Tag: Hulu

The Path: The Father and the Son – There Is No Light (Review)

Aaron Paul in The Path

As the title suggests “The Father and the Son” is all about Eddie and Hawk,  as well as the burgeoning relationship between the Lane teenager and Cal. The Path this week also brings Richard and Kodiak that bit closer to learning the truth about Steve and The Light.

It is interesting to note that this episode brings things full circle in terms of Eddie and his discovery at the start of season one that Steve was dead that there was no light. Lane is also being followed, like the young woman who thought her husband had been murdered by the cult last year.

Once again things are taking a more sinister turn and it seems that Richard has already worked out that Cal wrote the last rungs.  Like anyone who seeks the truth behind a lie,  Richard is stumbling a bit. He believes, to an extent, that Cal and his appointed “co-leader” Sarah wrote the last rungs.

Richard enlists the aid of Kodiak to bring Steven close enough to them to ask the question. He believes that Steve is not in the light and both men now think that the man who pushed their leader off the mountain was Cal and not Eddie.

As they perform the ceremony to ask Steve about where he is, Kodiak jerks and tells Richard that “there is no light.” He also reveals that Steve is not in the light since it does not exist. It looks like the whole organization is in danger of imploding.

Cal’s confession to Sarah has not, as he seemingly believed it would, brought Eddie’s wife closer to him. She now distrusts Cal more than ever and is becoming increasingly paranoid about his killing of Silas.

At one point the police show up at the gate as Sarah is returning to the compound. She believes they are there to arrest Cal.  Instead they inform the cult leader that Hawk and Noa were involved with breaking a window on the DaKeer mansion.

Meanwhile Mary seems to be leaning towards wanting Cal to be the father of her unborn baby and in the process is pushing Sean away. Abe is having issues with his wife about being undercover in the group and not spending any time with his family.

Hawk moves to be closer to Cal, whom he now sees as a father-figure since Eddie became a Denier. His father is less than pleased at this latest turn of events and threatens Cal, “I will murder you, before I let you take him away from me.”

Eddie is being followed by a member of the movement after his confrontation with Cal at the center. After getting together with Chloe at a local casino, he spies the man again. Confronting him angrily results in security intervening and punching Eddie out.

Lane awakens on a hospital gurney and is told that he reacted badly to all the alcohol he drank. Eddie spends most of this episode distraught that his son is cutting him off.

Hawk tells his father that it is too hard and it is tearing Eddie apart. Whether it is Eddie’s defection and the realization that Cal may not be telling the truth about Steve, the movement founder, but the whole thing appears to be falling apart.

Sarah expresses doubts to Eddie; most likely brought about by Cal’s confession of murder. Richard and Kodiak stumble across the same “truth” that Eddie saw in his vision last season. A truth that started the believer on his journey of self discovery.

Eddie’s journey has shown him that the entire movement was a lie and that Steve Meyer, at the end, realized that he put his faith in “the wrong son.” Cal is on a path that will lead to his self destruction and the downfall of the movement.

His “threatening” behavior in the parking garage proves that he is still capable of acting dangerously and unpredictably. Cal’s interests continually take precedence over that of the group’s.

Finally we have Abe, who talks about his father not wanting children as he spends no time with his own. The FBI agent appears to be faltering on his own journey to taking Cal down.

This episode also features two moments where men who love their wives come dangerously close to being physically abusive. Abe, who roughly grabs his wife’s arm and Eddie who roughly grabs Sarah, although he does let her go immediately. Abe, on the other hand, is clearly angry and it takes him a few moments to release his wife’s arm.

The Path airs Wednesdays on Hulu. Tune in and watch this fascinating look at cults from the pen of Jessica Goldberg.

Cast:

Guest starring Britne Oldford as Noa and Leven Rambin as Chloe.

Shut Eye: Two of Swords – Marime (Review)

KaDee Strickland, Jeffrey Donovan in Hulu's Shut Eye

The Path “Two of Swords” brings things to a head (no pun intended) when Charlie’s ability to see the immediate future results in the Nadine scam being uncovered. Although this does not happen until the whole Fonzo/White Tony feud ends with the police searching the leader’s residence.

Since the cops are not “Roma” everything they touch becomes contaminated, aka Marime. Fonzo is furious and takes Tony to a tribunal with the elders. Tony asks for four of Fonzo’s parlors and gets two. Fonzo asks for revenge and ends up losing his eldest daughter.

The girl will be forced to marry White Tony’s son. This move is to  bring the two houses closer together. Fonzo is distraught and his daughter is furious with him and the Roma customs. Later, the unhappy father lays down next to his younger daughter, who is sleeping in a tent in the back garden.

She reaches out to her father and touches his shoulder, Fonzo reacts and places his hand over hers. It is a poignant moment that reveals the saccharine inner-core of a violent and unlikeable character.  It also makes the man more human and we can feel his pain.

Emma’s body is found and Nick believes that Nadine may have been able to help find who killed her.  The cops know that the girl overdosed on the South American drug that Gina left with Linda. Charlie explains that the unhappy client knows nothing.

Charlie finalizes the scam on Nadine, burning the fake money and putting the $1.7 million in a trash bag.  As he continues the con, he has a very real vision of the woman killing herself.

He sees Nadine come out of the house with a weight and jumprope. She steps off the pool’s diving board and sinks to the bottom of the pool. In real life, Charlie leaps in and finds Nadine dead, floating lifeless as he watches.

The next thing he sees in Nadine coming out of the house and yelling at him as he floats in the water. Charlie then sees that the weight and the rope have been tied to him.

He climbs out of the pool and Nadine wraps a towel around him. She sees the real money, it has fallen out of the trash bag,  and asks Charlie about it. She learns about the scam and he explains that he is not her friend and that she should stay away from people like him.

Charlie finishes by telling the unhappy woman to seek out a therapist. He then returns home. Linda, who is sipping  a glass of pre-celebratory champagne, reacts badly to the news that her husband blew the con.

This was a touching episode. Even the despicable Fonzo manages to come across as a sympathetic character. His pain, at losing his daughter, is real and practically tear inducing.

Haverford’s very real distress, and anxiety, at being forced to be the good guy is also touching. He rages at Dr. White for her “saints and sinners” theory and then, like Judas, denies his fate.

Linda, once again, proves to be the Haverford with ice-water in her veins. She does not care that the con would have killed Nadine.  Meeting with Gina, Linda declares that she can still get the money. It appears that she has now chosen her “bit on the side” over Charlie.

Kudos to Angus Sampson who actually became a character who could be empathized with mainly due to the storyline and his subtle acting. Mad props also got to Donovan.

As his character starts to break apart, all tears and massive amounts of guilt, it was “lump in the throat time.” Show creator Leslie Bohem and  episode scribe (Tom Pabst) knocked this one right out of the park.

Shut Eye is streaming on Hulu and all 10 episode are available to watch at once.

Cast:

The Path: Liminal Twilight and Dead Moon – The Burning of the Light (Review)

Hulu The Path

Things have gotten decidedly weirder and darker in The Path. Season two started with a two episode premiere. “Liminal Twilight” and “Dead Moon” take the storyline deeper than before and in many aspects the whole Steven Meyer plot has become convoluted and a tad confusing.

Eddie still wears the mantle of “Denier,” Sarah and he are still uneasily sharing time with their kids and Cal has gotten that little bit more out of control. Abe is now in Rung One training (undercover) and Steven Meyer woke up only to die. He was apparently pushed off the cliff by either Eddie or Cal.

(Eddie in the visionary state or Cal in real-life.)

In the first of two episodes we  re-live Eddie’s vision of Meyer. So far so good. However, the movement leaders, which includes Richard, are shown Steven’s body. He appears to have fallen off the mountain and died.

But…

A local deaf man drew a picture of Meyer’s fall and it looks like another white man pushed him. Richard believes it is Eddie. It could have been Cal, after all, the fractured and mentally unbalanced leader did visit Steve.

Or, did the deaf man actually see “spirit” Eddie arguing with spirit Steve? It is all a bit confusing. What is not, however, is the steady deterioration of Cal Roberts.  The self-made leader is getting out of control and despite asking Sarah to lead with him, Cal is struggling to maintain the reins of control.

In the first episode, he wildly overbids for a building he wants for the movement. By the end of this segment, he shows Sarah Silas’ body. She makes him dig her old mentor up and Cal then lies and tells Lane that the man’s death was an accident.

In the meantime, Eddie and Hawk are drifting further apart as evidenced by the boy’s indifference and hostility towards his father at each “illegal” visit. Summer, on the other hand, enjoys the time she spends with dad.

Sarah is visibly shaken by the truth of Silas’ death and it is this guilty knowledge of Cal’s murderous act that comes across as “leakage” when she has a session with Richard.

Abe continues to work undercover in the organization to bring Cal down and it is his efforts that keep the Meyerist’s from gaining tax exemption as a religion. This forfeiture of a religious tax status causes more problems and Cal insists that Mary and Sarah accompany him to a fund raising get together.

Once there, Cal blows it by simultaneously asking for money while denigrating the party members’ lifestyle and monetary worth. Sarah comes close to having sex with an invited guest and Cal punches the man in the stomach after he acts like a boor.

Out in the woods Hawk’s new friend (played by Hunters actress Britne Oldford) confesses that she fears the dark. After opening up, the two connect in a deep and meaningful way and the second episode ends with Hawk apparently levitating. (Or in the parlance of the Meyerist movement, floating up to the next rung of the ladder.)

Eddie sleeps with his dead brother’s wife. She does not notice the new “tree-like” red veins extending up his back and it looks like Lane may now have a new woman in his life. Cal is still somewhat obsessed with Sarah who may be warming up despite the fact that he killed Silas.

The Path has managed to shift gears and take things to another level.  It is now difficult to understand who killed Steven. The visions of him choosing Eddie to “be his son” intermingled with his protestations on the vision mountaintop, are confusing.

The Hawk levitation brings back a certain amount of mysticism but at the end of the day, we do not know whether the young Lane really lifted up into the air or whether he imagined it.

Clearly things are going to be heading south even faster now that leaders of the movement believe that Eddie went to Peru to kill Steven. Cal’s meltdown is also accelerating as is Sarah’s loss of calm. With Abe, hiding in the group in plain site, season two could turn out to be explosive.

The Path airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

Cast:

Guest starring Britne Oldford as Meyerist novice.

Shut Eye: Judgement – Funeral (Review)

KaDee Strickland, Jeffrey Donovan in Hulu's Shut Eye

Shut Eye “Judgement” sees Fabiana somehow surviving her fiery end, but not for long.  As the family engulf the hospital where Fonzo’s cousin is interred, Linda hovers worriedly around the burned woman. Charlie arrives and Fabiana recovers somewhat. He turns what she says into news about her cat and Fabiana dies.

Next up is the funeral and the wake afterward.  Meanwhile Charlie works on the long game he has planned for Nadine Davies. Nick is questioned by the police about Emma, he sent her a text and as such is the last person to have seen and communicated with her.

Charlie and Linda come home to find the police talking to their son and he orders them out of his house. The cop investigating Charlie and the psychic community warns him that the city is cracking down on the scammers.

Later, at Fabiana’s funeral, Charlie tells Linda to warn Rita that a guest is wearing a wire. Roger Nash is there to get evidence that Fonzo’s mother charged him for her services. Rita is not overly impressed that Linda warned her.

Fonzo still believes that “White Tony” burned his cousin. Rita tasks Charlie with making sure that Fonzo behaves. She is already angry with her son for killing White Tony’s cousin Lou. Tony eats the last of the shrimp, at the wake, and Fonzo, after being warned that police are outside, attacks White Tony.

Gina takes advantage of a potential threesome to steal a huge diamond ring. She then sells it to buy an apartment for Linda. Charlie’s wife turns up and after telling Gina how much she hates her, gets into a sexy clinch with her “bit on the side.”

Nick is still confused and concerned about Emma and why she left. He asks her “cool” friends if they know and after initially making fun of Nick then admit that are concerned as well. Someone, it seems, is watching Nick and it could well be the police.

Dr. White has halfway convinced herself that “scumbag” Charlie is a saint experiencing real visions. He emphatically does not want the visions at all. Charlie tells White that he wants real medicine to take the things away.

Fabiana’s fiery death after his visions of burning have disturbed him. This, coupled with his latest premonition, of drowning, has left him desperate to get rid of his newest “power.” Dr. White seems to be the wrong person to help him however.

It does seem that Shut Eye may be heading for an ending that will end in tears for all the main players. With the police cracking down on the psychic community and the death of Emma, Linda’s hooking back up with Gina could be the worst possible decision on her part.

The same can be said for Charlie’s long game plans. Despite his drowning vision and the warning from the detective (Sonja Sohn) Charlie is powering ahead with his million dollar scam.

Maybe Charlie can pull it off in time and Linda’s move to reunite with Gina could be her chance to pin Emma’s death on the medium from Vegas.  Of course the biggest issue, apart from everything else, which includes Eduardo, is that vision of Charlie drowning.

Shut Eye continues to entertain. The characters are all interesting and Fonzo, who was initially quite disturbing, and a character that seemed to define despicable, is becoming funnier and more interesting.

The series is on Hulu and all 10 episodes can be watched via the streaming platform.

Cast:

Guest starring Tara Karsian as Fabiana and Evan Arnold as Roger Nash. 

Shut Eye: The Magician – Burned (Review)

KaDee Strickland, Jeffrey Donovan in Hulu's Shut Eye

In Shut Eye “The Magician” it is Eduardo who manages to make something disappear. In this case it is a relative of Fonzo’s; Fabiana.  This is after Linda and Gina make Emma’s body disappear, in an unmarked grave, in the woods.

In “The Tower” Nick’s high school friend snorts the scopolamine that Linda hid and overdoses. The girl dies on the kitchen floor foaming at the mouth.  Linda puts the body in the new car that Eduardo gives Charlie and she and Gina dispose of the girl’s body.

After the chore is done, Linda tells Gina to leave and drives off stranding her former lover in the middle of the forest. Linda tells Gina to call Lyft.

She gets home to find Charlie talking to Gina as he makes coffee. He convinces his wife that Nadine is ready for a seance.

Charlie and Fonzo help Fabiana, a medium who is also a relative of Fonzo’s, to get her parlor set up in Van Nuys. The woman is overweight, pushy and annoying. She keeps pushing Charlie to fix the place up and put in a cat door amongst other things.

After the Gina seance, Charlie tells his wife’s ex lover to leave and not come back. He knows that she and Linda had a fling and later he confronts his wife about it. He is still having the visions of fire and when Nadine is talking with Linda in the kitchen he sees the flames and hears screaming.

Fabiana catches sight of Nadine leaving Charlie’s place and threatens to tell Fonzo if she is not cut in on the deal. He decides to ask Eduardo to get rid of the woman.

At a party thrown by Eduardo, he gets the vision again, this time as he watches a pig that his benefactor is roasting. He sees the dead animal’s feet and ears twitch and throws a bowl of punch over the animal.

Eduardo knows that Charlie is having visions and he believes that he “is the man.” Charlie asks Eduardo to smooth things over with Fabiana and he agrees.

At the meeting between Eduardo and Fabiana he explains that she needs to leave Charlie alone. The medium reacts angrily and throws a lit candle at Eduardo. Her place catches on fire and she attacks Eduardo, he pushes her back and her trouser leg catches on fire.

Fabiana begins to scream as the fire spreads.

Later, Charlie is visited by Eduardo who brings the medium’s cat, he rescued the animal. He gives the cat to Charlie and tells him that she is in the burns unit at hospital.

Fonzo apparently knows about the accident but believes that someone else is responsible. Charlie speaks with the doctor again and tells her that he is still having the visions. She gives him an MRI scan and while he is in the machine, he has a vision of himself drowning in deep water.

Shut Eye continues to be evocative and damned interesting. It is ironic that a man who makes his living lying to “marks” now has the capacity to see the immediate future.  The visions shake him and he has no real idea how to translate what he sees.

It is a further irony that Eduardo, a gangster who want to go legit, actually  has a better idea than Charlie about how to use the visions.

Each of the characters in Shut Eye are multi-layered. Linda and Charlie have a complex marriage and Eduardo is much more than a cardboard cut-out villain.  These three characters are the deepest of the lot with Fonzo being more two dimensional overall.

The scam that is being played out with Nadine looks sure to end in tears instead of the new beginning that Charlie and Linda so desperately want. It also seems pretty clear that Emma may rise metaphorically from the grave to implicate either Nick or Linda.

Shut Eye is streaming on Hulu and all the episodes are available to watch now. Head on over and check this one out. Jeffrey Donovan is killing it as Charlie and KaDee Strickland is matching him scene for scene. David Zayas is spot on as the bad guy who want out of the business. This is excellent stuff and should not be missed.

Cast:

Guest starring Tara Karsian as Fabiana and Roan Curtis as Emma.

 

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