse, even by Mr. Robot standards.

Everything that was left open ended last week, remained so, which I don’t like. It felt like not much happened in the end.

• We have a scene with Dom in the hospital. She wants to hit the ground running but she’s told to take some time to get some rest. She’s all about cracking skulls for going through another assassination and her boss says we’ve gotta get actual proof of what’s been going on. Nothing about Angela and Cisco.
• Angela meets Whiterose in a super weird scene. Whiterose wants to meet her because she doesn’t know why Price has kept her around. After telling Angela she should have been killed 3 months ago it looks like she’s going to get her request: Angela backing off from anything hack related and ditching the investigation on the Washington Township accident.
• Role reversal! Elliot goes in to find Mr. Robot and becomes the silent observer. Together (depending on how you look at it) they decipher a cipher that decodes a phone number. A meeting place is stated and Elliot meets…Tyrell! Or does he?
• Joanne talks with her right hand man about the address Elliot found for them last week. That’s it, it goes nowhere.

The whole episode felt like standing at the edge of a cliff waiting for that rush to come and never does. There’s some rather complex puzzle solving to figure out the cipher, Elliot can’t trust anything he sees so we have no damn clue either and we’re just as bewildered as Angela meeting Whiterose. My two highlights: Dom talking to her Alexa was some crushing stuff. BD Wong is a brilliant actor. Unrecognizable as Whiterose and the cadence he does for her speeches is the perfect topper to such a mysterious character.