Like It Or Lump It: "Reacher" Season Two

  

Welcome to our feature "Like It Or Lump It" which reviews shows that appear the various streaming services.

When I was a teenager, there was a movie called "Billy Jack."   Billy Jack was a guy who would stroll into town and kick Republicans. They needed kicking because they were not nice to the hippie school teacher or the kids that went to the hippie high school.  I think. It has been over fifty years since I've seen "Billy Jack."

The point is that "Billy Jack" was a popular movie, and people liked seeing Billy Jack kick people who needed kicking.

"Reacher"on Amazon Plus is like "Billy Jack" except Reacher punches people regardless of political affiliation. 

Jack Reacher is a former Army MP who travels the countryside looking for people who need punching and delivers the punching. 

He's not a "hit man" (ha!). Nobody asks him to come to town and whoop up on people.  He strolls into town and notices that a bunch of people need the FIST OF JUSTICE, which he happily supplies.

Reacher is a massive man with six-pack abs and muscles on top of muscles.  He's basically a walking refrigerator.

The first season of "Reacher" finds him in Margrave, Georgia, which don't bother looking for on a map because it doesn't exist. For a place that is fictional, it was really corrupt. Spoiler alert! Reacher cleans out the town while becoming best pals with Oscar, the chief of detectives. 

Reacher even finds love in the arms of a blonde policewoman named Roscoe, which is a hoot because if this were an authentic Georgia policewoman, her name would have been Darlene.

Other facts about Reacher:  He likes jazz and was in Margrave to begin with to find out what happened to Margrave's famous jazz musician, Blind Lemon Jello. Shows like "Reacher" and "Bosch" use the love of jazz music to show how "deep" the character is. But let's be honest: how many people do you know listen to jazz?

Reacher travels light and buys his clothes at Goodwill-type shops OFF THE RACK.  How he can do this, I don't know. 

Season Two of "Reacher" begins with a man thrown out of a helicopter. The man was in Reacher's particular MP unit in the Army. There are several flashbacks where we see Major Reacher and his unit punching various Army personnel in severe need of punching.

It turns out that this man was part of a company that wanted to sell weapons to various countries that want to kill people.  The head of security for this company used to be a Terminator, which I thought would have raised a red flag during the hiring process.

There's a New York City cop who is the last honest cop in New York. He's a tough guy, but his heart is in the right place.

Reacher has two female co-stars who both can kick butt and take a stab wound in the arm.  Reacher has love moments with one of them, in which Reacher takes HIS shirt off.  You should skip this part because it will trigger your inferiority complex.

I liked Season Two of "Reacher" better than Season One.   Some of that is my bias against shows set in the South when it is pretty apparent nobody involved in the show has ever been in the South except to change planes in Atlanta.

Season Two had some comic moments, which helped it out. You have to level out some of the intense drama and punching with some jokes and quips.

My criticism is in the last episode, Reacher hops on a helicopter that is taking off by grabbing and holding on to its landing gear.   I don't care how crunches you can do I don't think that is possible.

Language: Many bad words but not quite at "Sopranos" level.

Violence: A lot of punching, kicking, shooting, and explosions.

Sex: Implied. Jack and the hot girl from the unit have a thing going on.

Plot:  Easy to follow, but doesn't make a lot of sense.

Unbelievable Parts:  The helicopter scene, Jack's ability to quickly set up LLCs for his sidekicks, and his ability to buy off the rack.

You never see:  Jack working out.  I guess he got his muscles from the muscle store.

Verdict: Like it!

2024: Sophie's Election

 

"Sophie's choice refers to an extremely difficult decision a person has to make. It describes a situation where no outcome is preferable over the other".

 

 
I watched President Biden's press conference last week.

It came on at 8:00 in the evening.  I don't know when reruns of "Matlock" are on, but I bet it is before 8:00.

He held it to respond to Special Counsel Robert Hur's decision not to recommend President Biden to be indicted for mishandling classified documents.

Hur's report described The President as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."  Supposedly, The President did not remember the years he was Vice President or the year his son died.

To prove Hur was full of malarkey, the President said, “As you know, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in,” Biden said in response to a question about Israel’s war against Hamas. “I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate.” 

The Sisi in this sentence is the President of Egypt, not Mexico, but you must hand it to Biden. He got Mexico to open the gate.

All in all, it was an awful moment for Biden.  He yelled at a reporter from CNN for having the nerve to repeat polling data showing voters are concerned about Biden's age.  He said, “That is your judgment, that is not the judgment [for] the press.”  

Just for the record, on Thursday night, the NBC news poll showed 76% are concerned about Biden's age. On Sunday, that became 85%.  That's not a judgment by the press.

It got so bad that CNN even fact-checked The President.  They fact-checked a Democrat.  Let that sink in.

The next day on my Facebook post, I said the press conference was a train wreck in a dumpster fire during a poop storm.  I was being nice.

I posted several weeks ago about how Biden's age problem reminded me of an episode of "Newhart" where a man brings "the world's smallest horse" to show the audience of "Vermont Today."

Newhart asks the man, "How do you know that's the world's smallest horse?"  The man answered, "Look at him."

I don't know how you could have watched Biden's press conference and not see an infirmed elderly man.  Look at him.

Biden has two things going for him.  One, Vice President Harris doesn't seem ready for prime time.  If she were, there would be Democratic leaders meeting with the President like the Republicans did with Nixon in '74. Two,  Biden's 2024 opponent will be Donald Trump.

Trump is four years younger than Biden, but he seems more energetic because he acts like a baboon.

If Biden is unfit for office due to age, Trump is unsuitable due to temperament.  Trump thinks the country is his privately held firm that he can order around to his liking. It's not.  He has to use persuasion, which to Trump means making up a nickname.

So America has a choice. On one hand, you have somebody you would take the keys of the car away from if he was your dad. On the other, we have a man you wouldn't want your mother, daughter, or ex-wife to date.

Biden needs a boat load of Prevagen.  "Now where did I put those nuclear codes?"

Trump needs an exorcism.  What he said about John McCain years ago was inexcusable. He brought McCain up a few weeks ago, noting McCain could not raise his hands over his head.  McCain couldn't do that because the North Vietnamese were torturing him while Trump was in Manhattan trying to avoid the Clap.

This past week, Trump said about Nikki Haley's husband: “Where’s her husband? Oh, 'he’s away, he’s away.’ What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone."

Haley's husband is a South Carolina National Guard member and has been deployed to Africa.

What are we going to do? 

A Super Romance

 

 

In case you haven't heard, Taylor Swift, Time Magazine's Person of The Year 2023, is dating future song subject Travis Kelce.  Kelce plays for the Kansas City Chiefs and is the favorite receiver of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.  Kelce is so important he not only dates Swift, who is a billionaire, but is also in State Farm commercials.

(I like the State Farm commercials, but seeing a State Farm agent hanging out at a football practice field is weird.)

Swift has transcended into a part of pop culture where we must be reminded how important she is every few minutes.  

Since I'm not a 14-year-old girl, I haven't paid that much attention to Taylor Swift.   I'm not as bad as William F. Buckley, who commented on the death of Jerry Garcia that if he ever heard a Grateful Dead song, he wasn't aware of it. I know three of her songs: "Tears On My Guitar," "Shake It Off," and "Anti-Hero."

 That's it. Sorry, I'll do better next pop superhero.

Somehow, and I need clarification, when this all began, Swift and Kelce started dating each other. Swift started showing up at Kansas City home games wearing Kansas City swag like Kelce gave her his letterman jacket.

 I mean, I have a hard time believing both of them were on Tinder (that's still a thing, right?), and one day, they swiped right and met for coffee. One thing led to another, and soon Ta-Ta was sitting next to Tra-Tra's mother at football games.

"What up? I saw your profile. I'm a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and I have a couple of Super Bowl rings. Additionally, I can introduce you to Jake from State Farm so you can combine your home and auto."

"Yeah, I'm a billionaire, and I write songs better than Joni Mitchell. Plus, if you into red lipstick, that's my jam."

Of course, this means we must see Taylor on TV and her reaction to anything Travis does on the field.  This means we see Taylor a lot and sports commentary like "I wonder what Taylor thought about that holding call".

As Triumph the Insult Comic Dog would say, it was the perfect storm for me to poop on.  Overexposed pop princess falls for meathead football player.  The jokes practically write themselves.

Of course, my fellow travelers on the Right have to come in and ruin everything by wondering, out loud, that the Taylor-Kelce hookup was some sort of "psyop" by the Biden campaign. Does anyone really believe the Biden campaign is that smart?

One podcaster, Mike Crispi, wrote on X (Twitter)about this romance: "All to spread DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDA. Calling it now: KC wins, goes to Super Bowl, Swift comes out at the halftime show and 'endorses' Joe Biden with Kelce at midfield. It's all been an op since day one."

I'm not sure Mike has actually ever watched football, but Kelce couldn't come out during halftime since his team is playing. But if this did happen, he can proudly say he called it first.

For years, Swift avoided politics because the mean girls thought politics was icky.  But she has for the past several years commented on political issues and always for Democrats, surprise, surprise.

Some people have other theories about conservative attacks on Swift.

Professor Joan Donavan says, "Amongst the right wing, because she is getting older and hasn't had children and whatnot, she's less seen as the traditional 'wifey' material."  In broad terms, Taylor Swift represents older, independent women who do not need male support to have a career, to self-determine where they're going."

First of all, who says "Amongst" anymore?

Secondly, I didn't know she didn't have any "whatnots."  At the big conservative meetings, we look at all the celebrities to ensure they have whatnots.

Some have suggested we ought to celebrate that Taylor and Travis "found love." Fine. Yippie. Famous people have found love.  I would be more receptive to it if Travis was on the taxi squad and Taylor was singing backup for Adele.