Reshaping Television To my regular readers, I hope you’ll bear with me as I do another rare digression from my usual sci-fi/fantasy/horror-related content for this column, but a television legend has passed away, and I couldn’t bring myself to focus on another subject without first paying tribute to the late, great writer/producer Norman Lear, who…
“Godzilla Minus One” (2023) is a HUGE plus…
******GODZILLA-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I’ve been a Godzilla fan since I was a little boy (“The King (of Monsters) and I”); from watching the increasingly silly English-dubbed movies on TV (seen/own them all) to worshipping at the altar of my green plastic Aurora Godzilla model kit. Highlights of my long love for the franchise reached a peak…
Doctor Who Special #1: “The Star Beast” reunites the ‘DoctorDonna’…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The first of three new Doctor Who specials starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate has aired/streamed on BBC and Disney+ respectively, and it’s a sentimental trip through the nostalgia lane of the spacetime continuum. When we last saw her, the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) had mysteriously regenerated back into the familiar, male face…
Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Children in Need Special, “Destination: Skaro,” revisits old foes…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** A new Doctor Who “Children In Need” charity special titled “Destination: Skaro” debuted this week. In this seven-minute short, a freshly-regenerated Doctor (Tenth Doctor David Tennant, returning to the role) accidentally makes a brief crash landing on the planet Skaro at a pivotal, foreboding moment in the planet’s history; the unveiling of the…
For All Mankind, S4E2: “Have a Nice Sol” chronicles the Martians…
*****PHOBOS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** I wasn’t planning to do episode-by-episode recap/reviews of entire TV shows anymore (as I used to do with each new episode of Star Trek), because they reduce the overall time I have for other equally compelling topics. My new modus operandi for this column is to only highlight an interesting episode every now…
Retro-Musings: 1975’s “Rollerball” plays a mean game…
*****TRACKSIDE SPOILERS!***** The dystopian sports allegory has been a subgenre of science fiction films since the 1970s. These films usually take place in a not-too distant future where deadly games are presented in a world not unlike the waning days of Ancient Rome, where gladiatorial matches kept the public distracted and docile enough for caesars…
For All Mankind, S4.E1; “Glasnost” takes the series into a very different 21st century…
*****HELIOS-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The AppleTV series “For All Mankind” returns for a 4th year, time-jumping from season 3’s alternate-1990s into an alternate-2003. In this road-not-taken future, where the Russians beat Americans to the moon in 1969, manned spaceflight has rapidly turned commonplace, with the Moon and Mars offering 21st century gold rushes to those with the…
“Spirited Away: Live on Stage” wills Miyazaki’s modern animated classic into reality…
*****YUBABA-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Nearly seven years ago in late 2016, one of the first columns I did for this site was on losing “my Miyazaki virginity” by agreeing to see my wife’s favorite movie, “Spirited Away,” which was returning to theaters for its 15-year anniversary. While anime is not necessarily my favorite genre, I saw something…
Quantum Leap: “One Night in Koreatown” tackles the L.A. Riots of 1992…
*****ZIGGY-SIZED SPOILERS!***** NBC-Peacock’s rebooted “Quantum Leap” is halfway into its second season now, and the latest episode was another high mark for this enjoyable series, as Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) leaps into an 18-year old Korean-American kid working with his brother in his father’s shoe store at the onset of the Los Angeles Riots…
Criterion’s remastered “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) puts “Night” in a whole new light…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!***** Note: This will not be a traditional review of George Romero’s classic “Night of the Living Dead,” since there are already countless books/reviews plumbing the depths of this groundbreaking movie (more about those below). This is a review of the Criterion BluRay of the film. In the Darkest “Night” In an age where, sadly,…
“Astronomy Bizarre”: an evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson in Riverside, California…
October 19th, 2023 This past week, my wife and I had tickets to see famed Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Fox Performing Arts Center at 7:30 pm in downtown Riverside, California, for a one-night only event. Neil deGrasse Tyson is (for those living under a media blackout these past ten years) the famed astronomer,…
“The Haunted Mansion” (2023) finally gets the Disneyland ride juuust right…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS AHEAD!***** First Time’s Not Quite the Charm… Before I get into 2023’s “The Haunted Mansion,” I wanted to drop a few lines about the first live-action version of “The Haunted Mansion,” which debuted 20 years ago (feels like both yesterday and forever ago). 2003 is a time when formerly R-rated comedy superstar Eddie…