"High Potential," Episode 1.13: This one has a gay character, a ridiculous plot, and a last-scene twist. Plus some cast members' members

 

I reviewed an episode of the Hulu series High Potential earlier, but it didn't get enough page views to keep on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.  The G-rated version is still up, on NySocBoy's Beefcake and Bonding.

Most likely the problem was representation: the show -- about genius cleaning lady Megan (Kaitlin Olson), a "flashy girl from Flushing" hired to help the staid, stick-in-the-mud cops solve murders -- was skittish about identifying gay characters, with only "no expressed heterosexual interest" to go on.  

So I'm trying another, Episode 1.13, "Let's Play."  It has an open, out gay character -- an interior decorator, yet -- played by Broadway actor Adam Kantor, who is queer in real life, bulged on the cover of Next, and showed us his backside, although I can't find a c ock. 

Scene 1: Obligatory "home life" scene, with Megan's ex-husband (Taran Killan) teaching her daughter to drive.  She almost runs over the whole family. Don't you take driver's ed in high school?

Cut to the police station, where Megan is asking the homicide detectives to pull over her daughter, because when she was a teenager, she got in a lot of trouble while driving, har har.

In other news, everyone is required to attend the big, important Police Gala, so the higher-ups can see that they're all team players. 

Time for the case of the week: They got an email saying "Spencer Wallace wouldn't play with me, will you?" And a photo of the scared, tied-up Spencer.  "Two hours to make your move."

They look up Spencer: 37 years old, unmarried.  Gay.  Interior designer.  Gay stereotype.

The cops insist that it's just a joke or a weirdo bondage scene that got out of hand, but Megan thinks that they should at least contact Spencer to see if he's ok. 

Scene 2:  Spencer's apartment. It's daytime.  Wouldn't he be at work? They find a black box with a jigsaw puzzle and a note: "Let's play."

Back at the station, Megan completes the puzzle in a few seconds (she's got all types of intelligence, apparently).  It's a map of Mulholland Trail, with a piece missing.  That's where they have to go for the next clue.

Scene 3:  Megan and Detective Karadec hike to the spot, and find a lot of Loco Ocho (Crazy Eights) cards hanging from a tree, with a note: "Pick a card, and then you'll go down a path and through the shade, before dear Spencer starts to fade."  The cops at the station call to reveal that Spencer is diabetic, and needs insulin by the end of the two hours, or he'll die. 

Left: Spencer's backside

Megan and Detective Karadec play the Loco Ocho game.  The last card is two, so they have to take the second path.  Wait -- wouldn't that vary, depending on the starting card?

They find a hopscotch game with numbers.  Megan plays and adds them up to -10 and 240, the coordinates they have to check with the viewers: it looks directly down onto Valley Days Storage.  Spencer is in a storage locker!  This is ridiculous.  Who would set up a series of games like this? There's one chance in a thousand that the cops will figure it out. 

Scene 4:  The cops banging on storage locker doors and yelling for Spencer.  Then they get the bright idea of asking the manager: Spencer rents Unit L-4.   Yep, he's in there.  And they brought insulin from his apartment to administer.  He'll be fine.  Wait -- we're done?  That was a short episode.

Scene 5: In the hospital, Spencer tells the cops that he doesn't know who kidnapped him. They grabbed him, took him to a dark room, and tried to get him to play board games, but he was too scared.  Then they got frustrated and started the game with the cops. Description: wearing a white anime mask, rosy cheeks, big eyes. 

Megan: "Why was your storage locker empty?"

Spencer: "I rented it with James.  He was my partner for nine years.  He died in an auto accident four years ago"  Gay identity established at Minute 8, except for the interior designer stereotype.  They were going to fill the storage locker with their stuff while they traveled to Europe, and now he can't bring himself to get rid of it.

With that revelation, Stuart leaves the show.  But we still have two victims left.

Scene 6: At the station, the cops figure that Spencer was a random victim; the Kidnapper was actually targeting them.  So who has a grudge against the LAPD? 

Megan isn't so sure.  The Kidnapper wanted to play kids' games with Spencer.  Maybe a childhood friend, or someone who wanted to be a friend and was rejected?

Cut to evening, with Megan picking up the to-go dinner orders for her family.  But a guy has already paid for them:  Domeneck Lombardozzi (left) playing the gruff, abrasive private detective who is looking for Megan's missing husband.  More of that ongoing plot arc, then some home stuff, and an invitation to the Police Gala from a cute guy. 

Scene 7:  Detective Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) comes in early to stare at the suspect board.  They have a lead at the Marina Park Hotel, coincidentally where the Police Gala will be held:  a carriage full of scary dolls, and "The fun has just begun" written in Scrabble letters. 

At the station, Detective Oz, reveals his connection to the case: He lost his Dad last year, so he's been going to a grief group.  He doesn't go all the time, so he didn't recognize Spencer at first, but he's a member, too. And he told them all the story of the empty storage locker.  Somebody in that group is the Kidnapper!

Scene 8: Detectives Oz and Daphne go to the grief group and interview the members. 

I predict that the Kidnapper will be group leader Chris, played by Maurice Hall (the one with the bulge, not the chest).

Back to the grief group: one woman says that she had a crush on Spencer, before "I realized I was not his type."  Just say gay.

In other news, Group Leader Chris is worried because member Sierra, an ASL interpreter, never misses a meeting, usually comes early, and she's not there. 

The group member suggest David as a lead.  He hasn't been there for several months, but he used to be a regular.  His family played board games all the time, until his sister died, and then they stopped.  He was more and more upset about it every week.  

Megan is skeptical: dude tries to reclaim his childhood innocence by forcing Spencer to play board games?  Doesn't make sense.

Well, just before he left the group, he invited everyone to trivia night at a bar.  No one showed up. Well, they're grief-stricken.  What did he expect?  So maybe he's hurt, and forcing them to play?  

Megan is still skeptical: why would he force the police into the games?

More after the break

"No Good Deed": Four lesbians, a gay realtor, a gay son, Oedipus, some murderers, and Phoebe from "Friends"

Braxton Alexander recommended No Good Deed, a tv series on Netflix, so presumably he's in it. The trailer shows Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends) spying on the couples interested in buying their house, no doubt planning something nefarious.  Plus I thought I saw a lesbian couple, so here goes:

Scene 1: Establishing shots of Los Feliz, the gentrified L.A. neighborhood. near Dodger Stadium. A Spanish Colonial house for sale.  The swishy real estate agent (Matt Rogers)  tells various couples that the homeowner is very invested in selling, while Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow watch on their cell phone.  Uh-oh, they're up to no good.  Are they trying to find the perfect buyer to kill?

There are four stories, not interconnected, so I'll go through each separately:

The Soap Star:A scary unshaven guy with dark glasses signs his name in the register as John Smithe, but he's not a villain, he just plays one on the soap opera Rising Tides.  A shady handyman who cheated on his stepdaughter and was killed off. The first incest reference.  There will be more.

He's played by Luke Wilson, top photo and left.

Later, high-heel shoes enter the house.  I hate that cinematographic cliche.  Then a woman's back, like it will be a big shock when we finally see her face.   Gasp!  It's someone I never saw before!  What a shock!

Swishy Real Estate Agent Greg criticizes her for being a Lookie Louise, looking at houses but never buying one, but her real name is Margo.  

Ray and Lisa, watching from their secret lair, criticize her purse: "She looks like an AI-generated bitch."  Then they discuss the hardness of her nipples.  They definitely don't want to sell to her, unless she pays cash: "Then I will bend over and take the cash up my *ss," Ray says.  Anal sex joke.  There will be others.

Cut to the Soap Star talking to his manager on the phone. Back story: he's so deeply in love with his wife that he bought her an expensive house, some cars, and a boat, and now he's going bankrupt. But he can't help it: she wanted them, so what else can he do?  "Maybe buy a house you can afford?"  So that's why he was looking at the Spanish Colonial.

In bed, John's overbearing, painfully elitist, super-snob wife turns out to be high-heel Margo!  They discuss why Ray and Lisa are selling their house. 

Oedipus: A m-f couple, the man O.T. Fagbenle, the woman an architect and highly pregnant, tour the kitchen.  They discuss how much they love each other and smooch a few dozen times until Mom tells them to knock it off.  Way to go, Mom!  

She also complains that they didn't have a wedding, when her son has been dreaming of it since he was young.  Really?  I thought just girls planned their weddings.  When I was young, I was imagining my future career as an astronaut or Indiana Jones-style archaeologist.

Cut to Oedipus and Mom staking out the house.  Mom complains that they used to spend every moment of the day together, but now she sees him barely twice a year.  He explains: she used to be his whole world, his reason for living, but then he fell in love with someone else.  Be thankful for twice a year, Mom.  Some guys don't want to see their ex-lovers at all.

What's going to happen when the baby comes, and they both need to work?  They'll need someone to stay home with the baby, hint hint.  Dude, don't hire your mother/ex lover as your nanny!  She'll try to murder your wife to get you back.

In their next scene, Oedipus tells his wife that they can't afford the house on his novel royalties and her architecture, so why not have Mom chip in?  She is loaded.  Of course, she'll want to live with them.   Wife hates the idea.  Her husband's ex-lover, right there in the house with them? 

The First Lesbian Couple: Leslie, forceful and practical, and Sarah, quiet and mystical, examine the upstairs.  Sarah thinks it's "more of a family house," and it has a "dark vibe." 

They find a locked door.  It leads to the room where Ray and Lisa are hiding out and spying on everyone.  So, they're going to murder whoever buys the house?

On the way out, Practical Leslie is ready to make an offer, but Mystical Sarah doesn't want to spend all their money.  Besides, the neighborhood has a dark vibe.

Back story: They've been trying to get pregnant with IVF, but it doesn't work.  

That night, Practical Leslie drives through the neighborhood to prove that it is safe.  She sneaks into the garden of the house, planning to climb to the secret room's window and look inside, but instead she sets off the security alarm and the sprinklers.  Hiding in the bushes, she sees Homeowner Ray hide a gun in the piano. 

Meanwhile, at home, Mystical Sarah injects herself with something in secret.  She's either dying or a drug addict.

 The Second Lesbian Couple:  In bed, they discuss the house:  They could fix it up, put in a pool, and make a fortune off it.  They hatch an evil scheme to get it for under market value, and smoochify. 

Ray and Lisa:   While spying on the prospective buyers, they discuss how sad they are to be selling the house where Lisa grew up.  Wait -- I thought they were going to do something sinister to the buyer.  They just want a buyer who will "love the house as much as we do"?  How is that the premise for a tv series?  Somebody better get stabbed to death.

More back story: they're struggling financially; they took out a second mortgage, and now they're in arrears.  Lisa can't work, because she's a concert pianist with some sort of disease that makes her hands tremble.  

Lisa decides to go down and meet some of the prospective buyers, but Ray zooms in on an Old Guy, is horrified, and tells her "Don't go out there!"  Why, is Ted Bundy downstairs?

Later, the open house over, Lisa returns some photos to the mantle, showing her and Ray getting married and having a son and a daughter.  She sees them running through the house, playing "tag."  This memory makes her cry.  I'll bet the son and daughter died.

More secrets after the break

Jamie McGuire: The Smiley Creature from "From," with Halifax hunks and a nude Dylan Sprouse

 

From, on MGM+, is set in the ruins of a small town, with a diner, a police station, a hotel, a farm, and some houses, where stranded travelers from various parts of the U.S. get stuck.  Every night humanoid creatures appear, dressed in 1950s costumes -- mechanic, nurse, librarian, tv cowboy.  They try to lure you outside, or trick you into letting them in, whereupon they turn into monsters and kill you.  

The Creatures are the main threat, and one of the biggest mysteries, in From. They are impervious to most weapons, but they don't have paranormal powers.  Their physiology is human, but dessicated, as if they've been mummified.  They were once regular humans: a creature named Jasmine says "I didn't ask to be this way."  My theory is that some sort of dark magic went wrong during the 1950s, zapping the town into a pocket universe and transforming some of the townsfolk into Creatures.

Jamie McGuire's Smiley Creature has become a fan favorite, due to his especially huge, creepy grin and his quirky personality: he  seems delighted to be part of the world again.  He feels furniture, picks up objects.  He climbs aboard a stalled bus and plays at driving it.  

He was killed in Season 2, but Creatures never really die, so chances are he'll be back in Season 3.

Without the creepy grin, Jamie is quite handsome, so I wanted to know more about him.  

He's been interviewed a dozen times, but mostly about the Smiley Creature -- and he doesn't know any more than we do.  He just puts on a creepy grin and follows the director's instructions.

Jamie McGuire turns out to be very diffcult to research.  A Google search yields 3,000 entries about a romance novelist named Jamie McGuire, mostly reviewing two of her books that have been made into movies, Beautiful Disaster and Beautiful Wedding.    Dylan Sprouse, top photo and left, stars as an inked bad boy boxer.

Dylan's butt for the road

More Jamie after the break

Dead Boy Detectives: Ghost buddies, one gay, one bi, solve afterlife mysteries. With Luke Gage and WW1 soldier bonus

 

A growling, snarling World War I soldier -- played by Chris Pereira -- chases two teenage ghosts through the British Museum.  The intellectual Edwin surmises that his gas mask is cursed: they'll have to destroy it to restore him to wholeness, so he can go on to the afterlife.  They'll need the Minor Arcana, Volume 4, but the athletic Charles can't find it in his magic bookbag.  

With the ghost-monster in hot pursuit, they run through a mirror, but end up in a hotel, not back in the office.  Edwin explains that it's hard to locate the right mirror-dimension when you're being chased by a gas mask monster.  

Flashback to the Dead Boy Detectives office a few days ago: A World War I nurse explains that she's been hanging aroud the British Museum long after her death to help the many lost souls from her era enter the afterlife.  But one has been cursed and turned into a monster.  She hires the boys to help him.

Left: Chris's butt

Back in the present, the boys rush through the hotel, find another mirror, and end up in their office.  The monster follows!   Charles manages to tear his gas mask off -- the snarling monster underneath spews blood all over and tries to stab him. Meanwhile Edwin finds the right book, says the incantation, and the gas mask bursts into flames.  Back in human form, the ghost is calm, but confused.  The boys tell him that he 's dead, still fighting a war that ended over 100 years ago. 

Left: Chris's cock.  I know he only appears in this episode, but where else are you going to see it?

Uh-oh, Death is coming to guide him to the afterlife.  The boys have to hide, or she'll take them, too!

That's a lot of world-building in five minutes, but it comes while the boys are being chased, assaulted, threatened, and zapped about, so it goes down easily.  

The Dead Boy Detectives, a paranormal take on the common British "boy detective" genre, appeared in a number of comics and limited edition graphic novels during the 1990s and 2000s, all taking place in Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe.  Edwin, the intellectual one, died in 1916, when some boarding school bullies tried to scare him by pretending to offer him as a sacrifice to Satan.  The spell worked, and he was sent to hell.  

He stayed until 1989, when some of the residents of hell escaped and laid waste to a boarding school. The athletic Charles was killed in the ruckus.  He would be going to the Sandman-world version of Heaven, but he decided to wait and hang out with his new ghost-buddy.  Now they are detectives, helping lost souls with unfinished business, lost memories, or curses that prevent them from moving on. They must keep a low profile and not perform much magic, to avoid detection from Death and an afterlife "Missing Souls" bureacracy.

Spoiler alert: In the comics, Edwin is gay, and Charles is bisexual.  They don't date each other, however: who said any two random gay/queer dudes must automatically be into each other? 

I watched the first episode of the tv series to see if the pair, now played by the considerably older George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri, were heterosexualized.

The answer after the break