Workout Update: Dig In: Day 8

Day 8 of Dig In went back to the Legs and Glutes 1 workout. As with the other workouts this week, this one was definitely easier the second time through, but it was still challenging. I was able to bump up the amount of weight I used for all the weighted exercises, and I felt that my cardio stamina was better during the Insanity block. And the core exercises were easier (but not easy).  

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 1

 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a sitcom created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur that aired for 8 seasons from 2013 to 2021. The 22-episode first season aired during the 2013/2014 TV season. It stars Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti, and Andre Braugher. The supporting cast includes Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller.

The series follows detectives at Brooklyn’s fictional 99th precinct as they adjust to their new commanding officer, Captain Raymond Holt (played by Braugher). Holt is very serious and expects more discipline than some of the detectives are accustomed to, particularly Jake Peralta (played by Samberg), who is good at solving cases but tends to treat much of his job as a joke. Fumero plays Amy Santiago, a competitive detective who is eager to impress Holt, while Beatriz plays Rosa Diaz, who is tough, moody, and very private about her personal life. Lo Truglio plays Charles Boyle, an awkward but enthusiastic detective who is close friends with Jake and has an unrequited crush on Rosa. Crews plays Sergeant Terry Jeffords, who supervises the detectives but is initially reluctant to return to fieldwork because he worries about what would happen to his family if he were killed. Peretti plays Gina Linetti, the precinct’s civilian administrator, while Blocker and Miller play Hitchcock and Scully, two veteran detectives who are generally more interested in food and avoiding work than in solving cases. It is a sitcom with a large ensemble cast that is equal parts story-of-the-week procedural and serial comedy, as events from prior episodes are referenced in nearly every episode.

As of this writing, the individual seasons have been released on DVD. The complete series is available in a Blu-Ray box set. In that set, each season is in its own keep case inside a decorative outer box. The first season's episodes are spread across three discs. The A/V quality of the Blu-Rays is very good, and the episodes can be played with English captions. Most episodes from the first season include deleted scenes, which are the only extras included for this season.

The show is a great comedy with a wonderful cast of characters. It is well-written and well-acted, and the actors do a great job in their roles. The first season mainly develops the various characters and their relationships. The best part of the series is the relationships between the characters, with the funniest being the unrequited love that Lo Truglio’s doofy Boyle has for Beatriz’s dark and moody Diaz. The contrast between Jake’s immaturity and Holt’s serious approach to the job also provides a lot of the humor, as does the competition between Jake and Amy. It isn't extremely family-friendly because it has a lot of sex jokes, but it also has a lot of wholesome comedy. Ultimately, it is absolutely worth watching if you are a sitcom fan, especially if you like other comedies Michael Schur has worked on, like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and The Good Place.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 7

 Day 7 of Dig In was the Back 1 workout again. The most notable thing about the workout was that I was able to do all 100 bicycle crunches in set 3 of the second block. This is notable because bicycle crunches have always been notoriously hard for me. I was a few seconds behind the group because I had to pause a couple of times in the back 50, but I finished them and was able to start the second Insanity block at the same time as the cast. I was also able to increase the amount of weight that I used for the two weighted exercises in the workout. So overall, it was good.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 6

Day 6 was the second go-around with Arms & Legs 1. I was able to increase the amount of weight I used for all of the exercises from Tuesday's workout. I also felt like my form and stamina doing the core exercises were better this time, and I could do more in the Insanity block. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Friday The 13th

 

Friday the 13th is the 1980 horror film directed by Sean S. Cunningham and written by Victor Miller. The film stars Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, and Laurie Bartram. The supporting cast includes Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer, and Walt Gorney.

The plot involves Camp Crystal Lake reopening after being closed for several years. A group of counselors arrives early to get the camp ready for the kids, despite warnings from locals that the camp should remain closed. As they work to get everything ready, the counselors start being killed off one by one. I will not go into too much detail about the story for those who have not seen it, since the identity of the killer is supposed to be part of the mystery.

There have been several Blu-Ray releases of the film, so the features will vary depending on which edition you get. I have the deluxe box set released by Shout Factory, which includes all 10 original films, along with Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 remake. In that collection, the first film is a two-disc set, with both discs in a keep case inside the decorative box. One disc contains the theatrical cut, while the other contains the uncut version. Both versions run just over an hour and a half, with the uncut version running only slightly longer. There are no substantive differences in the story between the two cuts, as the additional footage mostly extends some of the gore. The A/V quality is very good, especially considering the age of the film and the fact that it was a very low-budget movie when it was released. There are bonus features on both discs. The theatrical disc includes the US and international trailers, TV and radio spots, and two different stills galleries, one with pictures from the film and the other with posters and promotional material. On the uncut version, there is an audio commentary on the film which includes the director, writer, and members of the cast and crew, a short film set in the Friday the 13th universe, a featurette on the director, a reunion panel discussion including the director, writer, and some members of the cast and crew, and fan fiction articles that can be accessed if you put the disc in a computer's CD drive. 

The film definitely feels dated. It was a low-budget 1980s movie, and it very much looks and feels like one. It was made to capitalize on the popularity of Halloween, and Miller admits in the bonus content that he was basically told to write a script that ripped off Halloween. It is certainly not as good as Halloween, and parts of the writing and effects are extremely cheesy by today's standards. I also think the script would have been better if the killer had been shown interacting with the group earlier in the movie. The film tries to use misdirection to make you think the killer could be someone else, but once you actually see the killer, you know pretty much immediately. It does earn its R-rating, with some gore (although not as much as many of today's horror movies), swearing, sexual content, and brief nudity. It will always be notable for launching the franchise and for being one of Kevin Bacon's early films. Ultimately, even with its flaws, it is an iconic horror film that helped define 80s horror movies and is worth watching if you are a fan of the genre.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 5

Day 5 of Dig In starts over with the Chest 1 workout. Dig In is a bit different than a lot of the programs in that you do nine days on and then take your rest day. So, you will do all of the Phase 1 workouts twice, then do the Dig Deep workout, and then rest. In this workout, I raised the weight that I used (slightly) for every exercise except chest press, which I kept the same as on day 1. I did notice it was definitely easier the second time. For example, I could do more push-ups on my toes. On day 1, I did the 12 in the first set on my toes and then did the second and third sets on my knees. This time, I did the first two sets and half of the third set on my toes, then dropped to my knees. So, I am getting stronger. I ended the night doing the upper-body foam rolling routine from 645.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 4

Day 4 was Legs and Glutes 1 in Dig In. This one had a similar but slightly different format than the other workouts this week. It still has two blocks of resistance exercises (plus a core exercise) and an Insanity block you do after each resistance block. Each resistance block has three sets. However, instead of doing 12 reps in each set, you do 10, with the idea that you can use heavier weights for the resistance exercises. The exercises in the Insanity block are again low-impact and run for 30 seconds each, but you can do unmodified versions if you want. This was definitely a tough workout, but if you have done Dig Deeper, it incorporates many of the same exercises, and you are doing them for far fewer reps, so it is not that bad.  

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 3

Yesterday was day 3 of Dig In. I did the Back workout, which followed the same overall format as the other workouts, with two blocks of resistance and core exercises, each done for three sets. There is a cardio block after each resistance block, using modified versions of exercises from the Insanity workouts.

I found all of the core exercises much easier, even bicycle abs, which I have never been particularly good at. My form is getting better, and I can do them for longer. For bicycle abs, you do 24 total reps (12 per side) in each of the first two sets, followed by 100 total reps (50 per side) in the last set (with a built-in break after 50 reps). I could only do 80 in that last set, but a few months ago I might have done 25–30 total, so that is a pretty substantial improvement.

CD/Music Review: Ashanti's Christmas

 

Ashanti’s Christmas, released in 2003, was her third studio album. It contains 10 tracks in all, mixing well-known Christmas songs with more traditional arrangements and others with a pop feel. In my opinion, the best songs on the album are her versions of “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”

The CD liner folds out and mostly contains pictures of Ashanti from her childhood around Christmas time. The middle fold contains a thank-you note, while the back fold includes production notes. Ultimately, while this isn't the best Christmas album a pop star has released, it is worth listening to if you are a fan of hers and like Christmas music.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 2

Yesterday was day 2 of Dig In. I did Arms & Legs 1. The format was very similar to the Chest workout, with two resistance blocks, each including a core-focused exercise, and an Insanity block that you do after each strength block.

The strength blocks used some compound exercises, including goblet squats into upright rows and bicep curls into Arnold presses, so you are working more than just your legs. The Insanity block included exercises that will be familiar to anyone who has done Insanity or Insanity Max 30. Again, these were the low-impact versions that the modifiers performed in Max 30, although Shaun T does say that you can do the unmodified versions if you want.

Workout Update: Dig In: Day 1

Yesterday was day 1 of Dig In. I did Chest 1, followed by the LIIFT4 Roll and Recover routine. Dig In is a 30-day program designed for fat loss that combines the muscular-endurance lifting portions of Dig Deeper, using lighter weights and bodyweight-only exercises for sets of 12 reps, with low-impact versions of exercises from Insanity and Insanity Max 30. Anyone who has done Insanity Max 30 will recognize the exercises that the modifiers in that program did.

The workout has two resistance blocks, each with two weighted chest exercises, a bodyweight chest exercise, and a core-focused exercise. You go through each block three times, doing 12 reps of each exercise per set. You have only enough time between exercises to transition from one to the next, amounting to about 15 seconds between exercises. The workout has scheduled breaks, however. The second resistance block includes a bear crawl: get into a bear plank position and move forward and backward, with four crawls forward and back counting as one rep. Shaun T gives you the option to hold the bear plank position instead, which is what I did for the second half of the first set and all of the second and third sets.

After each resistance block, you do the same “Insanity Block,” which consists of four cardio exercises that you do for 30 seconds each, again with only enough time to transition between them. One of these is stepping burpees. The first time through, you use the bench, while the second time you have the option of using the bench again or going all the way to the floor.

Like Dig Deeper, you do need a workout bench and a selection of weights. You need to use much lighter weights than you otherwise could because you do not have breaks between exercises. For example, if you can normally do chest presses with 35 or 40 lbs when you have breaks between sets, use about 25 lbs here so you don't wear yourself out too quickly. Shaun T mentions this up front, noting that he can normally do chest presses with 70 lbs but was using 35 lbs for this workout. The workout is about half an hour, and the time goes by quickly because you move from one exercise to the next pretty much the entire time.

Workout Update: Deload Week: Day 7

Today was the final day of my deload week. I did the X Stretch routine from the original P90X this evening. My range of motion and flexibility are pretty much the same as they were last week, but they are still vastly improved from where I was 12 weeks ago, before I started Dig Deeper. Tomorrow, I'll start Dig In, which combines lifting similar to Dig Deeper with low-impact cardio. 

Workout Update: Deload Week Day 6

Yesterday was day 6 of my deload week. All I did was the LIIFT4 Roll and Recover routine before bed. I used my Rumble Roller, which I have been using for a few weeks now. I feel a lot less discomfort when using it than I did when I first started, and it helps much more than my older “regular” foam roller, which is starting to wear down.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Free Guy

 

Free Guy is a 2021 comedy directed by Shawn Levy and written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn. It stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi. Reynolds plays Guy, a bank teller who is actually a non-player character in an online video game called Free City. He goes through pretty much the same routine every day until he encounters Molotov Girl (played by Comer) and starts doing things outside of his programming. In the real world, Molotov Girl is Millie, a game developer trying to prove that the company behind Free City stole code from a game she developed with her former partner, Keys (played by Keery). Waititi plays Antwan, the head of the company behind Free City.

The 4k set is a two-disc set, containing a UHD disc and a standard Blu-Ray. It also includes a digital code that can be redeemed on Movies Anywhere. The UHD disc only contains the film, while the bonus features are on the standard Blu-Ray. The A/V quality on the UHD version is good, with great audio quality and decent video quality, although it is not what I would describe as a reference-quality 4k transfer. The extras include a little over five minutes of deleted scenes, a short gag reel, the theatrical trailers, and several making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes. The most interesting of these is the Dude vs. Guy featurette, which shows how the fight scene toward the end of the film was made.

The movie is good. It mixes several different comedy genres, sometimes being an action-comedy, sometimes a spoof-comedy, and sometimes a romantic-comedy. At times, it lampoons gamer and tech bro cultures, but it also dabbles with some ethical questions about artificial intelligence and stealing other people's work. Reynolds is very much in his comedic element with this film, but Comer is the standout, essentially playing two different characters, one in the real world and one in the game. Waititi is also great in his role, and there are some very funny cameos, with the best probably being Channing Tatum's. Since it is a Disney film, there are a couple of Star Wars and MCU jokes thrown in as well. There are some genuinely funny moments, but I did not find myself laughing all the way through. There is some swearing and violence, along with some sexual jokes, but it is not raunchy, and there is no nudity. The PG-13 rating is appropriate. Ultimately, this is a decent comedy that is not a must-watch, but it is worth checking out if you are a fan of Reynolds or are just looking for a relatively family-friendly comedy.

Workout Update: Deload Week Day 5

Yesterday was day 5 of my deload week. I did the steady state 3 workout from Dig Deeper, followed by the LIIFT4 Roll and Recover routine. The steady state 3 workout is a little longer than the first two, at about half an hour, and is more focused on the legs. You are in some variation of a squat or lunge pretty much the entire time. You do move your arms a lot too, but the goal is to make you feel like you spent half an hour walking stairs or using a stair stepper. 

Workout Update: Deload Week Day 4

Yesterday was day 4 of my deload week. I did the 645 corrective hips routine, which incorporates foam rolling and stretching and focuses on legs, hip flexors, and lats, so it ends up working many areas in the body, but all in ways that loosen up the hips.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Bates Motel: The Complete Series

 

Bates Motel is partly a prequel to, and mostly a reboot of, the Psycho franchise, which began with the iconic 1960s Horror film by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins. The series ran for five seasons on A&E from 2013 to 2017, producing 50 episodes. The main cast throughout the series includes Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, and Nestor Carbonell, with Nicola Peltz appearing as a regular early in the show and Kenny Johnson being brought back as a series regular in later seasons. The supporting and recurring cast across the seasons is large, featuring Mike Vogel, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jere Burns, Michael O'Neill, Michael Eklund, Paloma Kwiatkowski, Michael Vartan, Kathleen Robertson, Kevin Rahm, Joshua Leonard, Ryan Hurst, Wilson Bethel, Tracy Spiridakos, Damon Gupton, Marshall Allman, Isabelle McNally, Austin Nichols, and pop star Rihanna. 

The series tells the story of a young Norman Bates, who moves with his mother, Norma, from Arizona to White Pine Bay, Oregon, where she has purchased a property with a house and hotel out of bankruptcy after the death of Norman's father. Throughout the series, we learn more about Norma and Norman's past, Norman's escalating mental health issues and his descent into the character from the movies, and that the town and its residents have many secrets.

The 10-episode seasons work well for this show because they let the writers tell a specific portion of the story without things getting stale, leaving viewers wanting more by the end of each season. The early seasons introduce and develop the characters and largely revolve around the town's massive drug operation. As the series moves along, the focus turns to Norman's dissociative identity disorder being discovered by people outside the family, and his time being treated at the Pineview institution. The final stretch definitely incorporates elements from the original film and pays homage to it, but the writers put their own distinct spin on the established lore. For example, the final season introduces Marion Crane but significantly expands her backstory, and the ending will likely surprise many people who expected the series to conclude exactly where the 1960 film begins.

The Blu-ray set is a 10-disc set that packages the five individual season releases into a decorative outer box. Each season is a two-disc set packaged in its own individual keep case inside the box, so the content of the discs is exactly the same as the single-season releases, and you do not get anything different if you already own those. The A/V quality is excellent and remains very good across all fifty episodes, ensuring the show looks and sounds great in HD on a home setup. The bonus features are on the discs for each respective season, though they do get a bit lighter in the middle seasons. There are deleted scenes included on the discs for every single season, a 45-minute cast and creator interview from season one, the "Bates Motel After Hours" episodes for season two, a featurette on Norman's psychotic break for season three, and a gag reel alongside retrospective featurettes looking back at the show's legacy on the final season discs.

Overall, the series is well-written and very well-acted from the first season to the last. Because it is set in the modern day rather than being a pure prequel, the writers have more creative license to tell their own story, drawing inspiration from atmospheric shows like Twin Peaks and The Killing. While Freddie Highmore's Norman Bates has elements of Perkins' Norman Bates, he doesn't try to copy him, and he does a lot of heavy lifting as the show goes on. Vera Farmiga is the absolute standout, playing Norma as a mix of concerned, overprotective, and creepy, and doing a fantastic job transitioning into "Mother," the internalized version of Norma that Norman interacts with as his alternate identity. The other actors do a wonderful job with their characters, and the writers balance the ensemble well, giving actors like Thieriot, Cooke, Carbonell, and Johnson great material to work with. Ultimately, if you are a fan of the Psycho franchise or serial dramas that include many different elements, the series is absolutely worth watching, and this set makes a perfect conclusion to your physical media collection.

Workout Update: Deload Week: Day 3

Today was day 3 of my deload week. I did the steady state 2 workout from Dig Deeper. It is similar to steady state 1, in that there are a lot of lateral movements, but in this one you are also moving your arms constantly during the workout. I would probably not go back to this if not in a deload week, but it was fine for what it was and got the job done.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Frasier: The Complete Original Series

 

The 264-episode sitcom Frasier aired for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004. It is the most successful series directly spun off from Cheers, following the short-lived 1987 spin-off The Tortellis and preceding the shared-universe series Wings. The central premise follows Dr. Frasier Crane after his attempted reconciliation with Lilith fails. He moves back to his hometown of Seattle and begins hosting a call-in radio show, which serves as the anchor for the workplace segments of the series. Outside the radio station, most of the scenes occur either in Frasier's apartment or in the local coffee shop near the radio station. The main ensemble cast includes Kelsey Grammer, Jane Leeves, David Hyde Pierce, John Mahoney, and Peri Gilpin.

The core comedy of the series relies on the specific dynamics and friction between these central characters. Peri Gilpin plays Roz Doyle, the producer of Frasier's radio show, while David Hyde Pierce plays his brother, Niles Crane, an even more fastidious psychiatrist who is married to a wealthy, eccentric woman named Maris who remains entirely unseen throughout the series. John Mahoney plays Frasier's father, Martin Crane, a retired police officer who has to move into Frasier's apartment along with his dog, Eddie, after a hip injury leaves him disabled. Jane Leeves rounds out the household as Daphne Moon, Martin's live-in physical therapist and the object of Niles's long-term obsession. The interplay between the upper-class sensibilities of the brothers and Martin's down-to-earth perspective forms the foundation of the household conflict.

Beyond the core cast, the show established a reliable roster of recurring characters and guest appearances. Dan Butler plays the sports show host Bulldog, who was eventually promoted to a series regular for a period, while Edward Hibbert appears regularly as food critic Gil Chesterson, and Harriet Sansom Harris plays Frasier's aggressive agent, Bebe Glazer. The series maintained ties to Cheers through guest appearances by Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith, Ted Danson as Sam Malone, and Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd. A larger reunion occurs when the characters travel to Boston and end up at Cliff's retirement party, in an episode featuring John Ratzenberger, George Wendt, and Rhea Perlman reprising their roles. Additionally, the daily radio show setup allowed a continuous stream of celebrity voice cameos as troubled callers, including athletes, actors, and musicians.

Structurally, the series blends a story-of-the-week procedural format with multi-season serial narrative arcs. Major ongoing storylines involve the prolonged relationship hurdles between Niles and Daphne, Niles's eventual divorce from Maris, and Martin finding a new romantic partner later in life. The writers also integrated real-world production factors into the narrative, such as writing around Jane Leeves's real-life pregnancy by constructing a weight-gain subplot, and handling a serious mid-series heart surgery arc for Niles. The first episode of the ninth season, airing shortly after the September 11th attacks, was dedicated to series co-creator David Angell and his wife, who were passengers on American Flight 11.

The physical Blu-ray set is a 33-disc collection that serves as the only high-definition release of the series, as individual seasons are not sold separately on the format. Each season is in its own keep case with three discs, and these cases are housed in a decorative outer box. The video and audio quality represent a noticeable upgrade, though the earlier seasons show occasional limitations based on the condition of the original source material. Because the final seasons were produced later in the show's original broadcast run, they show fewer technical flaws and offer a cleaner visual presentation.

The bonus features on this set consist entirely of legacy content carried over from the older individual season releases. These features include creator commentary tracks on select episodes, short featurettes focused on specific characters like Roz, Maris, and Eddie, a tour of Frasier's apartment, and various retrospective cast and crew interviews. No new supplemental material was created specifically for this Blu-ray release. The set also omits certain broadcast extras, such as the 200th-episode retrospective special hosted by Bob Costas.

Overall, the show is a very good to great sitcom. Some elements of the writing and specific references have dated since the episodes originally aired. Certain jokes would likely be reworked or left out entirely if the show were produced today. Even so, the show mostly holds up well even years later. The writers balanced the storylines effectively so that each main character received focused material throughout the eleven-year run. Ultimately, if you were a fan of the series and/or a fan of Cheers, this set provides a substantial technical upgrade over the DVDs and is a worthwhile addition to a physical media collection.

Workout Update: Deload Week: Day 2

Today was day 2 of my deload week. I did the P90X3 Yoga routine, followed by the corrective shoulders routine from 645. The yoga routine is much better than the routine in the regular P90X, and it is honestly what that yoga routine should have been. It is challenging, with several moves you can perform at an advanced level, but it is short and doesn't include extraneous stuff like yoga-belly 7. The corrective shoulders routine is like 645's upper-body foam rolling, but it adds some range-of-motion work that the other routine doesn't have. Both are very good, especially in a deload week.

DVD/TV Series Review: Frasier (2023): Season One

 

The 10-episode first season of the 2023 Frasier reboot aired during the fall and winter of 2023. It was only streamed on Paramount Plus. While it is a continuation of the original series, the show features a mostly new cast. It stars Kelsey Grammer returning as Frasier, Jack Cutmore-Scott as Frasier's son Freddy, Toks Olagundoye, Jess Salguerio, Anders Keith, and Nicholas Lyndhurst. Bebe Neuwirth reprises her role as Lilith for a single episode, and one of the original series stars does appear toward the end of the season.

The season opens with Frasier returning to Boston, and we quickly learn that he spent the last twenty years living in Chicago with Charlotte while hosting a highly successful daytime television series. He returns to Boston after his father's funeral to reconnect with his estranged son Freddy, now played by Jack Cutmore-Scott, but he decides to stay permanently after accepting a position as a lecturer at Harvard. For the most part, the season functions as a story-of-the-week procedural rather than a heavily serialized comedy. To the extent that it maintains a running narrative arc, it relies entirely on the evolving relationship between Frasier and Freddy, a narrative focus that becomes even more critical because central characters like Niles and Daphne do not appear in the series.

The DVD set is a two-disc set, with five episodes on each disc. The episodes can be played with or without English captions. This is a pretty bare-bones release (what I call an MOD-plus set), with mostly just the episodes and one token bonus feature: a short gag reel. 

While the new series incorporates familiar production elements like a similar opening title card and a revamped version of the closing theme song, it has a much different tone and feel than the original run. I was initially hesitant to support the series because I despise Grammer's personal politics, but as a long-time fan of both Cheers and the original Frasier, I think he does a great job stepping back into the character. The season has some genuinely funny moments, though overall the humor isn't as sharp or consistently funny as the original series. The writers do a commendable job blending the old with the new, making both subtle and overt callbacks to past events, and they balance the comedy with emotional elements surrounding Martin. The premiere handles this beautifully, featuring a short clip of John Mahoney, who passed away in 2018, and dedicating the episode to his memory. Ultimately, while the reboot (at least the first season) didn't capture the magic of the original series, it's still well worth watching for established fans of the franchise.

Workout Update: Deload Week: Day 1

Today was day 1 of my deload week. I decided to do a deload/recovery week after the 12 weeks of Dig Deeper because I knew my body needed it, especially because of the heavy lifting in Phase 3 while in a caloric deficit. So, I am going to do low-impact or no-impact workouts this week and then start the Dig In program, which combines lifting and low-impact cardio, next week. 

I did the steady-state 1 workout from Dig Deeper, which is a 25-minute low-impact cardio routine that incorporates moves from various programs Shaun T has put out. The pace does increase throughout the workout, and it does take a little coordination, because you move laterally a lot, but there is no jumping or high-impact moves.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Bates Motel: Season 5

 

The 10-episode fifth and final season of Bates Motel aired during the spring of 2017. All of the main cast members returned for the final stretch, including Vera Farmiga, despite her character, Norma, dying at the end of the previous season. The guest and recurring cast includes Kenny Johnson and Ryan Hurst, who reprise their roles as Caleb and Chick, respectively. New additions to the cast include Isabelle McNally, Austin Nichols, and pop star Rihanna, who guest-starred after the series creators discovered she was a massive fan of the show. Series creator Carlton Cuse also makes a brief cameo appearance in one of the episodes.

Most of the season focuses on wrapping up the overall story, though it does so in a much different way than many viewers might expect. The narrative definitely incorporates elements from the original film and pays homage to it, but the writers put their own distinct spin on the established lore. For example, the season introduces iconic character Marion Crane but significantly expands her backstory beyond what was seen in the movie. The ending will likely surprise many people, especially those who expected the series to conclude exactly where the 1960 film begins.

The blu-ray set is a two-disc set that can be purchased individually or as part of the complete series release. The discs are packaged in their own keep case. The A/V quality continues to be extremely good, ensuring the episodes look and sound great in HD. The bonus features are a bit more robust for the final season, including deleted scenes for every episode and a gag reel spanning the entire five-season run of the series. There are also a couple of featurettes that serve as series retrospectives, featuring interviews with cast members and creators looking back on the show's legacy, fandom, and more.

The series continues to be very well written and very well acted in its final year. Everyone does a great job in their respective roles, but Vera Farmiga is the absolute standout of the season. She does a great job transitioning from playing the living Norma Bates to playing "Mother," the internalized version of Norma that Norman interacts with as his alternate identity. Freddie Highmore does a lot of heavy lifting as well. Several scenes transition between Highmore and Farmiga acting as "Mother," so they had to coordinate their performances to look seamless (which you see a bit of in the bonus material). The writers do a fantastic job of keeping the suspense high while delivering a satisfying conclusion to this modern-day reimagining. Ultimately, if you are a fan of the series, you absolutely have to watch the final season to see how it all ends, and it makes a perfect conclusion to your physical media collection.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Frasier: Season 11

 

The 24-episode 11th and final season of Frasier aired during the 2003/2004 TV season. All the primary cast members returned for the final season, and several recurring cast members from throughout the series' run also returned, including Dan Butler, Harriet Sansom, and Anthony LaPaglia. Felicity Huffman continued in her recurring role early in the season, and later in the season, Laura Linney and Wendie Malick had major recurring roles that carried through to the end of the series. The series brought in several recognizable guest stars this season, including Patrick Stewart, Julia Sweeney, Penny Johnson Jerald, Sarah Silverman, Laurie Metcalf, Jennifer Tilly, Krista Allen, Rosie Perez, Stephen Root, Aaron Eckhart, Jason Biggs, and Jennifer Beals. This season also featured Bebe Neuwirth making her final appearance as Lilith in a funny and touching episode. The celebrity voice cameos for the guest callers this season included Benjamin Bratt, Stanley Tucci, Penny Marshall, Hillary Duff, and Helen Mirren.

The show continued to blend story-of-the-week procedural storylines with longer story arcs. There is a multi-episode arc in the middle of the season involving Maris (who we still do not see), which wraps up her storyline in the series. The large arcs this season involve Niles and Daphne becoming parents and Martin finding love. The season itself was mainly good, but I think the writers dropped the ball with a potential major storyline for Roz, which was set up in the season 10 finale. Despite that, the writers do an excellent job of wrapping up the story arcs for several characters; however, not everything is tied up in a neat bow, and while it does not end on a total cliffhanger (in the conventional sense), viewers are left to wonder how things play out. There are some absolutely funny moments, including a great joke that breaks the fourth wall about playing the same character for 20 years, and there are some touching moments, especially at the end.

As of this writing, the individual seasons remain available only on DVD as a four-disc set. The Blu-rays are only included in the complete series box set, with the 11th-season episodes spread over three discs that are held in their own keep case. There are a couple of bonus features on the final Blu-ray disc that serve as series retrospectives and include interviews with cast, writers, and producers. The A/V quality of the Blu-rays is very good, and because this season was produced later in the show's original run, there are fewer flaws in the video quality than there were in the earlier seasons.

While the series was at the end of its historic run and was beginning to get a bit stale by the 11th season, it remained a very well-written and well-acted sitcom. All of the actors did a great job in their various roles. Ultimately, it is absolutely worth watching to see how the series is wrapped up.

DVD/Movie Review: Ghosts Can't Do It

 

Ghosts Can't Do It is the 1989 film that was billed as a romantic fantasy comedy. It is debatable whether it was romantic and was certainly not a comedy, at least not in the traditional sense anyway. It was written and directed by John Derek, and it was his final movie. The film stars Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn, and Don Murray in the leading roles. The supporting cast includes Leo Damian and Julie Newmar, and features a cameo appearance by the orange genital wart itself (IYKYK), which earned it a worst supporting actor nomination. 

The plot involves a wealthy elderly man named Scott (played by Quinn) who is married to a much younger woman named Katie (played by Bo Derek). After Scott suffers a heart attack that leaves him physically incapacitated and unable to consummate their relationship, he commits suicide, but returns to Katie as a ghost that only she can see and hear. Together, the two plot to find a young, attractive man whose body Scott can possess so he can be with his wife physically once again, leading to a series of bizarre encounters in various exotic locations.

The DVD set is a single-disc, bare-bones release that offers little in terms of physical media quality. The DVD's A/V quality is horrible, and the overall image looks much more like a standard VHS transfer than a proper digital release. Not surprisingly, there are no bonus features or extras on the disc; you simply get the movie itself.

The film is awful, with a stupid script and horrible acting, which is pretty much par for the course for most of the movies that John Derek wrote and directed. It is only funny in the comically bad sense. It is another movie that was clearly just a vehicle to show Bo Derek nude. While she looked spectacular, the nude scenes in this one made absolutely no sense. The scenes where it would have made logical sense to have nudity often did not, and in other scenes she would just randomly take her clothes off for no apparent reason. Ultimately, the movie absolutely deserved all the "Razzie" nominations it received, and unless you like watching cheesy old movies in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" kind of way, you will not miss anything by skipping this one.