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Reviews
The Conners: We Continue to Truck (2019)
Know thyself
True to its characters, themes, and storylines, it has evolved into a show that has grown emotionally all the while respecting its past.
The series and its very true-to-origin theme (lack of money how that effects every aspect of one's life, choices, & outcomes) has been like a walk down memory lane, meeting a few new friends along the way.
A tip of the hat to the writers and directors, the incredible cast, and the crew who made this first season an emotional walk - what felt like memory lane.
We acknowledge the ghost while stepping into the future, no matter how shadowed, terrifying, and exciting every change may be.
Fallout: The Ghouls (2024)
Walton Goggins
It takes one hell of an actor to slowly seduce the viewer - especially as a ghoul whose suffered the effects of extreme exposure to nuclear materials.
Goggins embodies the antihero with such charm, charisma, & apt sarcasm that one cannot help but wonder, is there anything Walton cannot do?
His southern way - the drawl, parlance, swagger seduces the viewer so slowly that you're feeling empathy for a ghoul before you even realize it.
This dystopian series serves as a warning to us forgetful apes utilizing wit, humor, music, and subtle acting talent that draws the viewer in slowly & holds them still.
A masterful work that uses all of its tools - set, lighting, & soundtrack to transport as transcend.
I'm hooked & happy to hold still to see where the story takes me.
Gilmore Girls: Those Are Strings, Pinocchio (2003)
Season three: A Full Review
This season is all about growth and how each step taken leads towards change, and there's a dash of "Daddy Issues" thrown in to keep things spicy.
It's Rory's final year at Chilton and with it comes, tests, college applications, and saying goodbye to Jess - which viewers saw coming a mile away.
Lorelai is dating, but it's not Luke so we're not getting attached to this one, and frankly neither is Lorelai. Luke is too busy trying to keep Jess on the straight-and-narrow to even notice women, let alone Lorelai.
This season is very Paris - full of stress but pointed in the right direction, and the competitive nature of her friendship with Rory propels them both toward the future, that is of course very much intertwined.
It's another great season in Stars Hallow leaving us anxious to return to visit and see what's changed and what stayed the same.
Gilmore Girls: Raincoats and Recipes (2004)
Season Four: A Full Review
This season was all about realizations, that settling-in doesn't always mean settling for, and that even good things come to a sad end so that something else can grow.
There's the continued battle between parent and child - Lorelai verses her parents (her mother mostly) and Rory against her own mother, each one trying to grow against the confines the other placed upon them.
This season is all about growing pains and those "growing up" changes that seem to happen while you weren't paying attention.
Another great season, a real one with all the messy ups and downs that we've come to love, appreciate, and look forward to in the comforting chaos of Stars Hallow.
Gilmore Girls: I Can't Get Started (2002)
Season Two: Full Review
This season is all about "boy" drama - for mother as well as daughter, which follows a well-established set pattern throughout the entire series.
Honestly, I believe, I hope this series is studied as part as a psychology program for it displays repeated patterns of behavior that are destructive, attention-seeking, and somewhat petulant - especially for VLG who is the adult but too often tantrums, pouts, and withholds if she doesn't get her way.
When I'm being too hard on Lorelai, I must remind myself that she has been on her own since the age of sixteen and cut her a little slack.
This season is all about mother and daughter falling into old patterns and the chaos that it creates in their lives.
Gilmore Girls: Love, Daisies and Troubadours (2001)
Season One - A Review
Every episode is "a day in the life of The Gilmores" in the fairy tale town of Stars Hollow - where everybody knows your name, your business, and who your relatives are.
My husband introduced me to this series years ago and it's been on our "Binge Watch Favorites" ever since, & it never fails to inspire love, laughter, and just a touch of Lucifer's heated anger.
The seasonal settings, the always fitting soundtrack, and the moving storylines draw you in slowly and hold you hopeful for a happy ending, even when one is impossible.
With every episode your alliances will shift; compassion for mother, daughter, grand-mother - evolve into a relationship, the time you've invested into this wonderful show, its characters, and their growth through this often painful thing we call life.
Snack on This! (2022)
Misinformation
Although this is just a rebrand of the much better Food Network's Unwrapped series, I gave Snack on This a try but the misinformation in the very first episode was a disappointment and a turn-off.
In the age of information to use any platform to perpetuate misinformation about the food industry is both dangerous and irresponsible. Organic does not mean healthier nor does it mean pesticide-free, so to allow any company to say so is irresponsible.
Buzzwords, useless labels, and half-truths are used as marketing tools to profit on people's fear and ignorance; if a show is going to do this then it should warn its viewers before hand and say that the material you are about to watch has been paid for by the companies shown.
Sadly, this show just comes off as half-hour infomercials.
The West Wing: In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part II (2000)
PTSD
It's the days following the shooting, the violence against the presidential body, and we see the detrimental effects, the strain it's placed on the office, the staff, and all those in that circle.
The writing, the characters - emoting the wear & tear of the body politic and those who take up arms against it. Through flashback, musical score, and artful lighting, we are drawn into the story, the people, and all they are going through.
Even in shadow, through pain, and amid the chaos, we are gifted with the first glimpses of hope - the ones that drew each character to the here and now, serving at the pleasure of the President.
The West Wing: In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part I (2000)
More shootings than days in 2023
No matter how many times I've watched this episode and been shocked by its violence, I've been moved to tears by its comradery & compassion.
In times like these - where the number of mass shootings outnumber the days in a year, and the ever- increasing frustration that gun violence has gotten worse, not better, this series and this story arc should be taught as part as every American Civics class.
The storyline, characters, and emotive build-up to the second season, to its tomorrow, and how so few want to touch the issue - let alone deal with it, we are moved by the action, the very human drama, and the rippling effects that gun violence had on its victims, the community, the country.
We remember Charlie Young and feel how/why he came to be at The White House, as our heart aches for how little we've come, how many lives we lost, how this is still an issue in this country.
Spin City: Hello Charlie (2000)
If you're watching on Amazon
Having watched Spin City when it was first broadcast and binge-watching it thanks to Amazon Prime, a serious "heads-up" to warn bingers that the end of season 4 & most all of season 5 are not listed/aired out of sequence; example - "burgers of wrath" is listed as the 2nd episode on Amazon, but it's the 9th episode on imdb.
To watch the series in chronological order follow the imdb episode titles, not how they're listed/run on Amazon Prime.
After the departure of Michael J. Fox, the series is carried to its end by the
remaining original cast most notably, Richard Kind & Alan Ruck who steal every scene and gift with much laughter.
The Secrets of Hillsong: False Prophets (2023)
A pack of wolves
The documentary thus far has exposed the father & son's tandem demise despite yet another religious plot of silence, obfuscation, and excuses for the years of sexual abuse and decades of cover-up.
When any religion becomes a corporation its downfall becomes inevitable because at its root it is about power, greed, and the manipulation needed to maintain it.
Hillsong is just another Catholic church with its abuses, silence, and bullying - going as far as using scripture to instill fear and guilt.
This exposée is incredibly well done; the personal interviews are emotive, informative, & incredibly effective. A welcome change from other documentaries is the music; it is subtle, not at all distracting, & moves the story forward.
Having watched every episode I cannot fathom how more offenders haven't been rightly prosecuted, and how Hillsong hasn't been shutdown for good.
The Secrets of Hillsong: Sins of the Father (2023)
All about the isims.
Three episodes in the viewer is given a peek into Hillsong's typical isms; the failures of any & all religions, the sexism and racism inherent in this performative religious culture.
Be it the head of Hillsong and his excuses and justifications, or the flash of Lentz and his crocodiletears it all comes off as a performance to illicit pity and forgiveness.
This organization is about power, greed, and corruption and how they never want the gravy-train to stop. It's all about the mansions, expensive cars & designer clothes on the backs of the sheep who willingly sign-up to be fleeced.
Religion is big business and this documentary shines a telling light on its greed, corruption, & its tax-free wealth.
Line of Duty: The Probation (2012)
Season One, a full review
A character driven drama that is welcome and greatly appreciated by this viewer especially after the 1hr crime/law series that too often feel rushed and unrealistic.
Lenny James steals every scene & with apt acting prowess solicits suspicion and anger as well as sympathy from the viewer; a fevered-ego who believed he could have his cake and eat it too.
Anyone familiar to popular British series will recognize many faces and enjoy the characters flexing their acting muscles; especially Adrain Dunbar, Liz White, & Mark Bonnar.
Loathed the last minute of the last season as it serves as a most frustrating reality - criminals often go unpunished & cops looked down upon for failing to "get their man."
New York Undercover: Catman Comes Back (1995)
Season One Review
Diversity, equality, & inclusion before it became stigmatized and stymied in politics (*sic*) These character driven stories draw the viewer in and hold their attention with realistic chemistry and on-the-job tension between Williams and Torres - skillfully played by Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo.
This series is very 90's due to its look, sound, and tech, but extremely progressive with its cases, victims, and too-often prejudicial legal system that frustratingly continues to this day.
I must admit I did find much of the music in the first season distracting - except for the closing musical number at Natalie's. Too often the music revealed too much too soon; hip hop (action) R&B (love scene); the music made it predictable.
I miss the day's when shows had 26 episodes to develop characters and storylines, because the 8 to 10 episodes we get today - especially through streaming networks are just too short and too rushed.
NY Undercover is worth the watch - especially if you can binge-watch this 90's time capsule. The city, its fashion, and to this day relevant stories are a gem to look back on, remember, and realize just how far we still have to go.
The Blacklist: Raymond Reddington (No. 00): Good Night (2023)
Red's Swansong
Although I'm saddened by this great series coming to an end, its finale left me satisfied for I was reminded of Tristan's end (Brad Pitt's character) in Legends of the Fall & One Stab's narration; "It was a good death."
Red's end - the hints were given throughout the final season in almost every episode, small tips of the hat to his last bow - Red letting go of his earthly possessions because he knew he had no need for them where he was going. Every step he took was toward this, his death, and he was going to meet it on his terms when he was ready.
The last song said it all, The Gipsy Kings Spanish version of Sinatra's "My Way" and what a way it was, a true antihero, one who met the sword and defiantly pushed it in deeper.
I do find the last scene was rushed leaving me feeling cheated out of the reaction of his friends to the news, but then again Dembe's monolog of Red's raging against the dying of the light - the raw emotion of it, his voice breaking, that tear rolling down his cheek was enough.
Cold Case: Shattered (2010)
Full Series Review
I attempted to watch the series when it first aired on network television but due to its changing airtime - especially on Canadian networks, my viewing was sporadic at best. I was thrilled to find the series on Max (hbo) and binge watch the series at my leisure; between 6 to 10 episodes a day where the story and character development could truly be appreciated.
The music - which helps sets time and place were the bait that hooked me and kept me, eager and curious as to what the next episode would bring. The characters and their comradery - how it developed was both engaging and pleasing. Some of the subjects covered are emotive, timeless, and incredibly effective to the overall "real" feel of the show. Cold Case isn't just another procedural drama for it leaves its mark.
Cold Case just stays with you.
Leguizamo Does America: Los Angeles (2023)
Wanting more
A thoroughly enjoyable and informative series, one that left me wanting more, more places, more culture, more history.
John was his usual effervescent self when introducing viewers to people, places, and delicious plates all-the-while sharing historical facts with just the right pinch of salt.
From New York to Los Angeles John is a wonderful tour guide leaving the viewer wanting to discover more about these locations, its citizens, and their wonderful cultures. Be it food, fashion, or music, John's musings and observations are fun and factual.
I'm hoping for another season and the opportunity to discover new places and people through his eyes.
Leguizamo Does America: New York (2023)
The First Step
A most engaging introduction into what promises to be an entertaining as well as informative series about Latin culture & its bountiful contributions to the country & its history.
John Leguizamo's effervescent personality and energy draws the viewer in & holds them while teaching them about LatinX communities in New York City - how its grown, and the many people who shape it, encourage it, and support it.
The hour goes bye quickly and leaves you looking forward to the next episode, the next destination. John is the perfect guide for this journey into what can only be described as the beat, the rhythm of America's heart.
Clerks III (2022)
We few, we happy few...
A trip down memory lane if given the gift of forethought & intention; nostalgia at its finest with a tip of the hat - in thanks to the past, to the life lessons learned along the way.
Having been a "board" member & fan of Kevin's work since Mallrats and caught every wink to those beginnings, there's a maturity and a heartfelt middle-finger to the naysayers who doubted Smith's self-actualization-in-progress style of storytelling.
Comfortable and content in style & context, Smith weaves another chapter, another layer to the story, reintroducing us to our friends and their messy lives - still & always in progress.
So, strap on your jock and knee pads for the beautiful mess that most of us will willingly admit, "I'm not even supposed to be here today."
Big Love (2006)
The original organized crime
There's no business like the religion business and the hypocrisy and hubris it oscillates between, and this series highlights and exposes it brilliantly.
Artfully acted in its not-too-suble dramatized exposé of the extremism, misogyny, and greed-fueled corruption that is as the core of all organized religions.
The writing wanes here and there but conveys strength, character commitment, and story arc that aims, hits, & bullseyes toward its obvious end - tragedy and those left broken in its wake.
An enjoyable binge-watch that enthralls as much as it shocks and repulses. Don't let the "happy" tune intro fool you; there's little to no happy endings & that is the message, the lesson, the moral.
Saving Grace (2007)
An angel & a hedonist: Full series review
An incredible series that is full of the most interesting of contradictions; an angel who seems more like a trucker & a cop who appears to be a slave to her base appetites are each other's companions, therapist, and conscience.
Holly Hunter delivers a fully developed character as Grace Hanadarko, one who is flawed as she is perfect - a perfect mess who is great at what she does, solving crimes. Leon Rippy spreads his wings (pun intended) and fully inhabits them as Leon, knowing just what to say and when to say it.
The scene stealer for me was Laura San Giacomo's performance as Rhetta Rodriguez - the station's Forensic Pathologist and Grace's best friend from childhood. Her strength, vulnerability, & comedic timing play off of Holly Hunter's intensity - it's a joy to watch.
From pilot to finale the characters grow along with the writing through well-crafted story telling. Three seasons went by too soon, too fast, as you're left wishing for just one more.
According to Jim: Dress to Kill Me (2004)
Woke before it was an accusation
A wonderful episode that speaks volumes about a loving father and his taking a step toward self-actualization with the help of his son. Poignant in all the right places without being preachy or overly sweet, Jim does the right thing for his son for no other reason than love, & it's beautiful to behold.
Odd how the Josh Hawley's & Ron DeSantis's of the maga-world claim "woke" is new and responsible for its supposed weakness when in reality its compassion is its strength.
A heartwarming episode that every father should watch with his sons as well as his daughters for it is these teachable moments that offer the greatest opportunities to grow & to learn.
Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Full Series Review
A worthwhile series that starts off incredibly strong & maintains its seductive pull throughout. Reminiscent of The Sopranos but set in the prohibition era, the attention to detail - from clothing, set design, to music draws you in and holds your attention.
Steve Buscemi's performance captivates as it grows to eventually repulse, but still you root for him - top dog to underdog, to wanting out, you want him to make it out alive.
Characters comes and go, the writing lags here and there, but overall the show is worth the time and attention required to fully appreciate its genius.
I throughly enjoyed it & highly recommend it.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Dynamic Duo
I loved it when it was first released & still do to this day, & has become an integral part of my family's Christmas Movies marathon every year - yes, right along with Die Hard.
Geena Davis's Samantha Caine - "Charly" was a female action hero before there ever was such a thing or gendre. Smart, agile, beautiful, & like the Energizer Bunny she can take a beating and keeps on kicking.
Samuel L. Jackson is cool, relatively calm, and brilliantly collected in this film. Quick with his quintessential and expertly placed cursing, he's Charly's sidekick, partner, and unskilled protector.
Even the well chosen music plays a part in propelling character and plot toward its explosive conclusion.
I'm a Die Hard fan of The Long Kiss Goodnight - one who is still hoping for a sequel.
NewsRadio: New Hampshire (1999)
Old Friends Revisited
A weekly comedy that - thanks to Amazon Prime we can revisit and reminisce about its time and place in television history vis-à-vis our own lives & our place in it.
Where were you when the show premiered & where were you when the finale aired? Do you recall the wondering you did - all fans did after the news of Phil Hartman's murder came to light?
Revisiting the series and its talented cast now: the brilliant Stephen Root stealing every scene. Dave Foley with his quintessential Canadian humor post Kids in the Hall. The understated & too often under-appreciated Maura Tierney before she became Abby Lockheart on e.r.
Familiar names, faces, and voices that are so nice to revist - like a friend we've not seen in far too long, or that favorite blanket we had growing up that we can't help but hold onto. News Radio is like going home - if that time & place were still there waiting for you.