Category: TV Review

Now That The New X-FILES Is Over…

Let’s talk about what effect the series really has had. Or, better still, let’s see what, John Kenneth Muir, one of the web’s most knowledgeable and entertaining TV critics has to say:

The X-Files: “My Struggle” (January 24, 2016)
by John Kenneth Muir

xfileslogoAfter far too long an absence from television, Chris Carter’s The X-Files (1993-2002) returned to television on Monday night with an episode titled, cannily, “My Struggle.”

That title — not coincidentally, I presume — is also the translated-to-English title of Adolf Hitler’s 1925 literary autobiography, Mein Kampf. read article

John Ostrander’s Grab Bag

by John Ostrander

Dark-Disciple

Random thoughts and vague notions.

New Girl On The Block. Samantha Bee has launched her new weekly news round-up show, Full Frontal. Two episodes have aired so far and, IMO, both were killer. I always loved Samantha Bee on The Daily Show – she was a great combination of fearless and shameless, and she carries that over to her new show. The writing is sharp and the delivery dead on. I loved the segment she did last week on the so-called constitutional crisis arising from the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and how it really isn’t a crisis; it’s the Republican leadership in the Senate refusing to do their job.Check it out.  read article

John Ostrander’s Guide To Writing Secrets

by John Ostrander

SecretOnce again I’m a JohnnyO-come-lately to a pop culture phenomenon. I don’t know why I avoided watching Downton Abbeyon PBS outside of general cussedness. I get like that. Even something I think I might enjoy I’ll not watch or read because everyone else is doing it. Perverse.

Mary decided she wanted to watch the show so we bought the disc of the first season just to “sample” it. Well, that done it. We’ve gotten all the others and sort of binge watched right through the current and final season. Yes, we’re now ahead of friends and relatives who have been fans of the series right along, but don’t worry. I’m not actually going to reveal the upcoming plot twists and turns.

Rather, I want to consider the use of secrets in the series. We all have secrets at varying levels – things we don’t share. If true with us, so it should be with our characters. read article

Dennis O’Neil: Legends of All Time!

Featured_LegendsOfTomorrow

by Dennis O’Neil

In this metaphor, time is a liquid and so we find ourselves doing the breaststroke, swimming back, back until we surface until we surface and…

Where might we be? The air is crisp and clean, the ocean before us is deep blue, the whole world seems freshly minted… Oh, of course! We’re somewhere in the region that will come to be called Before the Common Era and we’re watching a group of alpha male-type gentlemen board a sailing ship. Ah, we have it now. The gents are Jason and his pals who will eventually be dubbed The Argonauts, which means that the ship is the Argo, built by a handy chap named Argus and protected by the goddess Hera. They’re preparing to voyage in quest of some golden fleece for reasons with which we need not bother. There we are – everything tied up in a neat package. Don’t you love it when that happens?

But while we were ogling the BCE version of celebrities, the metaphor morphed. What was liquid is now pages, some yellowed and curling, some clean and white and on those rapidly flipping pages… glimpses. There’s King Arthur and the roundtable bunch. (How do we know that this particular king is Arthur? Because we do, that’s how! Now hush.) And there’s Odysseus and his shipmates. And the four musketeers, who, for some reason, are hailed as the three musketeers. (Maybe the seventeenth century French dudes weren’t so good at counting?) And The Shadow with his helpers, and Doc Savage with his and – the pages are crisper and whiter – the Magnificent Seven and the Dirty Dozen and the Justice Society and the Justice League and the X-Men and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow… read article

Diana Vacc Sees THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES

Shannara-official1

by Diana Vaccarelli

MTV original programming adapts the SHANNARA CHRONICLES, a series of novels written by the late Terry Brooks from 1977 through 2015.
The TV version begins with the world in great danger because the Ellcyrs tree, which is the only piece of magic that is protecting the world from Demons, is dying. Will our little band of warriors succeed in saving the day?

THE GOOD:

• The best parts of SHANNARA are the special effects and the set designs. You really feel like you’re a part of a fascinating new world. The series is visually stunning. And let’s not forget the Demons. Their appearance is simply brilliant.
• The acting is topnotch. Especially that of Manu Bennett, who plays Allanon, a Human Druid with magical powers. read article