We’ve been here before with the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series of B movies: a story of the battle between two groups of criminals. Previously this has tended to be big, organised crime vs small time crooks, but this time we have two big crime bosses in opposition to each other. Continue reading
In Lie to Me, Buffy finds out that life is tough. She is betrayed by an old friend, who she discovers is dying, and that has driven him to horrific extremes. He is a member of yet another teenage cult, this one revering vampires and wanting to be made like them. The other members are “lonely, miserable or bored”.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s meant you couldn’t see Jack Klugman without seeing Oscar Madison. I wasn’t even a big fan of The Odd Couple, but seeing Klugman conjured only that one character: a grouchy, slovenly sports reporter who made life miserable for his roommate, Felix Unger. To see him as Joey Crown is hard to wrap your head around. He’s a sad, fragile man who feels like a failure. This is a drastic change from Oscar Madison and really shows that an actor is far more than the characters they play. Unfortunately, it made me hesitant to like Joey, because I can’t help but see Oscar and I never liked him. But when he begs for a job, swearing he hasn’t been drinking, only for a bottle to fall and shatter on the ground, I realized I felt for Joey; I wanted Joey to get a break. Joey is an alcoholic with very few prospects, and not even “a girl” of his own, so he steps in front of a truck… and finds himself in the Twilight Zone. 
Last week we covered one of the best of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I mentioned we’d have to take another look at it this week, but in a different format. That brings me to a game by developer Waterlily Games and publisher, Frogwares. Frogwares has been responsible for an array of great games featuring the Great Detective, and they’ve each gotten better over time. However, there is one that, while on the older side, remains wonderful since my first playthrough: Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of The Baskervilles. 
Star Trek III is, in many ways, the flip side of the coin that was Star Trek II. In the former, we get a good old spaceship battle akin to the classic episode Balance of Terror (which itself was basically a submarine battle). The Search of Spock gives us planet-side fisticuffs with Kirk beating up Doc from Back to the Future! In Khan, we learn that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. In Spock, we discover that it’s not always the case; sometimes the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. What’s the take away? You have to wait until Star Trek IV to learn that. These 3 movies are so interconnected, you need to accept that it’s one long story. (The Motion Picture kicks off the idea of friendship, but it’s these three movies that really send the points on their voyage home! Sorry… I couldn’t resist!) 
I was annoyed last week, but now I’m just utterly disgusted. I did a bit of homework this time. Seems the production crew behind Space: 1999 wanted to Americanize it a bit for season 2. So, like many sci-fi products that originate in Britain, this show took a serious hit with that decision. While season one wasn’t exactly scintillating, it frequently had a good deal of mind candy. Alas, even the opening credits take a beating, although thankfully, we got rid of those preview clips. 
The title of this miniseries in the Monogatari franchise is a tricky one to translate, with an ambiguity of meaning that is probably beyond the understanding of somebody trying to dip a toe into the Japanese language like me, but our most useful translation is probably “possession story”. This refers to Yotsugi, who is both a possessed doll and a reanimated corpse. She is a fascinating mix of cuteness and slightly disturbing, expressionless inhumanity, and the nature of her existence is important here in comparison to Koyomi, because he is on the verge of becoming an inhuman monster as well. 
It is undoubtedly the most popular of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and by far, the best of the 4 novels. It has been dramatized countless times starring many of the great actors of history including Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Ian Richardson, Peter O’Toole, Max Headroom himself Matt Frewer, Benedict Cumberbatch, Johnny Lee Miller and best of all, the Doctor, Tom Baker. There may not be a definitive version of the story, but there is only one true Sherlock Holmes as Conan Doyle intended: Jeremy Brett. 
Star Trek II is usually considered the best of the classic movie series. (I think that distinction goes to The Undiscovered Country, however this is a close contender and both were directed by Nicholas Meyer.) Like most Trek, there are some truly great moments while the not-so-great ones are pretty few-and-far between. Along the lines of “silly” I draw your attention to the Kobayashi Maru test which has become legendary in Trek lore, but talk about immersive role playing! I can’t imagine military men playing it out and acting like they are being blasted to death. McCoy even makes a comment about his “performance”. Somehow that seems so unlikely. Noticeably absent is any women appearing in bathrobes or revealing outfits. The closest we get to that is Saavik’s off-duty clothing but there’s nothing untoward about it (barring Kirk’s appraising look). In fact, the dialogue generated about her hair during that scene is used solely for comic effect. Possibly the weirdest moment for me is watching Kirk shoot a slug that has just come out of Chekov’s ear. Talk about a dangerously close shot near the man’s head! If Chekov twitched… 
Both Love Live! and its sequel Love Live! Sunshine!! followed basically the same storyline, with an idol group with nine members being assembled, with the goal to make their school famous and save it from impending closure. There were different outcomes, but basically the same plot beats each time. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I embarked on the third iteration of Love Live!, wondering if I were about to watch basically the same story all over again, but with different but similar characters. Luckily, Nijigasaki is such a departure from the previous two shows that it doesn’t even feature an idol group. Well, not quite… 
My Columbo articles normally follow a set format, where I begin by discussing the murderer, his or her motive and the details of the murder and mistakes made. After all, this simply echoes the order in which the information is usually imparted to the viewers in a Columbo episode. That isn’t going to work for Last Salute to the Commodore, because the episode functions instead as a traditional whodunit. This is not Columbo as we know it. 
The year is 1979. I am 7 years old and sitting in my living room in the far corner by the large brown chair when my grandfather comes over. He has a newspaper with him and offers to take me to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He was a fan; not of Star Trek, but of his grandson. He knew I was a fan and loved anything with monsters – “mamones”, as he called them. Off we went to explore the final frontier. About half-way through it, I was done! It was a slow affair for a 7 year old. We got up, made it to the back of the theater and… something in my 7 year old brain realized: good or bad, my grandfather and I were spending time together and that made it worth staying. Just to be there with him, we sat back down for the second half. Lead Writers
Roger Pocock
Mike Loschiavo-
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