STRANGE NEW WORLDS, THE BOYS, UMBRELLA ACADEMY, TOM SWIFT, IN THE DARK, ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING

 Too many great shows to write about! TOM SWIFT is the best new series on regular TV and probably all of TV right now. Fun, escapist, meaningful, dramatic, funny, exciting and original (though based on the books), this shows has it all. Tom started on NANCY DREW last season (season three?) and caught my eye there. Despite there being a lot of genre shows that have team players in team based character driven shows being LGBT, there are almost NO gay male characters who are just gay male and who are the main lead character. TOM IS both. And one racy scene last week was rivaling even THE BOYS and early BIG LOVE and early GAME OF THRONES for sexiness, at least between two gay men. WOW. They showed almost everything. Besides that, the show had a great cast, a great story, and a fun twist on TOM and sci fi in general. I hope this show lasts long. 

THE BOYS and UMBRELLA ACADEMY are in their third seasons and I haven't finished the entire season of UMBRELLA but have two and a half ep to go and I must say the best season so far! Loving Stan and Harlan and even Lila. Ben is a hoot, too and super hot as was Marcus who needs to come back for more. I've seen complaints on line from moron sites that say that the end of the world thing has been played once too often on this show. Well, this is the end of time AND the entire universe but that is what this show IS about and to not get that, is idiotic and moronic, especially as this is the best season, script wise, pace wise and action wise. Oh, and Klaus' new power seem to come directly from the same actor's MISFITS character. Robert Sheehan is the talented actor and he was as great there as he is here. Though I understand it, I do NOT like the way they are writing for Allison this season. At all. 

THE BOYS: wows me every week this season and hasn't had a bad episode yet. I didn't expect a super hero orgy, let alone Starlight to quit! Homelander vs the suped up V'ed up Butcher and Hughie and the new supe Soldier Boy (the talented Jensen Ackles, who I've liked since his DAYS OF OUR LIVES days and nights where he once ran around shirtless with a sword in a haunted castle!). The Deep remains a total jerk though. This show is outrageously funny, scary, and shocking, sometimes all at once. I don't know other than Starlight there is one character who is actually nice and likable, though but it makes them all even more interesting to watch! 

IN THE DARK is in the last and fourth season and remains an unpredictable crime drama about an unlikable lead character, the unsympathetic pathetic blind girl, the most selfish character on TV. Fortunately, it's easy to sympathize with the friends she manipulate and lies to, the police who want to nail her, and most grandly, her wonderful seeing eye dog Pretzel, the one I worry the most about. The entire cast is wonderful. I never know which way this bizarre show is going to turn. Not for everyone but entirely different than any show on TV ever.

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING season two has started and only has two episodes so far but it's funny and this time seemingly more geared toward the mystery of the murder of the owner of the building as well as a stolen painting. Also surprising and different, a new cast member, a female has designs on Selena's character. When Charles asks her who is cooler than he is, she answers, "Everyone."  I am sorry her relationship with Oscar seems over but I'm wondering what that is about. I liked Oscar. The main positive about this show is how the three pod cast members trying to solve the murder(s) interact. Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez are all wonderful separately but together they're a total hit and fantastic to just listen to. Amy Schumer does a weird turn in the apartment once owned by Sting (last season) and Shirley MacLane does a fun turn (she smells the trio and knows at once they did not kill her daughter). Tina Fey on the other hand has overstayed her welcome and needs to leave this show at once. She's never been particularly funny but the scripts last year gave her some good moments. So far in the two eps this season, she's the only liability. Great show, fun and mysterious. What is going on? 

STRANGE NEW WORLDS did a new episode today about the offspring of a monster killing people on a snow planet where the crew away team are stranded while the Enterprise goes on a mission to save a space station's energy reserves. Okay, this is pacey, adventurous and surprising. I did know two members who were going to die but one major crew member (okay, I also guessed he would die, too) dies that...is a regular, it would seem. Yes, this is really ALIEN on TREK but a good version of it. Spock has to tap his human rage which Chapel finds out about; La'an has to face her past and help a little girl (yes, like in ALIENS); and Uhura makes some choice, all of which might be predictable but after last week's fiasco fairy tale POS, this is a refreshing horror story in space and well done. Well acted, well executed and the only liability is really the doctor, who's character just doesn't seem professional enough to me. Even he's okay, though.