Category Archives: Television

Love, Death and Robots: The Dump

Perhaps if it were called The Junkyard, I might have liked it more.  The unfortunate truth is I have a bit of a bias myself: I don’t like things to be low class.  Crass behavior puts me off and I … Continue reading

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The Avengers: Lobster Quadrille

This is an oddly unambitious episode to end the third season of The Avengers. There are none of the madcap schemes and grand criminal plans of previous weeks, and instead we have a straightforward smuggling plot that feels like it … Continue reading

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Buck Rogers: Escape from Wedded Bliss

Let me get this right: Ardala is back and she is searching for a human husband and the top of the line is a guy she met once for a few minutes?  First off, isn’t Earth the enemy of the … Continue reading

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Mrs Columbo: Caviar with Everything

The first episode of Mrs Columbo was about 90 minutes, but every subsequent episode has been around the 45 minute mark. This is significantly shorter than a Columbo episode, despite still showing us the murder first and then having Kate … Continue reading

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Choices

There are lots of choices we have to face in life, some of which are potentially life-changing, and possibly the most important of all is what we do when we finish school. Whatever we choose to do, we will probably … Continue reading

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The Twilight Zone: The Mind and the Matter

Back in the early 90’s, I was just over 20 years old and would spend the weekends with my friends.  We started out most Friday nights with a movie then we’d grab dinner and hang out all night often with … Continue reading

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Love, Death and Robots: Good Hunting

Sometimes a story hits all the right marks and manages to say something even when the basis isn’t that deep.  What we really have here is a revenge story; revenge against cruelty and tyranny. It revs the engines and has … Continue reading

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The Avengers: Esprit de Corps

Brigadier General Sir Ian Stuart-Bollinger and his underling Captain Trench have an absurd plan to overthrow the monarchy and replace the Queen with a descendant of the Stuart Dynasty. That descendant happens to be Cathy Gale, thanks to some faked … Continue reading

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Buck Rogers: Cosmic Whiz Kid

Oh dear, what have we got here?   When this series starts, I rapidly zip past the opening scenes of what’s to come because I think that’s a deplorable thing to do with an episode.  I realize this is sort of … Continue reading

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Mrs Columbo: A Riddle for Puppets

We start this episode with a lot of shots of disembodied ventriloquist dummy heads, which had me on edge right from the beginning. The story centres around ventriloquist Noel Abbott, who is a recognisable, famous entertainer, but takes the trouble … Continue reading

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Earshot

[Trigger warning: gun massacre theme discussed.]  On 20th April 1999, 12 students and a teacher were murdered at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. One week later, Earshot was due to air, and was postponed until September, eventually airing just … Continue reading

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The Twilight Zone: Shadow Play

Is it me or did Dennis Weaver have something a bit David Tennant about him?  It caught my eye when watching his performance as Adam Grant and I couldn’t shake it.  Anyway, Shadow Play, by Charles Beaumont, was one of … Continue reading

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Love, Death and Robots: When the Yogurt Took Over

This was the fastest episode of the season – coming in at 6 minutes – and at first glance, it seems to be just a lightweight comedy.  The voiceover that tells the story of what happened when the yogurt takes … Continue reading

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The Avengers: Concerto

If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s 60s television shows with stock footage. Nigel Stock footage, to be precise. It’s a name that sends shivers down the spine of any Prisoner fan, for a start. In Concerto, he provides … Continue reading

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Buck Rogers: Planet of the Amazon Women

I get it: this show is based on a pulp serial from “back in the day” but did they have to embrace the history so well by coming up with such cheesy names?  Planet of the Amazon Women features none … Continue reading

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Mrs Columbo: Murder is a Parlor Game

Mrs Columbo is still hanging on the coat-tails of the parent show, but unlike the first episode this one could easily have worked as an actual Columbo episode, with minimal rewriting, so let’s return to a review format that regular … Continue reading

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Enemies

This is an expertly-crafted episode of Buffy, which pivots around two huge twists in the tale. The first is the return of Angelus, and the second is the non-return of Angelus. Both of them work brilliantly. Even on repeat viewing, … Continue reading

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The Twilight Zone: The Silence

For the love of God, Serling is doing it again: he’s so fascinated with jerks that it seems like the only type of character he’s writing about this season.  Ok, I know he’s not solely doing that, but give me … Continue reading

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Love, Death and Robots: Sucker of Souls

I have yet to come across one of these that hasn’t been based on a short story and it makes me consider how this must have come across in written format.  Sucker of Souls is about an archeological expedition that unleashes … Continue reading

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The Avengers: The Charmers

This episode sees Steed having to work with “the other side” when it seems there is a third party killing off both their organisations’ operatives. That puts Steed in a very interesting situation, and the ease with which he strolls … Continue reading

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