Five Things From: The Owl House 2×18, Labyrinth Runners

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 18 of The Owl House, Labyrinth Runners. Which five things stood out and for  what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. First of All

I won’t to get this little moan out of the way as at the end of the day, it is purely a personal preference. I didn’t like how this episode relied on side characters to carry the story at this stage of the season. This is especially true as we have been on a run of very strong episode lately. I don’t like Gus anyway and having him front and centre made the whole thing less important. Not having Luz there made it all lack urgency and I never really found myself fully invested as a result. With that out of the way, let’s carry on…

2. Use Your Eyes!

I did actually feel sorry for Gus at the start of the episode when he realised that once again, a friendship he believed to be real was in fact fake. He found out in an awful way though as the guy was just so stupid in not looking before speaking. Gus was basically right in front of him when he told another student that he was just pretending to be his friend.

3. Paranormatorium

The Paranormatorium has to be one of my favourite names for a room ever! It is just so fun to stay! Hunter was living in there after running away from the Emperor’s coven and we found out that the Emperor wants him found. Interestingly, not all of the coven know the whole story as some were saying that the Emperor wanted them to find Hunter as Belos was worried about him.

4. We finish each other’s…

A moment which really did tickle me was a short exchange between two guards when one accidentally finished the other’s sentence. They were trying to capture Hunter when the first guard said “put him” with the second cutting him off and saying “out of his misery”. The first guard was shocked and said that he was going to say to sleep. An awkward moment where one guard’s bloodthirstiness was accidentally outed!

5. Adrian Graye

We got to meet Adrian Graye in this episode who was the leader of the Illusionist Coven. I loved how they made him like a stuck-up, artsy film director and how he belittled the guards, treating like his own film crew. The poor guys were out of their element and trying their best but he was having none of it. He isn’t on Darius’ level, but he was a very fun coven head and antagonist for the episode.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×6, Yard Sale

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 6 of Modern Family, Yard Sale. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Dummy

At the start of the episode during the year sale, Manny brings out an unopened box only for it to be immediately snatched off of him by Gloria. He asks to know what is in it but she refuses to tell him. A part of me would have found it funny if that was it and we never found out but it turned out to be a ventriloquist dummy. It was called Uncle Grumpy and they waited right until the end to make the gag that it looked like Jay! I was waiting for it and then thought they weren’t going to do it. They really leaned in to it though by having him and the dummy sport matching outfits. It was a great payoff. They all found Gloria’s act quite entertaining despite her clearly not being able to not show her mouth moving…although her actual material seemed pretty decent.

2. Michael

Alex’s boyfriend Michael from Prom was back and was as camp and flamboyant as ever. I wouldn’t say it was sensitive but Claire’s concern for her daughter was coming from the right place. She wanted her daughter to be at least 18 or 19 before getting her heart broke by a gay guy so she can at least drink herself through it. Ignoring the concern that the legal drinking age in America is 21, Claire just didn’t want to see her daughter get hurt. Michael is sure he isn’t gay though…or at least just doesn’t want to admit to it. I hope that he appears again so that we can see him come to love and accept who he is.

3. Bread

Who the hell did that guy think he was asking for some bread to test if the toaster he was buying still worked? That guy has serious trust issues. It wasn’t even out for sale; he went and took it from inside the house! What was he doing!? It got me really annoyed for Jay!

4. Safety Net

Cam wanted to get rid of all his old jeans now that he has lost weight and they no longer fit him. Mitchell wanted to keep them as Cam has lost weight and got rid of jeans before, only to put the weight back on and have to buy bigger sized jeans again. This disagreement actually bought up an interesting debate about the jeans being a safety net. Cam said that keeping them won’t help him stay motivated to keep the weight off. I would say I agree with him…although I wouldn’t transfer that logic to other types of safety nets like trapeze ones.

5. Phil

Phil’s life flashed before his eyes as he lay trapped beneath a motorcycle in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. As terrible as the situation may have been, he could have waited more than 27 minutes to record a goodbye message to his family on his phone. At least get into hours before you resort to that. We also saw he ordered and received a sandwich while stuck under there. Why didn’t the delivery person help him?

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×17, Edge of the World

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 17 of The Owl House, Edge of the World. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. It was all a dream

The beginning episode seemingly had King’s family appearing at the owl house and being welcomed in for a “getting to know you” dinner by Eda and Luz. First of all I double checked that I hadn’t missed an episode and after that sat thinking that this is all rather rushed and sudden. It turned out that it was all a dream. In hindsight that is a shame for King as now we know he will never get to experience for real what he did in his dream.😔

2. Listen to Hooty!

Before setting off on their journey, Hooty informed the rest of the group that he could hear marching at the edge of the forest. The moment was moved on from very quickly and it wasn’t acknowledged by any of the other characters. I was left wondering what it was about but the answer came to fruition right at the end of the episode as the Emperor’s coven guards surrounded the owl house. People need to start listening to Hooty!

3. Oh Hooty

A few minutes later when they got to the island, Hooty then demonstrated why people end up ignoring him as he spoke absolute rubbish. How did he always think that Luz had three arms?! I guess he at least showed concern when he thought that the extra arm had fallen off.🙈 I still felt it was a little harsh near the end of the episode though when he was unfairly referred to as an ungodly sock monster!

4. The Titan Trappers

We met the Titan Trappers who we believed were King’s family and for a while it looked like all was going well for King. About halfway through the episode you started to think that things were going too well but I loved how they drip fed the reveal. They foreshadowed it by having Tarak say multiple times that King’s dad must have passed down his skull to him. It didn’t really click with me the first time but the second time I did think, “wait, do their skulls come off?” It turned out that they wear Titan skulls on their heads and are more humanoid-like in appearance.

5. King

King is such a good sympathetic character and you could really see how much he wanted this new family he discovered to be the truth. I like how they didn’t go down the route of Luz trying to convince him and then the pair falling out. There was no need to cause a temporary falling out so I’m glad they didn’t. You had Luz solving the mystery with Hooty separate to King being deceived and then the two plots combined when they got to the reveal. It worked better as it didn’t make you pick a side between the two characters.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×4, The Butler’s Escape

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 4 of Modern Family, The Butler’s Escape. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Magic

The title “The Butler’s Escape” was referring to a famous escapology trick. Personally, I have heard of and seen variations of the trick but have never heard the “origin story” of the trick that Phil told. The subplot was a good insight into Phil and Luke’s relationship although I felt that the message got a little muddied in the end. Despite being technically good at it, Luke wanted to quit magic as he didn’t enjoy it. Phil disapproved of this and wanted his son to carry on. It seemed as if Phil was trying to live out one of his dreams through his son.

The natural conclusion that looked to be happening was that Phil would allow Luke to quit magic but voiced his worry that the two of them would soon start growing apart. This would have been a suitable end but then they through in the extra plot point of Luke now wanting to quit because kids at school picked on him for it. This would also be a fair enough story to tell but doing them both together just made for a confusing end. Did Luke actually like magic? Did he end up quitting it? It just felt unnecessarily overegged.

2. Teaching

As a teacher myself, I have seen people with the enthusiasm that Cam have disastrously crash and burn. You can introduce the more flamboyant and unique aspects later on but you don’t want to overwhelm the students early on. You need to start by building those genuine relationships with the kids. Get them onside and then you can ramp up your lessons to be extravagant as you want: if your kids trust you, then they will gladly come along for the ride with you. The jumper didn’t help either. You have to build up to wearing that too. That teacher who “accidentally” spilt juice on it did him a favour.

3. Manny

Manny had my favourite quip of the whole episode. While Cam’s debut lesson was spiralling out of control, Manny said to Luke that, “there’s no way he (Cam) ran this past Mitchell”. It was just a fun insight into how they know each other so well as an extended family.

4. Hotels

Speaking of Manny, how unlucky and coincidental was it for Jay that Manny was in that very same hotel? What time of the day even was this? It felt a tad contrived honestly.

5. Jay

Jay was understandably struggling to go to sleep as a result of Gloria’s snoring while being heavily pregnant. Should he have just sucked it up? I can completely get why you could argue he should but also it would be unarguable that the man can’t sleep and is just very tired. Like Gloria said, honesty and separate sleeping areas would have nipped this problem in the bud.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×15, Them’s the Breaks, Kid

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 15 of The Owl House, Them’s the Breaks, Kid. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Key Notes

Luz was experimenting with various glyphs at the start of the episode and was making notes about them in her notebook. One of the notes simply read “petrification-bad”. We then saw that she had a petrified figure that she had practiced on. I hope that it was a toy and not a small, innocent creature that she had practiced on! Also, Hooty ate a demon’s arm and nobody batted an eye! I’m pretty sure it was still attached to the rest of it too!

2. Faust

We spent the majority of the episode in a flashback, looking back at Eda’s time at Hexside school for witches. We met Headteacher Faust and he was a truly terrifying being. Credit to the art department because his design was great! He was extremely strict and had an issue with the squeakiness of shoes, although it was actually the squeaky ones he preferred! How can you trust shoes that don’t squeak?

3. Lateness

Faust also earned himself the line of the episode. His expectations were so high that he wasn’t even happy with the students arriving on time! In his eyes, being on time is the beginning of the road to being late. Is he wrong?

4. Threats

The head of the plant coven was making various threats this episode about turning children into mulch for her garden and poisoning people. It was funny how legitimately annoyed she was whenever she was informed that these things she was suggesting were illegal. If nobody would have warned her, I’m pretty sure that she would have followed through with at least some of these.

5. Raine

I don’t really find Raine that much of an interesting character and nothing that happened in this episode really changed that opinion. What I did pick up on however is that they use the they/them pronouns and a little research confirmed that they are a non-binary character. It is really good to see this type of representation in animated shows and I also like that it isn’t the defining trait of the character. They happen to be non-binary while being a fully formed character too. Win-win.

Five Thins From: Modern Family 4×3, Snip

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 3 of Modern Family, Snip. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Revenge

I don’t know exactly caused psychopath-in-the-making Luke to concoct such a yogurt based plan but the mechanics of it worked perfectly. Setting up yogurt to explode all over whoever opened his locker is slightly drastic and it ended up taking Claire as it’s victim. What worked well with the gag was that they set it up early on as what you thought was a quick, throwaway gag which made it funnier when it surprisingly came back.

2. Spellings

As a teacher, I have come across many different spellings for many different names. I have never though came across a spelling of a name so unnecessary as the spelling of Joe who worked in that clothes shop: Jeoux? I mean, you do you but really?

3. Cats

It was nice to see that Cam and Mitch got a cat like they were talking about previously in the season. However, Cam made a very large jump towards crazy cat person worryingly quickly! That mermaid cat outfit was concerning. What happens to the cats back legs? Does it essentially stop the cat from walking around? Seems a bit cruel to me…

4. Goth Alex

Alex (as many of us do) was going through a goth faze. This led to her having a new friend who it turned out she didn’t really liked anyway. What elevated this from being one-note filler was the moment where Claire somehow ended up shaving a big chunk of this new friend’s hair off! It was still filler but that part was funny.

5. Vasectomy

Phil was having a vasectomy and was reasonably worried about it. The main takeaway though that the word vasectomy can be used very easily as a pun. For example, when Claire was questioning his choice to have ice cream to make him feel better, he pointed out that it was a vasectomy not a vasecta-you. Alex later declared that “this family needs a dumbass-ectomy”…quality pun content there.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×14, Reaching Out

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things from. This time we will be looking back at season 2 episode 14 of The Owl House, Reaching Out. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. What a List

Luz had a to do list at the beginning of the episode and let’s just say it was very adventurous. It contained, “make a new portal to the human realm, learn All the glyphs and essentially what boiled down to defeating the Emperor or at least getting some answers out of him”. A good to do list has at least some quick wins and more manageable goals. You need to be able to cross things off of it pretty regularly to stay motivated. 😅

2. No Beating around the Bush

He didn’t appear in this episode in the flesh, but the short cameo via the wizard messaging app got the Golden Guard a spot in this article. When Luz straight up asked him if he was leaving the Emperor’s Coven and was “good now”, he unsurprisingly did not give her a straight answer. The likelihood of that working was minute surely. She did get a cute picture of his Palismen even if he did send it to her by mistake. And no, that is not a euphemism.

3. Jewels

Both of Amity’s siblings had concealment jewels that created an illusion over them so that they appear more conventionally attractive. Surely this does not help with self-esteem and self-love for the young adult in the Boiling Isles. You have to imagine that so many of the teens use them at school and it is everybody presenting a façade rather than showing people their true self. Either that or it just helps with people who can’t be bothered to groom and dress in the morning.

4. Fighter Names

We didn’t see too much of the Bonesborough Brawl but we did get to see both Luz and Amity compete a little bit. Luz’s opponent has to win the award for best fighter name though as he was referred to as “The Flexecutioner”. What a name, flexing those muscles whilst executing folk.

5. Sweet Ending

The end of the episode was quite poignant as we learnt that it was the anniversary of Luz’s father passing away. Her and Amity shared a sweet moment at the end and we saw Luz’s mum remembering the anniversary too. The episode ended their on a sad note which still left you with a little smile on your face. Unexpected but sweet.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×2, Schooled

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 2 of Modern Family, Schooled. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. “My arm is tired”

Jay found the perfect toast ender right there. That teaches us all an important lesson: don’t go into a toast and commit to arm raising without being perfectly sure as to how it is going to end. It was an important toast as they were celebrating the miracle of Hayley going to collage…and the law abiding parenting of Cam and Mitch who were sending Lily to school as legally required.

2. Of all the mums

Sometimes an actress is so known for a particular part that you forget they must have done other roles. When Cam hoped that the parent of the boy he threatened (by saying he would string him up a flag pole and let birds peck his eyes out) would be understanding, I was not ready for who walked in…only the lady who plays obsessive alpha-mum Beverly Goldberg from The Goldbergs!

3. Lesbians

Turns out that Cam is very stereotypical in his views on lesbians. He was going in relentlessly for most of the episode. Are vegetarian lesbians even a stereotype? I did laugh though at Cam and Mitchell explaining why gay men and gay women don’t get along as you may expect.

4. Ass

Of all the wrong things you can grab, grabbing the wrong woman’s ass has to be up there with one of the worst mistakes. Even worse, he grabbed some young teenager girl in front of her dad. How that man avoided getting punched I’ll never know.

5. Phils-osophy: some highlights

“Always look a person in the eye, even if they’re blind.”

“If you get pulled over for speeding, say that your spouse has diarrhoea.”

And my favourite…

“The most amazing things that can happen to a human being will happen to you if you lower your expectations”.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×13, Any Sport in a Storm

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 13 of The Owl House, Any Sport in a Storm. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Hunter

This was another chapter in the inevitable defection of the Golden Guard from The Emperor’s Coven. The episode made it clear at the start that the Coven heads did not respect him. They referred to him as “little prince” and didn’t bother to turn up to the meeting that he was going to lead. He has been gifted his position and has only just began to question if this is actually the path that he wants to be on.

When he said that he hadn’t spoken to witches his own age much before, sure it came with a few funny moments but it is actually quite sad. Seeing him genuinely develop feelings of friendship towards Gus and Willow and not having them throw it all back in his face after the betrayal happened made for a really emotionally investible story.

2. Darius

Hooty better watch out because in only his second notable appearance, coven head Darius is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters. The line delivery of everything he says is just wonderful and I find almost everything he says or does hilarious and leaves me with a big smile on my face. Him developing some respect for Hunter by the end and showing that he does care about his wellbeing was really sweet too. If there is a coven head to redeem, it has to be Darius.

3. Art

On one of the stalls during the…I don’t even know what it was; an open day? A school fate? Anyway, on one of the stalls there was a painting that resembled the Mona Lisa but she was a cyclops. Is this coincidence or has someone in the Boiling Isles made an adjustment to the real Mona Lisa painting that they had somehow seen?

4. Theories

The show created and solved the mystery of the author of the Azura book series that both Luz and Amity are fans of. It felt rather unnecessary by the end as I don’t really know if Luz needed the “lesson” that the whole experience taught her. Surely after all she has achieved while in the Boiling Isles she already knew that you don’t have to be a powerful witch or demon in order to get things done. Hearing the random out-there theories linking to the author such as it being Eda or it being Luz’s mum from a different time were still fun to hear though. There are tv shows that love to pull out ridiculous twists like these purely for the shock factor that it would create. At one point when she was running away, they thought it was Kikimura and I thought that too when I saw the size of her.

5. The Reveal

The funniest tongue in cheek laugh came from the actual revel of who they were chasing. It turned out to be the little creature that just resembles a nose with arms and legs that his been a very minor or background character in many episodes. Amity calling her by her actual name, “Tinella Nosa” (what a name that is) and Luz responding in shock, “she had a name this whole time!?” was brilliant.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×1, Bringing up Baby

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 1 of Modern Family, Bringing up Baby. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Jay

Jay was celebrating his 65^th birthday and that means he is going to be a very old dad. I really liked how they had him think all about his “golden years” and then realise that he wasn’t ready for it yet. They could have easily gone down the route of having Jay being unsure or unhappy about the baby but him being positive and all for it just made for a nicer, warmer episode. There are times when adding in additional drama would be unnecessary and this was one of those times in my opinion.

2. Larry

Lily’s disappointment about not getting a baby brother didn’t last long and I for one think her questioning came more from just confusion rather than actually being disappointment. She then decided she wanted a cat and for it to be called Larry. A fine enough name for a cat but Cam and Mitch did not know where she had gotten the name from. Unfortunately, getting a cat was not as straightforward as they expected with them having to fill in forms and have a home visit. Surely one of them must have known someone who knew someone who had kittens to sell?

3. Luke

After not really warming to him in earlier seasons, Luke slowly transforming into a psychopathic supervillain is now one of my favourite things! He tormented Manny about the baby replacing him and told the cameraman, “sometimes I like to just throw a grenade and just walk away”.

4. Clicker

I call the tv remote control a clicker and I am in my twenties so I won’t just stand by and allow Jay to be mocked for doing so as a result of being old!

5. Flash Forward

The flashforward at the end was surprisingly effective. It skipped over the earlier stages of Gloria’s pregnancy to get to the part where fat jokes can be made and funny situations can happen. Phil’s beard was a sight to behold (the first one, not the village people/porn star second one) and Mitchell and Cam had enjoyed a lovely trip to London. It felt like a fresh start of sorts for the new season and I am very much looking forward to seeing what happens next.