These two entries in The X-Files, while solid, failed to engage me as the previous stories of the season, and the series did. It’s not for lack of performances, I just wasn’t captivated by them, and they both seemed to circle around concepts of revenge. Salvage was written by Jeffrey Bell, and first aired on…
Author: TD Rideout
Eternals (2021) – Chloe Zhao
The MCU unveils its latest film this week, and Chloe Zhao delivers the most diverse, and inclusive cast and storyline that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen to date. It’s also one of the comics in the Marvel family that I don’t know very well, but that allowed me to go into the film blissfully…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – Nicole, and The Vault
Well, if Joan Collins was good enough for for Captain Kirk, then the IMF’s Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) should be so lucky… Nicole was written by Paul Playdon, and first aired on 30 March, 1969, and tries, within the confines of the tropes of the Mission: Impossible format, to tell a different kind of story….
The Hardy Boys: The Missing Chums (1928/1962) – Franklin W. Dixon
Frank and Joe Hardy are back in their fourth adventure, The Missing Chums. This quick-paced, fast read book sees the brothers asked by the local Bayport P.D. to help investigate a local shantytown, while their father, Fenton, the renowned detective is called in to investigate a series of national bank robberies… and then there’s one…
Star Trek: Picard – Last Best Hope (2020) – Una McCormack
It has been a while since I slipped into a Star Trek novel. I’m still back on The Original Series, and the last one I read was 1995’s The Ashes of Eden, the first novel that introduced the Shatner-Verse version of Trek novels. But I was eager to see how the newer novels tied in…
The X-Files (2000/2001) – Via Negativa, and Surekill
Agent Doggett (Robert Patrick) takes on a killer who can seemingly murder his victims via dreams, while Scully (Gillian Anderson) undergoes some medical tests – is it her cancer? it it the pregnancy? We don’t know yet. Via Negativa was written by Frank Spotnitz, and first debuted on 17 December, 2000. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) pairs…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – David Yates
This is it. It all led to this film, after seven films, the Harry Potter franchise comes to its close with this, the second part of the adaptation of the seventh and final novel. Picking up where the first film left off with Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) claiming the Elder Wand, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma…
The Witch (2015) – Richard Eggers
Eggers’ atmospheric The Witch, is always an enjoyable Halloween watch, it’s beautifully executed, wonderfully scripted, and has everything you would expect in a classical telling of an 17th century new world fairy tale. A devout family in New England, whose father, Will (Ralph Ineson) has been deemed by the local village to be too extreme…
M*A*S*H (1978) – Tea and Empathy, Your Hit Parade, and What’s Up, Doc?
Bill Idelson pens Tea and Empathy, which first aired on 17 January, 1978. It’s another of those episodes that has a lots going on. Hawkeye (Alan Alda) deals with a British Major, Ross (Bernard Fox), who demands that Hawkeye release his still injured soldiers so that they may return to action. B.J. (Mike Farrell) deals…
Apostle (2018) – Gareth Evans
There’s a lot to unpack in Gareth Evans’ film, Apostle, there are concepts of religious tenets, blood, sacrifice, family, worship, deification, and faith, all of it wrapped up in a character driven tale starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen. If you try to take it as the straightforward tale that the film’s plotline offers, you’re…
The Mind Reels 