DVD/TV Series Review: Designated Survivor: Season 1

 

Designated Survivor was a show about a HUD Secretary named Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland, Kirkman is named the Designated Survivor (the one cabinet member that does not attend the State of the Union) and becomes President when a terrorist attack wipes out the entire government (almost) on an attack on the Capitol during the State of the Union address. 

The first season of the show intertwines two storylines. The first was trying to figure out who was behind the attack on the Capitol. The second storyline involved Kirkman figuring out how to be President, and trying to rebuild the government, as well as trying to run the country with the majority of the government gone. The two storylines largely remained parallel to each other, only intersecting at certain times. Maggie Q, arguably the second lead of the series, plays FBI agent Hannah Wells, who was the lead agent trying to figure out the conspiracy. The White House Staff included Adan Canto (playing the Chief of Staff Aaron Shore), Italia Ricci (playing Advisor Emily Rhodes), LaMonica Garret, (who played lead Secret Service Agent Mike Ritter), and Kal Penn (who played Press Secretary Seth Wright). Penn was also a consultant on the show and provided knowledge of his time working in the White House.  The rest of the cast was rounded out by character actors including Natascha McElhone as the first lady, McKenna Grace and Tanner Buchanan as Kirkman's son and daughter, Malik Yoba as FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood, Reed Diamond as the FBI's version of the head of Internal Affairs, and Virginia Madsen as Congresswoman Virginal Hookstraten, who was the Republican Designated Survivor.

For those who get the DVD set, the 21 episodes are spread across five discs. There are only a handful of extras including the entire first speech Kirkman makes after being sworn in, a set tour hosted by LaMonica Garret, and a making-of featurette that features interviews with the cast and the showrunners.

Overall, the first season is very good, and in some ways was very prophetic in the storyline about the conspiracy to overthrow the government. Fortunately, the dipshits that tried it in real life were not as good at it as those in the series. My only real complaint about the first season is that they revealed too much too soon. Much of the conspiracy storyline is revealed by the end of the season, and I think that could have been saved a bit for season two. Otherwise, though, Sutherland does a great job as the series lead. This is really his first major role since his time as Jack Bauer ended, and it is always hard to see (and hear) him without thinking of Jack Bauer. But, he does a good job not playing the part of Kirkman as Jack Bauer as President. So, if you like political dramas with some action and suspense mixed in, this is definitely worth watching.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 6

For Day 6 in Beginner Pilates, the workout is the Abs and Core workout. This one is short, just over 23 minutes, and focuses on just ab/core exercises. Although a couple of the moves in the workout also work hamstring flexibility and the lower back (which is a part of the core anyway). The moves are challenging, but doable. I did have to skip a couple of reps in some of the moves a couple of times, but for the most part, I could get through everything.

Day 6 in Lift-4 is another recovery day so I again did the flexibility workout and then the Roll and Recover workout. I do wish that they would have made each of those workouts a little longer...maybe 15 minutes each so that they could incorporate a few more moves and stretch a couple of other body parts. But otherwise, I think those are both good workouts.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 5

 Day 5 for Beginner Pilates was the Fundamentals 2 workout. This was supposed to be the workout on Thursday, but I accidentally mixed them up, so I just did this one today and moved on. Shockingly, I am seeing tiny gains in my flexibility even after the first week. On the modified roll-up, when I stretch forward I can get a little (and I stress a little) a bit farther with my reach. Even when I was a kid, and was much more flexible than I am as an adult, I could never do that seated stretch worth a damn. When we had to do that fitness test in school and had to sit with our feet against the box and move the slider at the top, I could barely reach the slider, much less move it. 

The Lift 4 workout was legs, which was a 50/50 lifting and cardio workout. For this one, there are three blocks of two different leg exercises. You do 10 reps of each exercise and then rest, and then repeat for three rounds. Then, after you get through the three blocks of leg exercises you do cardio. There are three cardio exercises you cycle through, high knee jog for 1-minute, a move where you keep your knees two inches off the floor and hop side-to-side for 45 seconds, and then squat jacks for 30 seconds. You do three rounds of the cardio, and then you alternate two different core exercises (a version of a crunch and plank leg lifts). So, it is another brutal workout that will have you gassed by the end of it. 

Product Review: Filtrete 16x25x1 Air Filter, MPR 1200, Allergen Defense Odor Reduction, 2-Pack

 

These filters are good if you have a newer, higher-efficiency furnace. If your furnace is older (manufactured and/or installed around the year 2000), especially a lower-end model, then chances are it will not provide enough airflow through these to make them worth using. But, once you do have a newer furnace, these are a good option. They are a bit more expensive than the very cheap filters, but they also trap a lot more.

Book Review: Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View (A New Hope)

 

From a Certain Point of View is a collection of short stories set during A New Hope, but told from the perspective of characters that were ancillary and/or in the background of the various scenes. For example, the first story is told from the point of view of Raymus Antillies who was the officer on board Princess Leia's ship whom Darth Vader kills after he comes aboard looking for the Death Star plans. There is also a story from the point of view of the droid with the bad motivator that allows R2 to be purchased by Owen and a story from the point of view of one of the Jawas. We also get a story from the point of view of the stormtroopers who got mind-tricked by Obi-Wan, and a couple of stories set inside the cantina. There are also stories that include Qui-Gon (appearing as a force ghost to Obi-Wan) and Palpatine after Vader informs him of Obi-Wan's death.

The book is very entertaining. Some of the stories are better than others, but I would not say that there are any bad stories among the bunch. Of course, none of the stories change the plot of A New Hope but do flesh out the story a bit. It will appeal to most Star Wars fans, but will probably appeal the most to the people in their 40s and 50s who grew up on the original trilogy. The book is almost 500 pages long, and the stories vary in length. On the whole, it is a fairly easy read, although some of the stories are easier to get through than others. I definitely recommend it. 

Product Review: Dickies Men's Dri-tech Moisture Control Crew Socks Multipack

 

I live in the northern part of the country where it can get very cold in the winter, even inside the house. These socks are great for keeping your feet warm, without making them sweat. They are good for just lounging around the house, or you can even work out in them comfortably. Definitely a good pickup.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Gifted

 

Gifted is a great movie starring Chris Evans (in a role that is the polar opposite of his Marvel action roles) and McKenna Grace, in one of her first major movie roles. Evans stars as Frank Adler, a single guy working on a boat and is the guardian of his seven-year-old niece, Mary (played by Grace), whose mother Diane, who was a math prodigy committed suicide when Mary was six months old. Mary, like her mother, is a math genius who relates more to adults (her best friend is her neighbor played by Octavia Spencer) than she does to kids her own age. Frank wants to put her in public school and give her as normal a life as possible, while his mother, played by Lindsay Duncan, wants to put Mary in a school for gifted kids. The movie is basically an emotional drama that deals with the custody fight between Frank and his mother, Mary trying to cope with being a seven-year-old who is as smart as many 30-year-olds but is still emotionally a kid, and all of them trying to figure out how to have normal relationships with each other and other people. 

The A/V quality of the blu-ray transfer is good, but not outstanding. Of course, there are no big-budget special effects so for all but the die-hard video wonks, the A/V quality is likely going to be perfectly fine. The disc is pretty light on bonus features. The most extensive is a 13-minute HBO first look, and then 8 minutes of deleted scenes. Then there are a series of short promotional featurettes and the trailer. The total running time of the extras is a little over a half hour. While there are not a lot of extras, what is included is good.

Overall, the movie is very good. Grace is most definitely the stand-out, easily able to go from being an immature kid to someone who is more mature than a lot of adults with ease. Evans also does a very good job in a movie that is outside the genre for which he is known, as does Jenny Slate who plays one of Mary's teachers and a love interest for Frank. Grace and Evans have great chemistry together, and Octavia Spencer does a very good job in her relatively small role. It is definitely a movie worth watching if you are looking for a good drama.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 4

Day 4 was supposed to be Fundamentals 2 again in Beginner Pilates, but I kind of accidentally and then on purpose did the Hips, Buns, and Thighs workout instead. Meaning, at first I thought that was today's scheduled workout, was glad to see it was 27 minutes long because I had a work call get scheduled last minute, and by the time I realized I was not doing the correct workout, I was not going to switch. I will say that this is much harder than either of the Fundamentals workouts and there were a couple of times when I had to pause and skip a rep. 

The Lift-4 workout was shoulders, which is an interval workout. There are three rounds. In each round you do two shoulder exercises (ten reps each, without rest in between) then you do a 30-second HITT cardio exercise. After the cardio move, you get a 30-second rest and then repeat everything two more times and then move to the next round. In the first round, you do shoulder presses and upright rows for the lifting moves, and then the cardio move is a quick jump-step kind of thing. In round two you do front raises and lateral raises for the lifting moves and burpees for the cardio move. In the third round, you do wide front raises and what Joel calls shoulder flys in which you start with your arms bent at 90 degrees out in front of you so your hands are at forehead level and your elbows are basically touching, then you open your arms so that your hands move to either side of your head and your elbows stay high at the same height as your armpits. Then, the cardio move is plyometric lunges. 

Once you get through the three rounds, you do two core exercises, back-to-back for three rounds. The first is that you lay on your back and kick your feet in a scissor motion (kind of like the Pfeiffer scissors from P90x, but your feet stay about six inches off the ground as opposed to kicking your legs and feet up high and you kick your feet fast), and the second is a sit-up variation. It is another tough workout that will have you gassed by the end of it. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Emerald City: Season 1

 

Emerald City is a trippy and sometimes very odd reimaging of the Land of Oz based on the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. In this adaptation, set in the modern day (as of 2017 anyway), Dorothy is a nurse in Kansas played by Jessica Alba lookalike Adria Arjona, who still gets transported to Oz via a tornado (although the circumstances are much different than in the movie), and still kills the Wicked Witch of the East (who is conveniently named East). But in this adaptation, East's death sets off a war between witches and the Wizard (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) which Dorothy into which Dorothy is thrown in the middle. Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays Lucas, a strange man with no memory (who is clearly an analog for The Scarecrow from the movie) who accompanies Dorothy through Oz.

The show looks and sounds great on blu-ray. There are, of course, a ton of special effects that make for really good visuals. The extras include a handful of short deleted scenes and a five-part making-of-documentary that runs about 45 minutes, give or take, in total. So, not a ton of extras, but what was included is good.

Chances are a lot of people who watch this will either love the show or hate it. It definitely tells a much different story than what was told in the movie. There is also a lot of violence and some sexual content. While there is no real nudity or explicit sex, it does push the boundaries of what could be shown on regular network tv, including a covered handjob. So, needless to say, this is not going to appeal to everyone and is not something that is appropriate for younger kids. I personally liked the fact that it included more characters than the movie did, and incorporated some of the neighboring kingdoms around Oz into the story. I think Arjona did a good job playing the series lead, but the entire cast including Joely Richardson, Stefanie Martini, and Isabel Lucas, did a good job in their roles. The show was canceled after just ten episodes and the writers were clearly setting up a second season, so if you do watch the show and like it, it may be a bit unfulfilling. 

Book Review: Disloyal: A Memoir

 

Disloyal is a must-read behind-the-curtain look at the orange genital wart and his company as seen through the eyes of his attorney/thug/executive vice president (which was really just a paper title), Michael Cohen. Cohen details how he ended up in the dipshit's orbit, discusses what he did in the company (or "for the boss"), and provides an insider's view of the things he saw and did. Most importantly, does not pretend to know things he was not privy to. Cohen does not portray himself as a hero in any way, shape, or form, which lends credibility to the claims he makes. 

The book talks about Cohen's early life in NY, his role as a hanger-on to anyone with power, criminal status or not, the life he had carved out for himself before he was pulled into the orbit of t***p, what he did for t***p, and how everything fell apart for him when the hammer of the DOJ came down on him, and how he was essentially left out to dry. Some of the interesting things from the book is how working for t***p, even before it was widely known what scum he actually was, drove a wedge between Cohen and his family. Cohen does a bit of a mea-culpa in the book saying he did things for t***p that he knows is wrong, and that he knew was wrong as he did them, but he was so enamored with proximity to power that he did not care, and totally ignored the fact that it was taking a toll on his family life, especially during the presidential campaign. 

Cohen describes his role as not just a fixer, cleaning up t***p's messes like hiding the fact that he fucked Stormy Daniels and had an ongoing affair with former Playmate, Karen McDougal, but he also played a much larger role in t***p's run for President than is widely known. While you do have to take what Cohen says with a bit of a grain of salt, because there was not ever much of a paper trail in t***pworld, he does admit that he did not know everything he was speculated to know and clearly states what he was and more importantly was not privy to and provides receipts in the form of email chains, including emails that were printed out that t***p clearly wrote notes on in sharpie, which lends credence to his allegations.

While Cohen does explain why he ultimately decided to cooperate with the DOJ and plead guilty to the crimes he was indicted for, (which according to Cohen was supposed to be three counts when he was offered the deal and then was bumped up to eight counts the day he was to plead), which was to save his wife from being charged with tax fraud as well, he never explains why he went all-in and called out t***p for being a racist, a xenophobe, and all of the things that he has said about him since he testified publically before Congress.

As I said above, you do have to take what Cohen says with a bit of a grain of salt, as he clearly has reason to be bitter with t***p. Cohen does admit that he was not a good guy in the story, which is clear when he admits to being more pissed off about t***p stiffing him on his year-end bonus after he covered up the Stormy Daniels story by paying her off with his own money than he was when t***p would say racist shit. He admits that he was working to get a t***p tower in Moscow built during the presidential run, but denies that he was ever meeting with the Russians to help them interfere in the 2016 election. He admits that everyone, including t***p, expected to lose the election and he 100% believes it was Comey's interference more than anything Russia was able to do that swung what was always going to be a close election t***p's way. He also fully admitted to being a member of t***p's cult long before the legions of MAGATs jumped on board, and provides a very prophetic warning that t***p would never willingly give up power if he lost the 2020 election, which, of course, we know was absolutely true. 

The book is 368 pages with an appendix that has images of various documents that runs another 60 pages, give or take. It can easily be read in a week or so, depending on how fast you read and how much time you have to read.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 3

Day 3 was a total flexibility day. For Beginner Pilates it was back to the Fundamentals 1 workout and for Lift-4 it was a recovery day, so that means you can rest or do one or both of the recovery workouts. I decided to do both recovery workouts, first doing Lift-4 stretch and then doing the roll and recovery (which is the foam roller routine). While I cannot say that I noticed a marked change in my flexibility, but I can feel, especially after the foam roller routine, that my hamstrings and hips are a bit less tight. I still have way too much gut (along with the tight back, hamstrings, and hips) to make any of the forward-folding moves easy, and many times I cannot get my hands much past my knees. But, I have a feeling, with all the flexibility work that this doubles routine will have, that I will see improvement week-to-week. 

DVD/TV Series Review: Hunted

 

Hunted is a 2012 series starring Australian Actress Melissa George, who is probably best known (at least in the US) for her role in the series Alias from 2003-2004. The series is short, with just eight episodes on two discs. 

In the series, George plays Samantha (Sam) Hunter, who is a spy for a private espionage firm named Byzantium. While on a mission in Tangiers she is attacked and shot. Believing that she was set up by someone in Byzantium, she goes off the radar for a year she returns to the agency determined to figure out who set her up. She is also tasked with a new mission to go undercover as the nanny/tutor of the son of a former high-level criminal who is bidding on a Dam in Pakistan. 

For those who get the DVD set, it is just a MOD set with the episodes only. There are no extras or bonus material. The show has a good mix of action and suspense, with some twists and turns along the way. Because it got canceled pretty early into its run, not everything gets wrapped up in a nice bow by the end. Although, it does not end on a major cliffhanger either. There is brief nudity in the first episode, but after that, there is not a ton of sexual content (especially for a series that ran on Cinemax). George does a good job as the series lead and the show has a good supporting cast including Adam Raymer and Stephen Dillane. 

The series is good but was really never given a chance to find its footing. So the fact that it ends with a lot of open and unresolved questions may prevent some people from really enjoying it. There were rumors in the years after the show was canceled about a season two or a movie to at the very least bring back the character of Sam, but those never came to fruition. So just be aware, if you watch this, that the series just kind of ends without much of a payoff. 

DVD/TV Series Review: American Dad!: Volume 11

 

Volume 11 of American Dad! continues the crazy episode selection for the DVD releases. As most are likely aware, as has been the case with the Family Guy DVD releases, early on, instead of just releasing Season 1, Season 2,...etc., they released volumes that had episodes from different seasons. It does not help that after the show started airing on Hulu, they tweaked what episodes were a part of particular seasons. What is clear is that this set has the last three episodes that aired on FOX (some places list those as the final three episodes of Season 9, others call them Season 11) and then the first 15 episodes that aired on TBS after the show was moved from FOX to TBS (which in some places are listed as Season 10 episodes and in other places listed as Season 12 episodes). At any rate, this set has 18 total episodes.

As for the episodes themselves, they are pretty much as they have been the past few seasons, self-contained plots within the episodes with occasional callbacks to things that occurred in prior episodes. Different episodes tend to focus on different characters, although pretty much every episode at this point involves Roger and one of his personas. There is less of a focus on Stan's job at the CIA, which is what I liked about the first few seasons, and focuses on the more silly, crazy things that happen in the show (like Jeff being abducted by aliens and the evil Kris Kringle episodes).

The DVD set just has the episodes themselves. There are no extras like commentary tracks, interviews with the cast or writers, or things like that which were included in earlier season releases. You do, however, get uncensored episodes which include uncensored jokes and swearing that gets bleeped out on the broadcast and streaming versions of the show. If you do not care about the uncensored episodes, however, you will not get anything more by getting the discs versus just streaming the show.

Ultimately, you probably know by now if you like the show or not. It has been on the air long enough that some people might be getting tired of it or may fall in the category of they just don't like it as much as they did in the beginning. While I definitely liked the first couple of seasons more than I do the later seasons, I still find the show, on the whole, to be funny and entertaining. It is definitely not a cartoon that is suitable for young kids as it has a lot of raunchy jokes that definitely push the bounds of what the writers could get away with. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 2

For the morning workout on day 2 of the doubles workouts, I did Pilates Fundamentals 2. It is much like the first workout in which you do a series of moves that will lead up to doing "regular" versions of the moves in a more flowing sequence down the line. In this workout, Lisa Hubbard again modifies all of the moves and shows unmodified versions for people who do not have tight backs, hamstrings, and/or hips (which is definitely not me).  I would not say that I noticed any marked increase in my flexibility from day 1 to day 2, but I would not expect that to be the case anyway.

Then, for the PM workout, I did Lift 4's back and bicep workout. This workout is a circuit workout that consists of two blocks of four exercises that alternate between a back exercise and a bicep exercise. There are three rounds of each block, and you do not rest at all between exercises, but you do get 30 seconds to rest between the rounds. 

The first block consists of wide back rows, open arm bicep curls (if you have done P90x you will recognize those), standard back rows, and hammer curls. The second block consists of dumbbell pullovers, top-only bicep curls (you start with the weights by your shoulders and lower them halfway), back flys, and bottom-only bicep curls (start with the weights low and raise them halfway). 

After you do those rounds you alternate between a move that is a cross between the cobra from yoga and the supermans from P90x and then do as many bicep curls as you can for 30 seconds. You do three rounds of those and then finish the workout by alternating two core exercises for three rounds. The first core exercise is a sit-up in which you bring your elbow as close to the opposite knee as you can, and then you do planks for 30 seconds. 

While this workout has no HITT cardio in it, the workout is very hard and you get tired very easily. I would suggest picking lighter weights to use than you think you need because, with no rest between the exercise sets, the weights get really heavy, really fast. And, your heart rate does get up there so you do not really miss the cardio. There is again a modifier in the workout that you can follow if you need to. One observation about this workout is that you really need a selection of free weights. A set of selectable dumbbells like the Bowflex SelectTechs would not really work for this workout because you really do not have time to re-rack the dumbbells and select the new weight before they move on to the next exercise. Just something to keep in mind if you want to do this program.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Baywatch

 

Baywatch is a 2017 movie that partly pays homage to and partly spoofs the long-running 1990s TV show of the same name. The movie stars Dwyane Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock) as Mitch Buchannon, the leader of a team of lifeguards in Emerald Bay that includes veterans Stephanie Holden (played by Ilfenesh Hadera) and C.J. Parker (played by Kelly Rohrbach, taking over the role played by Pamela Anderson in the show). The team holds tryouts for three open positions, that ultimately are filled with characters played by Alexandra Daddario, John Bass (who is pretty much the comic relief of the movie), and Zach Efron, who plays a former Olympic swimmer named Matt Brody, and is the butt of Mitch's constant jokes.

The plot of the movie involves the team having to solve a murder that involves a wider criminal plot. The other cast members include Priyanka Chopra, Rob Huebel, Hannibal Buress, and Oscar Nunez, and does have cameo appearances by Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff. You can watch the rated/theatrical version or the unrated/extended edition (which does not really add much to the story, just has a few more jokes.

For those who get the 4k set, there are two discs, a UHD disc, which just includes the movie, and a regular blu-ray disc with the movie and the bonus material. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is outstanding. Both the picture and sound are great, especially if you have a large screen and a decent sound system. There are a handful of extras which include a 21-minute feature on the various characters, a 10-minute feature on a look at the show's legacy and how the movie tried to pay homage to that, a 10-minute feature on the stunts, and then about 10 minutes of deleted and extended scenes.

The movie is basically an action-comedy, with the comedy being on the more raunchy side. So, it is definitely not a movie that will appeal to everyone. It has a bunch of ridiculously good-looking people in it, which is really the main attraction. It is definitely not an award-winner by any stretch of the imagination. But, if you take it for what it is, and do not expect it to be more than what it is, it is enjoyable. 

Product Review: UHMER Silicone Spoon Rest for Kitchen

 

This is a great kitchen accessory that allows you to put spatulas, whisks, or any other type of cooking utensil that you might set on your counter (and hence get it dirty) while cooking. There are four slots in which you can put longer-handled items like spatulas in, and then there is enough room on the larger side that you can set a regular fork or spoon. Then, after you are done cooking you can rinse this off, wash it with soap and water, or put it in the dishwasher. It is made of silicon so it is heat-resistant and easy to clean. If you are one who hates constantly wiping down counters, especially when food or sauces have dried and started to stick, I definitely recommend this.

DVD/TV Series Review: Chicago Med: Season 2

 

The second season of Chicago Med follows the same format as season 1. It is mostly a case-of-the-week procedural show in which one or two big cases come through the emergency department, with smaller cases interspersed throughout the episodes to give all the characters some screen time. There are also storylines that play out throughout the course of the season, mostly involving the personal or professional lives of the characters, which is when the show can get a bit soap operaish. Some of the character dynamics shift in season two with Reece (Rachel DiPillo) joining Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) in psychiatry as a resident, Dr. Choi (Brian Tee) is now the chief emergency resident, which results in some tension with Dr. Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss), and Dr. Rhodes (Colin Donnel) gets a new boss with whom he immediately clashes with. Dr. Rhodes also starts seeing Dr. Charles' daughter, Robyn, played by Mekia Cox, which causes all sorts of issues throughout the season. 

The DVD set just has the 23 episodes spread across six discs. There are no extras or special features at all. Also, there is no big crossover this season with the other One-Chicago shows, but characters from both Chicago PD and Chicago Fire do appear in smaller cameo or guest-starring roles throughout the season.

The show continues to be strong in its second season. Like ER (which to me, is the standard by which all medical dramas should be compared), it mostly focuses on the medical cases, but as I said above, it can get a bit soap operaish. The writing and acting are both strong and the writers do a good job of giving the large ensemble cast material to work with. The season ends on a very large cliffhanger that will undoubtedly reverberate going into season three. So, if you liked season 1, then it is definitely worth sticking with the show in season two.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 1

Day 1 is now in the books. In the morning, the workout was the Pilates fundamentals 1 workout. If you have ever done Pilates before, the trainer, Lisa Hubbard, takes you through a series of moves that will build you to being able to do moves like The Hundred, The Roll Up, etc. Basically, taking you through the moves in stages so that (seemingly) in the later workouts you can put them together to do the actual moves. While the workout is totally low-impact and focuses on core strength and flexibility, you do feel like you did something productive by the end. Hubbard is a good trainer, and the workout features just her as opposed to teaching a class, and she assumes that the people doing the workout have not done any Pilates and are not very flexible. So while she says things like you can extend your legs on certain stretches if you are able to, she basically shows all modified moves. She is in fantastic shape (she was 51 whenever the videos were made, but easily looks like she is in her 30s) but does a great job showing people who are not in as great shape as she is how to do the moves. And, this is a bodyweight-only workout, so you do not need any special equipment (aside from a mat) to do it.

Then, in the evening, I did the first regular Lift 4 workout, which was chest and triceps 50/50. The first part of the workout is three rounds of three supersets in which you alternate a chest exercise and a triceps exercise with very little rest in between. The first superset is ten reps of bench presses followed almost immediately by ten reps of skull crushers. You do that three times, and then the next superset is ten reps of chest flys followed by ten reps of tricep presses, which you do three times, and then the last superset is ten reps of rotational chest presses in which you turn the weights parallel at the end of the reps, followed by 10 tricep pushups. Once you get through all that, you get to the HITT portion of the workout in which you do three exercises back-to-back, the first (and the easiest) being soccer-juggle type kicks for 1 minute, mountain climbers/plank runs for 45 seconds, and then what in Max 30 is called plank-to-squats, but what in Lift 4 are called catchers. You get 15 seconds between each of the cardio exercises, but by the third round that barely helps. After the cardio portion, you do three rounds of two ab exercises, in which you leg climbers for 30 seconds and then windshield wipers with your legs for 30 seconds, again doing three rounds. 

The workout was great but it is really tough. Because you are going through the rounds with barely any rest, you really want to lift a bit lighter weights than you otherwise would and then figure out if you need to increase or decrease from there. This is a true circuit workout, even moreso than P90x which has a lot longer breaks between the moves. This one definitely keeps you moving. The trainer, Joel Freeman mostly walks around to the other cast members doing the workout to explain form and to show how the modified moves are done (there is a dedicated modifier). But, he does do some of the moves from time to time. It is a workout that will kick your ass and the good thing is that it is set up so that none of the workouts repeat over the course of the eight weeks. 

So, hopefully, by the end of these 8 weeks, I will be more flexible because of Pilates and somewhat from Lift 4, because they do a bit of stretching at the end of every Lift 4 workout, have a stronger core, and continue to increase my cardio strength. And, of course, hopefully, I will be able to drop a bit of weight in the process (or at least lose some inches). 

Blu-Ray/ TV Series Review: Prison Break: Seasons 1-4 and Event Series Collection

 

The marketing of this set calls it a complete series, and it is almost the complete series. The made-for-TV movie called "The Final Break" which is set between a time jump that occurs in the original series finale is missing from the set. So, this set is really just a repackaging of seasons 1-4 of the show and the limited event series, which is essentially the fifth season. The Final Break movie is a bit out of place given that the show did get revived for the fifth season, but that is available separately on Blu-Ray for those who want it.

Prison Break was a show that aired from 2005-2009 on FOX (for its original run) and then was revived in 2017 for a nine-episode run. It was insanely popular during the first season, and its popularity started to wane as the seasons went on. The series opens with a man named Michael Schofield, played by Wentworth Miller, committing armed robbery and waiting for the police to arrive and arrest him. The show then fast forwards through the trial to his conviction and he is then sentenced to Fox River State Penitentiary, where we learn that his brother Lincoln Burrows, Played by Dominic Purcell, is on death row for the murder of the Vice President of the United States' brother. Michael is convinced Lincoln is innocent, and also happens to be a structural engineer who has tattooed the plans for the prison all over his body. He then hatches an elaborate plan, that takes place over the course of the season, to escape with his brother. It is only a slight spoiler to say that the escape happens, and the subsequent seasons involve the escapees (there are more than two) trying to evade capture, and Michael trying to uncover the conspiracy that led to his brother being framed for murder. 

As I noted, this just has the individual seasons packaged in one set. So if you already bought the blu-rays, you are not getting anything more from this set aside from the collectible outer box. Thus, the A/V quality of the seasons is the same (and very good) and all of the extras (which are extensive, especially in the early seasons) carry over. There are commentary tracks on several episodes throughout the series, making of featurettes, deleted scenes, and the like. 

The series is very good overall but does have its ups and downs. Season 3 was probably the worst season of the bunch, and I personally thought that the limited event series was unnecessary. Miller and Purcell did a great job as the series leads, and the show had a strong supporting cast throughout its run that included Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper, Robin Tunney, Peter Stormare, Wade Williams, Sarah Wayne Callies, Paul Adelstein, William Fichtner, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Michael Rappaport. While the show did take some logical leaps, it was mostly well-written and always well-acted. So, if you like crime dramas that have longer and more involved serial arcs as opposed to procedurals that wrap up a case at the end of each episode, this is a good one. It is a good show to binge because there are a lot of twists and turns and callbacks to things that occurred in prior episodes. It is definitely worth watching. 

Video Game Review: Star Wars Battlefront

 

I would describe Battlefront as more of a nostalgia fest for fans than it is a game with a compelling storyline. Battlefront basically lets you play as the Rebels or the Empire at various locations from the original and sequel trilogies (depending on which version of the game you have), and if you have the ultimate edition, from Rogue One. It allows you to play as "heroes" like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Jyn Erso, Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine, etc., and also features non-playable yet still well-known characters like Jabba the Hutt and C3P0.

Basically, the game shifts between battlefronts (the front lines of the various battles from the movies) and allows you to play as the characters. This does not have an original storyline that you have to navigate through as there is in some of the other Star Wars games. This is basically a first-person or third-person (If you chose that mode) or multiplayer "shooter" game set in the Star Wars Universe. It will appeal to some people and others will probably get bored of it after a while. There are missions that you have to solve in order to get to the next battlefront, such as using the speeders to take out a certain number of AT-AT walkers on Hoth, defending or capturing the rebel bases, etc. 

I would not say the game is a must-have or a must-play. If you are a fan of the movies it is a fun way to actually play out the stories, at least a bit. If you are just a casual fan of the movies (or are not a fan of them at all), however, then this is probably not going to do much for you.

Workout Update: Transition Day 2

For today's workout, I did one of the B4 Lift 4 workouts, specifically, the shoulders and arms workout. This is a very short, just 20 minutes, circuit workout in which you do three sets of a resistance exercise (shoulder presses, bicep curls, and triceps kickbacks), and in between each set, you do 30 seconds of HIIT cardio (burpee/squats, squat jumps, and wide plank runs/mountain climbers). So, basically, you do 10 reps of the resistance move, then 30 seconds of the cardio move, then 10 reps of the resistance move, then 30 seconds of the cardio move, and then 10 reps of the resistance move, and finish with 30 seconds of the cardio move. Each time, you rest less in between moves so on the final round of the circuit you do the resistance move and then immediately go into the cardio move. So, it definitely gets your heart rate up. The workout finishes with two different core-focused moves that you do back-to-back, for 30 seconds each move, again doing three rounds. There is one person in the group modifying by using bands and doing lower-impact versions of the cardio moves.  From looking at the workout calendar for Lift 4 it appears that some of the "regular" workouts follow this format while others do all the resistance moves first, then all the cardio after the resistance moves are finished. Tomorrow is day 1 with Beginner Pilates in the morning and then the Lift 4 chest and triceps workout in the evening. 

DVD/TV Series Review: Bones: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains minor spoilers from season 1, but no major season two giveaways +++

The second season of Bones mostly follows the story/case-of-the-week procedural format that season one did with Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) solving some murder but also introduces a new storyline that would span multiple seasons and expanded on a couple of season one storylines. The show would also introduce a new character, Dr. Camille Saroyan, played by Tamara Taylor, who takes over as the new head of the forensic division with the departure of Jonathan Adams and his character, Dr. Goodman.

From the first season, the character of serial killer Howard Epps returns for two more episodes in season two to terrorize the team and the storyline of Brennan's parents is furthered with Ryan O'Neal joining as the recurring Max Brennan, Temperance's fugitive father. This season also establishes a new serial killer known as Gravedigger in an episode in which the team has to find two kids who have been buried alive. The season also explores the various character relationships and still develops the main characters. Thankfully, they dropped Brennan's habit from the first season of saying she does not understand some cultural reference (seemingly) every ten seconds. She still does it (or remarks that she understands a particular reference) but not nearly as much. We also get a bit more of the backgrounds of the ancillary characters, which includes a great cameo by Billy Gibbon of the band ZZ Top playing Angela's father, and the great British actor Stephen Fry playing Booth's psychiatrist.

For those who get the DVD set, there are a decent amount of extras spread across the six discs. Those include deleted scenes, a gag reel, a couple of making-of featurettes, and commentary tracks on two episodes. So, if you are one who likes watching the bonus content, what is included is good. And, thankfully, they did away with the double-sided DVDs of season 1.

To me, the show really finds its footing in the second season. While most of the characters continue as they were presented in season one, I think the tweaks to the character of Brennan, making her a little less robotic than she was in the first season worked out well. She is still quirky, but she is given more range as a character than just the ultra-logical character she was in the first season, and Emily Deschanel does a great job playing her. Boreanaz also does a great job showing the acting range he was rarely able to show playing Angel. The supporting cast members are all great, with T.J. Thyne and Michaela Conlin stealing nearly every scene they are in, as does Stephen Fry when he makes his appearances as Gordon Wyatt. Tamara Taylor also brings a bit more balance to the team of "squints" with Camille being a more normal, nonquirky character. Thyne and Eric Millegan also have really good chemistry and even though their characters are total opposites, you can buy that they are actually buddies and would totally pull some of the stunts that the characters do in the show. So, if you liked season one you will probably like season two. If you were on the fence about the show after the first season, I would advise giving season two a chance as the rough edges from season one have been smoothed out this season.

 

Workout Update: Transition Day 1

Merry Christmas, everyone (for those who celebrate). For those who don't, happy Sunday!

Yesterday, I did the two flexibility/recovery workouts from Lift 4. They are both short, a 9-minute flexibility workout and a 10-minute foam rolling workout. Lift 4 is a workout that has four workout days (M, T, Th, and F), and then three recovery days in which you can do one or both of the recovery workouts, or just do nothing at all. Both of the recovery workouts are good. I recommend doing the flexibility workout first because there is a bit of a warmup that gets your muscles warm and blood flowing, whereas the foam roller workout pretty much starts right in. The foam rolling workout focuses entirely on the legs, back, and hips, which are the areas that most people need to focus on when doing foam rolling.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 53

Day 53 was the last day of this hybrid workout, with the last Friday Fight 2. I was able to again Max Out ten minutes in (10:36 to be exact) while mostly doing unmodified or semi-modified moves for the first ten minutes. Then I had to do a combination of modified and unmodified. 

Overall, I would say that this round went okay, but not as well as I would have liked. My big takeaway from Max 30 is there is a huge difference between how hard the modified workout is versus the unmodified. There is a reason the modifiers can make it through the workouts without maxing out or making it nearly to the end before they max out, while the people who are not modifying generally max out 6-7 minutes into the workouts. 

I have decided that for the next round of workouts I am going to do doubles, but doing a low-impact beginner's pilates as the morning workout to help with my flexibility and core strength, and then Lift 4 as the evening, intense workout. Lift 4 is a four-day workout that combines living heavy weights focused on one or two body parts for the first half of the workout and then doing HIIT cardio for the last half of the workout. The idea is to fatigue your muscles with the heavy lifting and then do intense cardio when you are already spent. I am definitely curious to see how my body will respond to that. 

The Beginner Pilates workout is a six-day-a-week workout that runs for three weeks while Lift 4 is an eight-week program. Right now, my intention is to just do the Pilates workout for the full 8 weeks that I am doing Lift 4, and then switch routines again to go back to Max 30 and see how much better I can do after doing Lift 4. 

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 52

Day 52 was the Max Out Power workout. This one has probably been the best workout in terms of my max-out times, even though the max-out times have been pretty steady throughout the four weeks. I have pretty much made it to the thirteen-and-a-half-minute mark every time I have done the workout, and this time was the same. 

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 51

Day 51 was the Max Out Sweat workout. This has been, by far, the worst workout in terms of my max-out times in this round. I generally have maxed out right out, or just around the five-minute mark through the four weeks. This time I again maxed out right at five minutes.   

Book Review: Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi The Legends of Luke Skywalker

 

This was a novel released in the lead-up to the movie The Last Jedi, that told stories of Luke Skywalker, which may or may not have been tall tales, from the perspective of outside viewers. The book has a collection of short stories that involved Luke, a couple that retold the events from the movies, and others about things he may or may not have been doing since Return of the Jedi. 

There are six stories in all, the best of which are, for me, the second and third stories. The second, titled The Starship Graveyard is set after the battle of Jakku, and the third, the Fish in the Deluge is about his search for Jedi artifacts. There are a couple of humorous stories as well, including the first which tells the story of A New Hope through the eyes of a conspiracy theorist. 

The book is just under 430 pages, and the six stories are pretty evenly spaced out. It is a fairly easy read that can be finished in a few days, depending on how much time you have to devote to reading. I definitely think it is a book that will cater more to the nostalgia of those of us who grew up on the original trilogy than it really does to give a lot of detail about what Luke did after Return of the Jedi in the new canon material. Hopefully, that will be filled in with subsequent novels, but until then, this one is definitely worth checking out.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Fate of the Furious (F8)

 

The Fate of the Furious is the 8th movie in the "Fast" franchise. The plots of the movies have become crazier and more unrealistic over the course of time, and yes, this movie follows that trend (in this movie a missile is punched by The Rock) and you just have to go with it. If you cannot suspend your disbelief, these movies are not for you as the action sequences, which are fun, could never be pulled off in real life.

This movie sees Dom (Vin Diesel) as the bad guy, seemingly turning his back on the team/family. Of course, not everything is as it seems, as there is a larger plot that plays out throughout the course of the movie. The action sequences are crazy and there is some humor mixed in (including Hobbs and Shaw having to protect a baby while kicking ass). This is the movie that really set the stage for the Hobbs and Shaw spinoff as there are several entertaining sequences that include Jason Statham and The Rock. For the most part, the rest of the main cast returns, including Ludacris, Tyrese, Michelle Rodriguez, and Nathalie Emmanuel. Jordana Brewster does not return as her character, Mia, was written out to be off with Brian who retired after Paul Walker passed away. Kurt Russell reprises his role as Mr. Nobody, and the new cast members include Scott Eastwood and Charlize Theron. 

The 4k set is a two-disc set with just the movie itself on the UHD disc and the movie and all the extras on a regular blu-ray disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is very good. Probably a tick under "reference quality" video, but for anyone other than a total A/V wonk, it will be fine. The extras include an 8-minute featurette on shooting in Cuba, a four-part featurette about the main characters, a three-part featurette on the car racing culture, a three-part featurette on the stunts, and extended fight scenes. There is a director's commentary on the movie that is included both on the UHD disc and the regular blu-ray. All totaled, the bonus content runs about an hour, give or take. 

Ultimately, if you like the prior movies, you will probably like this one. If you do not like the prior movies, especially the movies after Tokyo Drift, then you will not like this one. It is totally unrealistic and over-the-top, but that is cooked into the series at this point. Charlize Theron is awesome in her role and definitely seemed to be having fun in this role. This was the movie in which the battle between The Rock and Vin Diesel came to a head, with The Rock refusing to do any more of the "main franchise" movies.  If you don't take it too seriously it is a good, fun, action movie.

Book Review: Star Wars Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor: Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: the Last Jedi

 

This book is not a novel and does not tell any particular story of a character. Instead, it is a blend of one of the Star Wars encyclopedias and a behind-the-scenes book that shows how the stormtroopers were conceived, shows the early artwork, the early costume concepts, and how the troops evolved from the clone trooper era during the clone wars, to the stormtroopers of the original trilogy, to the First Order Troopers. The book also includes some pop-outs, similar to what was in the Han Solo dedicated book. 

This is mostly something that die-hard Star Wars fans will get and not something that casual fans are likely to have much interest in. It is more like a coffee table book that someone would flip through as opposed to reading cover-to-cover. But, if you do read it, there is a lot of good information and insight about how the stormtroopers came to be, the various types of troopers, etc., and a lot of good behind-the-scenes information from the movies. 

Book Review: Star Wars - Phasma: Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

Phasma is a novel that was written between the movie releases of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that, while not exactly centered around, is highly focused on, the character of Captain Phasma (played by Gwendolyn Christie in the sequel trilogy movies). The core characters in the novel are Resistance spy Vi Moradi and a stormtrooper who wears red armor named Cardinal, who was one of the troopers who were kidnapped into what would become The First Order after the Battle of Jaaku. Cardinal and Phasma are adversaries in the First Order, and Cardinal wants to get information from Moradi about Phasma to use against Phasma. 

The novel essentially alternates between the present and the past (about a decade prior) which provides the origin story for Phasma. We learn that Phasma grew up in a barren world called Parnassos, in which nomadic clans fought for the scares resources of the planet. We learn how Phasma met General Hux's father, Brendol, and was brought into the remnants of the Empire, and then about her rise through the First Order. The novel is not told from Phasma's perspective. In the present, the novel shifts between Cardinal's interrogation of Vi, and his planning to take down, and ultimate confrontation with, Phasma. 

The novel is very good and provides a good backstory for a character that was vastly underused in the movies. The book also sets up a subsequent novel set shortly after the events of this one. If you are one of the people who only read some, but not all, of the canon Star Wars novels, I do think that this one is worth the read. It is just under 400 pages and is a pretty quick reading book with a story that flows well. I definitely recommend it.

DVD/Movie Review: Beavis and Butthead Do America

 

This is the movie adaptation of the once wildly popular MTV show, Beavis and Butthead. The show was about a couple of slackers (the titular Beavis and Butthead) who were voiced by series creator Mike Judge, who basically watched TV most of the time and were a pain in the ass to everyone in their town when they ventured outside. The movie starts out like a regular episode of the show, with some of the show's other characters (mostly voiced by Judge) appearing. When Beavis and Butthead discover their TV has been stolen, they try to find it, wind up being (somehow) mistaken for hitmen (by characters voiced by Demi Moore and Bruce Willis), and mistaken for criminal mastermind domestic terrorists by the government. They end up traveling across the country, tailed by an FBI agent voiced by Robert Stack with the climax of the movie occurring in Washington D.C.

The DVD has quite a few extras, including a commentary track on the movie by Judge and the animation director, a making-of documentary that runs just over 22 minutes that has cast interviews and clips from the movie, a 10-minute feature on the movie's score, a 2-minute montage of Beavis and Butthead hitting each other, a short collection of celebrity interviews talking about the characters, and then the trailers and a bunch of promotional TV spots.

The movie was made at the height of, or just past the height of, the show's popularity. The humor in the movie is pretty much the same as that of the show, and probably a bit more on the adult side. Judge manages to use stupid, juvenile humor while also making subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) social commentary. The movie does not have the music video breaks that the TV show had, but the story flows well enough that you don't really miss them. So, ultimately, if you were a fan of the TV show, you will probably be a fan of the movie. If you did not like the show, chances are the movie is not going to do anything for you either.

CD/Music Review: Richard Marx: Greatest Hits

 

If you were listening to pop and/or adult contemporary/soft rock music in the late 1980s into the early 1990s you heard Richard Marx's songs, a lot. All nine of his top ten hits, including, of course, the three that went to number one, including Right Here Waiting, Hold on to the Nights, and Satisfied are included here. The other big hits include songs like Endless Summer Nights, Angelia, Hazard, and Now and Forever. 

Marx has certainly been around long enough that people will know if they like him or not. He is pure soft rock ballads and pop songs. If you like that kind of music, you will like this. If that kind of music is not up your alley, you won't. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Lethal Weapon: Season 1

 

Lethal Weapon is a TV adaptation of the movies which, as most know, starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The series is led by Damon Wayans taking over the role of Roger Murtaugh, a veteran detective who is not on the brink of retirement as the character was in the movies, but trying to lead a less stressful life because of a recently diagnosed heart condition. That plan is upset when he is partnered with Martin Riggs, played by Clayne Crawford (who had been a character actor up to this point), a recently widowed ex-Navy Seal who has little regard for rule, or safety, especially his own. 

The show follows a pretty standard procedural buddy-cop show format. It has a case-of-the-week format, but toward the end of the season does introduce a serial arc that stretches into the second season. The show has a strong supporting cast including Jordana Brewster, who plays the department psychologist, Maureen Cahil, Keesha Sharp as Roger's wife Trish, Kevin Rahm as the police captain Avery Brooks, and also has a very strong recurring cast including Thomas Lennon who plays Leo Getz (a version of the character Joe Pesci played in the movies), Hillarie Burton as DEA agent Karen Palmer, and Floriana Lima, who plays Rigg's late wife, Miranda in flashbacks.

If you get the blu-ray set, the A/V quality is good, about the same as the other Warner blu-ray releases, but not outstanding. There are some extras including an extended version of the pilot episode that adds less than a minute to the version that aired, about 25 minutes, give or take, worth of deleted scenes spread across the three discs, and a short (under three minutes) gag reel. The most extensive extra is a 15-minute making-of featurette that includes cast and showrunner interviews that goes over how the show came to be, how they tried to tie things in with the movies (like using some of the same locations) but also trying to make the show their own entity (by putting twists on characters such as having Leo be an ambulance chasing lawyer as opposed to a mob accountant). 

I think the first season did a good job of putting a twist on the story. Both Crawford and Wayans did a great job honoring the characters as Gibson and Glover played them without being carbon copies of either of them, which would not work. As most fans of the series are aware, Crawford would eventually be fired from the show because of behavioral issues, including tension with Wayans that reportedly turned into outright hatred. But, during the first season, if any of that had started it did not bleed over into what made it on screen. The show is pretty solidly TV-13 as it does have some violence and as much bad language and sexual content as can be aired on network TV. I cannot say that everyone will love it, but if you liked the movies I do think it is worth checking out.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 50

Day 50 was the Max Out Power workout. I again made it to just over the 15-minute mark before maxing out, which is pretty much where I have maxed out in this workout since week 2. I still have not figured out what I am going to do for the next workouts, aside from knowing I am going to do one in the morning and one in the evening. I am thinking of a more cardio-based AM workout and a resistance-based PM workout, but we will see. This will also require me to increase my caloric intake quite a bit, but my other option is to do a flexibility-based workout in the and more of a circuit-based workout, so something like P90X3 and then a yoga/pilates/stretching-based workout that is less intense and will allow me to keep my caloric intake closer to where it is at now. At any rate, I will figure that out this weekend.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 49

Day 49 was the max out cardio workout. For this one, I finally busted through my plateau and was able to make it halfway through the workout before I maxed out. And, I was able to do a lot more unmodified or slightly modified moves. I am still not to the point where I want to be with the max out workouts, but I have definitely made progress.

Book Review: Last Man Down: A Firefighter's Story of Survival and Escape from the World Trade Center

 

Last Man Down is partly a memoir and mostly a telling of events on 9/11 as experienced by Battalion Chief Richard Picciotto, who at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was nearly a 30-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department. He was the highest-ranking firefighter in the North Tower of the World Trade Center at the time the building collapsed. The book starts out with the collapse of the South Tower and Picciotto's decision to start evacuating the people in the North Tower, then discusses the timeline of the day as he experienced it, and how he got to be on the 35th floor of the North Tower (where he was when the South Tower collapsed) and then his trek down the stairs making sweeps of the floors and trying to get everyone out, and where he was when the North Tower collapsed and the story of how he, and the group of people that were near him, got out. Interestingly, Picciotto's company was actually not dispatched to the Trade Center, but he called dispatch asking to go down because he had coordinated the evacuation of the buildings after the 93 bombing, and knew the buildings well. 

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was the details about how the group of trapped firefighters, who were located in the only section of the stairwell to survive the collapse of the North Tower, were trying to communicate their location to the rescuers on the outside, and the ordeal it was to get them down and to safety because of the fires that were raging throughout the World Trade Center complex after the collapse of the buildings.

It should be noted that he has been criticized for embellishing part of the narrative in the book, specifically that he directed Ladder Company 6 to help Josephine Harris, who was the only civilian trapped with the group of firefighters in the stairwell when he found her with a group of disabled and otherwise non-ambulatory people on the 12th floor as they were evacuating the building. Also, details like when he left his firehouse for the Trade Center have changed over the years. In the book, he says it was after the second plane hit, and in more recent talks he has given he said that the second plane hit as he was on his way to the trade center. But, it could just be that those details have been lost to time. The title is also a bit misleading as there were a group of Port Authority workers on the 64th floor of the North Tower (which was a floor that the firefighters never got to) that were coming down behind Picciotto, only one of whom survived the collapse of the building, basically landing on top of the pile of debris under which Picciotto and the others were buried.

The book is not long, about 240 pages, and is a fairly quick read. If you are a fast reader you can easily finish it in a day or two. Picciotto most definitely has a brash style and swears a lot, which will likely turn a lot of people off. But, it is an interesting story that I had only heard part of from the Inside 9/11 documentary which Picciotto was interviewed for a couple of years after 9/11. It is definitely worth reading.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Americans: Season 5

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from prior seasons, but no major season 5 spoilers+++

The fifth season of The Americans, which is the second to last season, served to both tie up or advance older storylines, and set up the storylines going into the final season. Phillip and Elizabeth (Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell) are dealing with the fallout of Paige telling Pastor Tim their true identities, and are trying to keep him from ratting them out while debating how to deal with him without hurting Paige. Oleg (Costa Ronin) is back in Moscow, still grieving Nina's death, but trying to move on in his new job investigating food chain corruption. Paige (Holly Taylor) is getting more and more entrenched in her parent's spy life and having a hard time adjusting, while Henry (Keidrich Sellati) is still in the dark hoping to go to a prestigious boarding school. 

As in past seasons, there are a couple of big themes that run throughout the season. The main one involves an agriculture program that threatens the Soviet Union's food supply, and the second is a continuation of the prior season's biological warfare story arc, and the threat of weaponizing Lassa fever. Toward the end of the season, Phillip's mission involving Kimmy (Julia Garner) picks up again, and he is again put in a very uncomfortable position trying to keep Kimmy on the hook. 

The DVD set is what I would describe as a MOD plus set. The A/V transfer is mediocre, at best, and it only has a few extras. Those are a handful of deleted scenes, a gag reel, and the TNT First Look for the new season. The extras are not nearly as extensive as the season one blu-ray release got, and the DVD video transfer is nowhere near the season one blu-ray transfer quality. So, the only big reason to get the DVD set versus just streaming the show is to keep a collection complete.

The show continues to be well-written and very well-acted. There is still a lot of violence and sexual content, so it is definitely not a family-friendly show. The series definitely seems to be setting up Stan to figure things out, but the big question is going to be how will he do so. There are some good new additions to the cast, including Peter Jacobson (who was a series regular in the middle seasons of the series House) as a new member of the FBI team and Laurie Holden as a new love interest for Stan, brought back Allison Wright for a small side story, and included the great recurring characters of Gabriel and Claudia, played by Frank Langella and Margo Martindale. If you liked the prior seasons, then this one is definitely worth watching.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 48

Day 48 was the back and biceps workout from P90x. I really have nothing new to report on this one as I can do the same amount of weight on the resistance moves as the prior week. I did decide to sit down to do the pull-down moves to make them a bit harder. It is funny, in the first P90x workout, Chest and Back, when Scotty is using bands, in the first half of the workout he is sitting and then switches to kneeling in the second half, which Tony claims is harder, and closer to a real pull-up.  I think it is the exact opposite. When you sit down there is more distance between you and where you are pulling from, so you get more resistance and the pull-downs are a lot harder. So, my overall number of reps for those moves dropped pretty significantly.

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 47

Day 47 was once again the Kenpo-X workout from P90x. I again wanted a bit more of an intense workout because my nutrition was not all that great on Saturday, so I wanted to burn off some carbs. I pretty much found the workout to be the same as last week, easily keeping up with the cardio, but did find my balance was a bit off on some of the kicks, mostly because of the limited space in my basement if I am not using the thick floor mats (which I avoid for some of the moves because there are depressions in it where the filling has shifted). 

Book Review: Kill Shot (Mitch Rapp Series Book 2 Chronological Order; Book 12 Publication Order)

 

Kill Shot is the second book in the Mitch Rapp series of spy novels written by the late author Vince Flynn (if you read them chronologically). If you read the books in publication order it is the twelfth book in the series. The events in the book are set a year after those in the American Assassin novel, and the majority of the action in this novel takes place in Paris. We find that Rapp has been working his way through a list of terrorists involved in the planning and execution of the Pan Am 103 bombing, in which his ex-girlfriend was killed. While taking out a person on the list, he is ambushed and quickly concludes that he was set up by someone and tries to discover, of the small number of people who knew the targets on the list, and in what order Rapp would go after them, who set him up.

So far, I have only read one other book in the series, American Assassin, and found the tone and pacing of this novel to be very similar. Flynn balances out the action and suspense with some excellent detective work by Rapp, throws in some sex between Rapp and his love interest from the first novel, Greta, and bounces between what Rapp is doing in Paris with what the CIA characters like Irene Kennedy, Stan Hurley, and Thomas Stansfield are doing in Virginia trying to figure out if Rapp has gone Rouge. There are definitely tie-ins with the story from American Assassin and a side plot that involves a French police officer and a member of France's DGSE (Directorate General for External Security), their equivalent of the CIA.

This book, published in 2012, would be the second to last full novel that Flynn would finish before his death in 2013. In fact, in the forward, he discusses his treatment and thanks his medical team, and dedicated the book to his doctors and his wife. As most know, Flynn started writing the Mitch Rapp character in the novel Transfer Of Power (which was technically the second novel of Flynn's career published in 1999), when Rapp was well into his career as a terrorist hunter for the CIA. American Assassin and Kill Shot were prequel novels that Flynn wrote when fans started clamoring for a Rapp origin story.  While I cannot say that everyone who likes or loves the original novels (because, as I have said, I have not read them yet) centered around the older version of Rapp, I can say that if you liked the American Assassin novel then you will probably like this one. 

Workout Update: Insanity Max 30/Chalean Extreme/Body Beast/P90X Hybrid Day Round 2 Day 46

Day 46 was Friday Fight Round 2 again. In this one, I was able to max out about five minutes later into the workout as I did last week. So, I finally feel like I made progress in the workouts. It is still very tough (although not as tough as the original Insanity workouts because those are longer and do not have any modified moves).

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Ghost In the Shell

 

Ghost in the Shell is a 2017 movie adaptation of an Anime film starring Scarlett Johansson. It was controversial for casting a white actress in the role of a Japanese character, in a movie clearly set in Japan. The movie is set in the near future in which humans are able to make cybernetic improvements to their bodies to give them better strength, vision, intelligence, etc. Basically, the more money a person has, the more that person can improve themself. The cybernetics can be hacked, which also makes the people who have them targets of cyber terrorists. Johansson stars as Mira Killian, a survivor of a terrorist attack whose body was damaged beyond repair, so her consciousness has been integrated into an artificial body called a "shell". She is a major in a counter-terrorism police force, and as the movie goes along, she uncovers a larger conspiracy after her team thwarts an attack on a business conference. 

For those who get the 4k set, the UHD disc just includes the movie and the handful of extras are on the second, regular blu-ray, disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is very good. The video transfer is not quite reference quality, but unless you are a major A/V wonk that nitpicks the video quality to death, it is not likely to bother you. The extras on the regular blu-ray include a half-hour-long making-of documentary, a featurette on Section 9, the counter-terrorism unit that Mira is a part of, and a featurette on the philosophy behind the story. So, if you like watching the bonus features, all totaled, you get just under an hour of material.

The movie is good, but not great. One can make easy comparisons to movies like The Matrix and Blade Runner, although this is not as good as either of those. It does tell a decent story, has a lot of action, and even tries to explain away why Johansson's character is not Japanese. I think Johansson did a good job in the lead role, and as a stand-alone action movie, it is entertaining. So, if you are a fan of the dystopian future genre, this is a good one to check out.