Normally when I discover a new television series, I’m outright giddy to watch it. Because I simply don’t know what to expect from the series in question, and the unknown is thrilling in that respect, but I have to admit that I tempered my expectations when I settled in to watch last night’s episode of Top Gear. If anything, I approached ‘Episode 2’ like a documentary in my mind, wherein I would be treated to all kinds of facts about magnificent cars and let’s be honest, learning mode doesn’t always make one giddy. But that decision, ended up being quite the mistake on my part. Because this particular episode offered up all kinds of exciting moments, the kind that downright surprised me, all thanks to the versatility of a tiny vehicle known as the Tuk-Tuk.
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But, before we dive too deeply into that particular adventure, let’s take a moment and discuss some of the other highlights present here since this episode also took the time to have a lot of fun with the audience. Because Chris’ idea to have the British government pay for cars for everyone instead of building a new train line was brilliant, especially when one considers that he wanted Parliament to authorize BMW M5s or Mercedes Benz E63s for all the good citizens of the land because who wouldn’t want to drive one of those bad boys to work? And to prove just how well they would do at getting people from point A to point B, provided of course the speed limit gets raised to 180, he did a little race with a mysterious man known as the Business Stig, and well, I loved this idea, and would be happy to apply for dual citizenship if the government across the pond listens to this plan.

Plus, we had some laughs with Professor Green during the celebrity segment, who shared some decidedly unlucky stories involving cars before he bravely handled the track. But while all of this was entertaining in its own right, we cannot put off the wonder of the Tuk-Tuk any longer. Because this tiny little car, one that features a handlebar as a steering column and three wheels and little horsepower, seems like it cannot accomplish much, outside of getting you to and from work, but it turns out, this is the toughest car I’ve ever seen. Sure, it can handle the city life and it is even used in Sri Lanka for polo events, but what matters more when it comes to this tiny car, is that it can handle even the toughest of tasks, like climbing mountain trails. Yes, you read that right, this little car can actually handle the treacherous paths present on a mountain, and it was stunning to see it pull off such a feat.

Because for a better part of this leg of the journey, I thought Matt and Chris were going to see their respective Tuk-Tuk fail while on the mountain, and the rough beatings they took only seemed to compound my fears. But despite Chris’ vehicle getting a flat, and rolling down a part of the mountain, that Tuk-Tuk kept on, keepin’ on and we even learned that this little sucker can haul cargo thanks to a tea inspired race. But truly the centerpiece when it comes to this episode and this journey, is the sheer fact that the Tuk-Tuk can also be used…as a boat. Yup, no joke, these little cars can sail the seas, with some minor modifications of course, and it was just stunning to watch Matt and Chris make their way through the water surrounding a chain of tiny islands that separate Sri Lanka and India and eventually make their way to the latter of those two countries and well, I won’t lie, I’m half considering buying one of these little guys because if it can handle all of that, some of the hailstorms and snow storms we deal with in my home state of Colorado should be nothing more than a minor inconvenience for the Tuk-Tuk.

But all jokes aside, this really was an amazing episode. I’ve never seen any series push a vehicle as hard as this one did, and everything that happened here was so impressive and so epic that I was utterly glued to the screen because I had to know what was going to happen to the Tuk-Tuk next and whether or not it would indeed accomplish its respective mission and well, that’s what makes this series so amazing. The boys know their stuff and back up their claims and I can safely say, that this is the last time I will approach this series with tempered expectations, because it’s clear now that Top Gear is going to do amazing things with cars week in and week out, and I truly cannot wait to see what wonders await me as this season rolls on. Until next time. 

If there’s one thing science fiction and horror and any genre that takes the time to explore the human condition and our society as a whole, has yet to accomplish, it’s providing its audience with a solid  understanding of what drives humanity to push forward and continue on as a whole. Sure, stories can cite the survival instinct that’s present within all of us as a fine reason to get up in the morning and go to work to pay our bills because without money, there’s no food or shelter for us to survive within, but I think we all know it goes far deeper than that. There’s something powerful that pushes us and guides us to forge ahead and see what tomorrow brings and that’s perhaps why fiction steers clear of this examination simply because, there’s no easy way to explain our drive and our motivation.
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However, this is clearly a topic that Jordan Peele’s iteration of The Twilight Zone was eager to tackle, because last night’s episode of the series, ‘Six Degrees of Freedom’, handled such a notion in the most fascinating way imaginable, by putting five astronauts, who were to be the first human beings to ever land on Mars, in quite the harrowing situation. For mere minutes before their ship, the Bradbury Heavy was set to begin its voyage to the stars, they received some utterly terrifying news; nuclear missiles from North Korea had started to strike American soil and they and they were left with a simple choice. Either launch now and finish the mission, knowing full well they may never return home since there was a fair chance this was mankind’s twilight hour, or abandon ship and potentially spend their final moments with their families.

Surprisingly, the crew chose the former and worked to complete their mission, but it was the journey toward Mars that mattered here, because the isolation and loneliness of a crew without a home is what allowed for this episode to dive into the question I posed a little while ago and I’ll be honest in saying that this was handled in utterly brilliant fashion. Because the crew was at their breaking point for the duration of their mission to Mars, working through grief and shock and every negative emotion possible when faced with the end of the world, yet, they kept at it, they worked to complete their mission because they believed that by making it to Mars, that perhaps someday the survivors of this nuclear holocaust would find inspiration in their act and be better than the world that failed them and therein lie the lesson. For what drives us to see tomorrow, is a deeply embedded belief that we are something special, that we are something more and that we are meant to do wonderful things and change lives and well, there’s a lot of truth to that.

After all, in our brief time on this planet we have in fact accomplished great wonders. We’ve cured diseases, taken to the skies to fly like the birds and we’ve created technological wonders beyond our imagination and heck, we’ve even been to the stars, because of how much we believe in the notion that one individual can inspire others to work together and make the impossible, possible, and well, despite the fact that this was a supremely dark episode for a vast majority of the hour, that message made the rough journey worth it, as did the ending. Because that little twist involving another species from another place in the universe, served as a first for this newly reimagined series in that, this was the first episode that truly felt like it came from the script vault of the original series. For the fantastical was a staple of Rod Serling’s vision and well, it doesn’t get much more fantastical than a group of aliens testing mankind’s mettle.

But what was more impressive, is that when all is said and done, this was actually an uplifting tale, one that really worked to push a more positive message across to the audience. And what I took away from this one, is that while our world often stands on the brink and is in a quagmire politically and socially right now, there are still beautiful and wonderful things happening around us and we need to take the time to recognize and celebrate those things and our humanity as a whole. Because we are indeed something special, and something worth saving, and perhaps, if we take those brief moments and smell the proverbial roses, maybe, just maybe, our petty differences will be put aside and we can realize that we are all same and in this mess together, and accomplish new wonders, and to find a message like that, buried in a waking nightmare, is quite the special treat indeed and more proof as to why it’s a wonderful thing to have this series on the air during these troubled times.  

Whether we like to admit it or not, there are people from our past that we work hard to forget simply because they were downright horrible to us. They hurt us, and their brand of pain left at the minimum emotional scars and while we work hard to leave those people behind, the human mind and our wild imagination always leaves us wondering, what exactly we would do if we were given one last chance to confront them? Would we exact a fitting revenge? One that makes them feel exactly as we did when they shattered us so long ago? Or would we take the high road and turn the other cheek? These are of course, questions that we will likely never get the chance to answer since we avoid these people like the plague, but fiction allows for us to ponder upon such matters in intelligent fashion and all of this is on my mind today simply because all of this served as the focal point for last week’s episode of Cloak & Dagger.
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For ‘Alignment Chart’ picked up immediately where the last episode left off, plunging Tandy and Tyrone into the aftermath of Tandy’s voyage to the void since Connors was long gone from the Church, meaning that Tyrone would soon be hot on his trail and that brings us to the first real surprise of the night since Tyrone started his search, alone. Because Tandy had some loose ends in the kidnapping mess that she wanted to deal with and perhaps it’s best in a weird way that these two split up for a fair chunk of this tale because our intrepid hero caught up with his tormentor and well, found himself plunged into unfamiliar territory. For this was not the same egotistical and bold Connors we met a year ago, oh no, this was a broken man, one that finally had to face the hard truths of the disturbing life he lived and in stunning fashion, he surrendered himself, to Tyrone in order to finally pay the price for all of his unsettling sins.

Of course, this is a deal that seemed to be too good to be true for Tyrone and as is usually the case in stories such as this, the easy path is often a lie, meaning that Cloak had to dig deep on this one and follow every lead and every possibility. Especially when Connors offered up a secret file that his Uncle had, one that could clear Tyrone’s name in an instant. But that turned out to be a snipe hunt, putting Ty into one tough place, one that reflects what I made mention of at the start of the article. Should he exact his own brand of revenge since it seemed as though absolution for both men would remain impossible since it seemed as though Connors was lying through his teeth? Or should he take the high road and find a different way to getting what both men want and thankfully, Tyrone chose the latter of those two paths, involving his mother to help him figure out a better way.

Yet while that powerful story alone could have carried this episode, I made mention of the fact that Tandy felt the need to walk her own path in this tale, and her story is equally as important. For in many ways, she explored the opposite side of that particular coin, opting for a measure of revenge in order to bring peace to the ache that comes with her cause and well…how badly her mission backfired reminds us that vendettas achieve nothing, they only blind us. Because the deeper that Tandy dug into trying to find the brains behind this trafficking ring, the more she believed whatever was in front of her, and while that got her close to some of the thugs responsible for kidnapping the girls, her fury allowed for her to completely and utterly miss the fact that Lia was the true ringleader of this outfit and now, Tandy’s life is in danger, since she has now become Lia’s latest victim…

If anything, this was just another magnificent episode of this incredible series. Because once again, there was depth present when it comes to our characters and this tale did a fine job of reminding us that our past is always with us, it’s simply a matter of how we learn to live with it and deal with it and it was fascinating to see how Tyrone and Tandy worked through the respective skeletons in their closet over the course of the hour. But considering how this one ends, I would venture to say that Tyrone’s issues will need to be put on hold for just a little bit longer, because Tandy is in incredible danger, and it will be up to her best friend to save the day. But knowing this series, we’re not done diving into our heroes’ psyche just yet, and if the toast that Tandy was giving in her mind in this story was any indicator, we’ll be taking quite the harrowing trip through her subconscious later tonight. Until next time.

If there’s one thing we as a society hold near and dear to our hearts when we are interacting with others, it’s honesty. We simply expect others to offer up the truth, and when they do, they engender our trust and our interactions are smooth and free of consequence. But alas, that’s a rule that has sadly been violated more often than we care to admit and that means we’ve had to question and challenge and express distrust and disdain with those in our lives who have chosen to be dishonest with us and well, the nature of truth and what it means to us is on my mind today simply because it turned out to be the unexpected focal point of a particularly bleak episode of CHiPs.

For ‘Cry Wolf’ introduced us to a psychologically damaged man named Walt who had quite the twisted hobby; he loved to call in false alarms to the Highway Patrol. Yes, you read that right. Walt would drive up to an emergency call box, let the dispatcher know that some kind of horrific accident had occurred at a different call box and sit back and watch emergency responders rush to the scene of his fictional concoction and what made this so bleak and so fascinating, is the sheer fact that this episode took the time to explore exactly why Walt gained pleasure from this particular act. As it turns out, he lost his firefighter father when he was young, and more or less found himself obsessed with emergency situations and even did a little time for pulling fire alarms before we meet him here and doing this somehow soothed his trauma and the thrill of it kept him coming back for more, and well, I was quite surprised to see this series offer up such a complex and dynamic character since you feel for Walt and genuinely hope he gets caught so that he can get the medical help he needs.

But bringing him in was no easy task. Because he was quick and crafty when it came to his calls, prompting the CHP to set up tracing gear and a task force to try and bring him in and unfortunately, his lies slowed down response times as well. After all, due diligence had to be paid to make sure there was an actual emergency when a call came in involving a downed Flight for Life chopper, meaning that Ponch and Jon got there a little later than they might have liked, to the point where valuable blood aboard the crashed craft almost didn’t get delivered. But thankfully they saved the day and eventually, the right set of circumstances came together and Ponch and Jon were able to confront Walt face to face, and even then, he pushed things to the limit, threatening to take his own life over going back to jail and thanks to their quick thinking, they were finally able to bring him in.
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However, I’m sure the question on your mind at this point, is whether or not the patented levity we normally find in this series was present here at all since this was some heavy, heavy stuff to present to an audience, and the good news is, there was some. After all, there was a plot line involving Jon’s reluctance to date a cute nurse that he ran into on the road, something Ponch wouldn’t stand for. So he offered up an assist to get Jon out on a double date with Frank and his gal and that led to a quirky sequence at a fancy restaurant that served French cuisine since our dynamic duo were able to try escargot and quail for the first time ever with comical results, yet, even this had a dark cloud hanging over it. Because before they could even try such fancy foods, Ponch had to deal with a little taste of racism from the host of the restaurant since he wasn’t keen on Frank’s fashion choices or brown skin and it took an assist from Jon to be seated.

If anything, I think this one wins out as the darkest episode to date of this magnificent and dynamic series and well, this one blew me away when all is said and done. Because I was quite impressed with the fact that there was incredible depth present when it comes to Walt, since we really did get some solid insight as to why he did what he did, and it was equally as fascinating to see how his actions and his illness also caused harm at home since his sister constantly challenged him to tell the truth and it’s really a shame that more police serials don’t take the time to explore the trauma that motivates some of the ‘villains’ they feature. In the end though, this episode just goes to show what kind of wonders this series can accomplish when given the opportunity, and it’s another fascinating entry in a strong opening season for this series, and once again, I’m ready to see what other surprises this show has in store for me, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to hit the highways with Ponch and Jon, once more. Until next time.