Once Upon a Time Premiere

Once Upon a Time has returned in its fourth season with a bang, and the opening episode has set the stage for an exciting season to come. Rumple and Belle are off enjoying their honeymoon in a mansion that conveniently appeared out of nowhere; while feeling guilty over deceiving Belle, Rumple finds a mysterious artifact in the mansion and doesn't seem happy about it. Meanwhile, Regina is heartbroken over the reappearance of Marian and over Robin's noble intention of sticking to his vows even if he's still deeply in love with Regina. Her first intention is to kill Marian, obviously, but then she comes up with a much more delicious idea. And Emma is still dealing with her growing feelings for the dashing Captain Hook and how to ease Henry into the idea. While all this is going on, a very upset Elsa is sneaking around the town, leaving ice everywhere and trying to figure out what happened.

With the addition of new characters from my favorite new movie, this season is looking good. However, my husband and I are a little bummed out about the casting choices. While Anna is spot-on, Kristoff is "too handsome and not goofy enough," and Elsa lacks a certain regal queen-ness that she had in the movie. While not comfortable with her powers, she still had the poise and elegance of a queen and strutted about her own kingdom like she owned it. In Once, she fails to do that in the flashbacks - it's more understandable that she doesn't do so in Storybrooke. And the CGI animation of the trolls and Marshmallow failed so badly. But we love the awesome twist of discovering what Anna and Elsa's parents were doing when they went off on their fateful voyage. This next episode is gonna be good!

Forever 2nd Episode Thoughts

In the second episode of Forever, Henry Morgan brings the cops'attention to a young woman's death. Ruled as a suicide, the police view it as an open and shut case, but when Morgan points out certain small details, it looks like suicide is out the door for this one. Despite being told not to have anything to do with the case, Detective Jo teams up with the odd medical examiner to investigate the woman's death.

This episode expanded further on the hero's life somewhat - giving the impression that he does in fact know what it is to have children and to lose them, though considering the fact that he adopted Abe who is now an old man, he hasn't really lost a child. I thought Morgan snooping around was interesting; apparently when you're immortal, you're fearless of heights but scared of people finding out your secret.

Now, why is it that in all these shows the one guy {Shawn Spencer in Psych, the mentalist dude in The Mentalist, Rick Castle in Castle, etc.} is the person who notices all the small details that the police always overlook? Don't you think the trained detectives who've been doing this for longer would notice those kinds of things? Just a thought. Oh and I have a suspicion that in the show, Morgan's wife left him instead of dying as originally assumed.

Scorpion Pilot Blurb

Scorpion, the latest action/genius protagonist show to join the ranks of Agents of Shield and The Big Bang Theory, stars Elyes Gabel as Walter O'Brian {a real-life self-proclaimed genius and computer expert}. As a child, Walter had a bad run-in with a Homeland Security officer. Fast-forward a few years and as a young man, Walter has started his own company consisting of a rag-tag group of three other geniuses. Their combined IQ is seven hundred, yet they struggle to pay their bills on time. When the Homeland Security officer comes knocking with an emergency on his hands, Walter hesitates but then dives in to save lives. With the help of Paige, a young waitress with a gifted son, Walter sets out on a new adventure.

This show has appeal with action-oriented geniuses, but the pilot didn't quite catch my attention. It could also have been because I was busy with the baby at the time too. I did like the geniuses trying to help Paige connect with her young genius son and look forward to more of that.

The Big Bang Theory Returns.

The Big Bang Theory stars Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper {brilliant but "bat-crap crazy" theoretical physicist}, Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter {the more down-to-earth nerdy experimental physicist}, Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz {a finally married engineer}, Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali {a charming but still socially-odd astro-physicist}, Melissa Rauch as Bernadette {Howard's smarter, prettier and shorter wife}, Mayim Bialik as Amy {Sheldon's neurobiologist girlfriend, and  Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting as Penny {the "normal" one of the group as well as Leonard's fiancee`}. The show is in its eighth season and is a favorite of my husband and I.

Anyway, with the new changes set up in the last season {Leonard and Penny got engaged, the comic book store burned down and Amy wants to move in with Sheldon}, Sheldon felt overwhelmed and went on a solo trip. He ended up in Arizona forty-five days later and was robbed, so he called Leonard for help. Meanwhile, Penny and her new hair do bounced down to do a job interview at Bernadette's company which later caused some minor conflict between them, to Amy's delight.

The show returned with two new episodes and proved that it hasn't lost it's touch.

The Apothecary's Daughter Book Review

Title: The Apothecary's Daughter.

Author: Julie Klassen.

Genre: Christian, Historical Fiction, Romance, Medical History, Regency England.

Plot: Lilly Haswell remembers everything, whether she wants to or not. There are things she loves to remember - birthdays, days spent with her family, etc. But there are also things she'd rather not remember, such as the day her mother left without a word and never came back. Over the years, Lilly has always imagined her mother to be off on some wild adventure, while secretly wondering if it was her fault that her mother left. Lilly's father is the local apothecary and while she enjoys the work, it is far from what Lilly wants to do with her life. When her mother's brother and his wife contact them with an offer to take Lilly to London, she wonders if her dreams are about to come true.

But when, at twenty years old, Lilly receives shocking news from home, her plans of marrying well and traveling are set aside. Returning to her old haunts, Lilly discovers that many changes have taken place - some are not so good. Her father has been ailing and seems to be getting worse, while her brother is off happily working as a gardener for the local lordly family. Setting her old world to rights is a task she'd much prefer not to do but do it she does and learns several things along the way, including where her real place in the world should be. But with trouble about to burst upon them, will Lilly's new-found faith and security be able to withstand the blows about to rain down on it?

Likes/Dislikes: This is Julie Klassen's second novel and while it is laid out and flows similarly to her first novel, The Lady of Milkweed Manor {which I couldn't finish}, it thankfully isn't as heart-wrenching. I enjoyed having multiple suitors for the main character; it kept me guessing, though I honestly would've preferred a different final choice. And the one sweet character who died - oh, that was so sad! But this was a beautiful story and I can't wait to add it to my personal collection.

Rating: PG-15 and up, mainly for reading level and content {past story of adultery, mild romance, some kissing, and a character sadly dies}.

Date Report Written: September 23rd, 2014.

Forever Pilot Blurb

Forever stars Ioan Gruffudd as Dr. Henry Morgan, a New York medical examiner cursed with immortality. When on board a ship during a storm two hundred years ago, Dr. Morgan was shot and thrown overboard. Since then, every time he dies, he returns a few hours later in a nearby body of water without clothes or memory of the intervening time. And he still has no idea why he is immortal to begin with. He can feel pleasure, pain, and probably hunger. He's lived, loved and lost. But he never dies. The only one who knows his secret is his long-time friend Abe. Dr. Morgan spends his time studying the human body - particularly the dead ones down at the morgue - in a search to unravel the mystery of his immortality. When a train wreck gains him the attention of widowed Detective Jo Martinez, Dr. Morgan has a chance at friendship and solving the crime behind the train wreck. But when mysterious anonymous phone calls lead Morgan to believe his secret is compromised, his fight or flight instinct kicks in.

With a fast-paced pilot, humor and some good attention-grabbing writing, this show has a lot of promise to it. Add in a few unique twists, such as returning in the water {sort of a rebirth kind of thing, maybe?}, Forever has enough originality to keep me interested.