Category: TV Review

Classic TV – The Alfred Hitchcock, Um, Touch

The Master of Suspense (and Comic Timing)
The Master of Suspense (and Comic Timing)

by Doug Snauffer

I love Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and its later incarnation, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour), but I hate Hitchcock’s famous and oh-so-skillfully delivered epilogues.  Earlier this morning, for example, MeTV, a classic TV mini-network, aired one of the best hour-long episodes, “Ten Minutes From Now,” starring actor Donnelly Rhodes (Battlestar Galactica) as an unstable artist/bombing suspect.

The episode has a great hook at the end, which I won’t reveal. But afterwards Hitchcock made his customary closing comments in which he drolly offered a wrap-up to the story that basically ruined the wonderful, surprise ending that the episode’s writer and director had so skillfully crafted.

Hitchcock did this regularly, on an almost-weekly basis.  Viewers would tune in and watch in suspense, for example, as someone committed the perfect crime, only to have Hitchcock come on for his closing epilogue and reveal the man was stopped for speeding a mile down the road, broke down and confessed on the spot, and is now serving hard time. read article

So How’s the 2016 Fall TV Schedule Shaping Up, Mrs. Lincoln?

A couple in love? Or are they holding on to each other for dear life?
A couple in love? Or are they holding on to each other for dear life?

by Rogelio Charles

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rogelio Charles, the Luis Miguel of wordsmithing, watches some Fall premieres so you don’t have to. Take it away, Rogelio:

My goal last week was to watch the complete opening episodes of at least four broadcast network shows.

I didn’t make it. read article

Cassandra Hennessey: Why I Stopped Watching Fear The Walking Dead

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Sinking ship?

by Cassandra Hennessey

Oh, it pains me to write this, it really does; but I have not watched Fear the Walking Dead since its return in August.

Yes! Me; The Champion of the show since Season One, Episode One! Me; The one who was giving people grief on Twitter to have patience and let the show develop before judging it as “boring” or “not having enough walkers to make it interesting”! To be honest, I haven’t had the interest or the unction to continue as an avid audience member.

I know, it’s shocking to me, too. read article

Doug Snauffer sees “Major Crimes”

TVWriter™’s and Larry Brody’s Facebook friends have the best posts on their timelines. Take this one, from yesterday:

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by Doug Snauffer

I didn’t even know MAJOR CRIMES was still on the air. Not that I really care for it anymore anyways. read article

And You Think Your Family Has Problems?

Lew Ritter Reviews “Bloodline” Season Two
by Lew Ritter

Ah, to be a member of the Rayburn clan. They are rich and influential in their community. The family owns a popular bed and breakfast Inn in the sunniest, most romantic part of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, aka the Florida Keys. At one point, they were going to name a local landmark after the family. Yet like many families, the bright surface image rarely reflects the murky problems laying beneath the calm surface.

This spring saw the release of the second season of Netflix’s popular series Bloodline. It is the Family Noir drama created by Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman. They were the producers of the wonderful series Damages. Season One dealt with the arrival and dramatic departure of one of the most troubled member of the Rayburn clan.

The sudden arrival of Danny, the older brother and “black sheep” of the family, during the celebration of fifty years of the Inn signaled trouble in Paradise. His troubled past and engagement in low level drug dealing was a blight on the family’s reputation. He had become an outcast because he had caused the tragic drowning death of one of the younger siblings. Danny played with working class gusto by Ben Mendelson was sympathetic despite his criminal past. read article