This week sees me reading something a little different from my usual escapist fare. Recently LeVar Burton began a reading club on Fable, and while I can’t access it in Canada, they did list the first three books he was recommending, and Go Tell It on the Mountain was at the top of his list….
The Diamond Queen of Singapore (2020) – Ian Hamilton
Somehow, with all the wackiness that was happening last year, I missed the House of Anansi Press’ release of the next Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton. Of course, that just meant I could catch up on it now, and I won’t have quite as long a wait (theoretically) for the next one. This time…
Millennium (1998) – Siren, and In Arcadia Ego
Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) delves into the darkness this week with another pair of episodes of Millennium. Siren was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and first debuted on 20 March, 1998. A cargo ship that is carrying Chinese illegals has more than its fair share of trouble when Frank discovers four dead bodies…
Fast Five (2011) – Justin Lin
Justin Lin delivers another action packed entry in The Fast and The Furious franchise. If the fourth film was about tying off the themes and story threads from the first film, the fifth film really wants to up the game and play in the world the series has created, and brings back familiar faces from…
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) – Don Coscarelli
The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), Micheal (A. Micheal Baldwin), Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and Jody (Bill Thornbury) are back again as Don Coscarelli delivers us a fourth Phantasm outing in a universe that I like visiting and revisiting. Eschewing a lot of the humour that showed up in the previous film, the fourth film is probably…
M*A*S*H (1975) – It Happened One Night, The Late Captain Pierce, and Hey, Doc
The camp has their hands full in It Happened One Night. Written by series developer Larry Gelbart and Simon Munter from a story by Gene Reynolds, this episode first aired on 26 September, 1975. It’s incredibly cold at the 4077th, and on top of that, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Margaret (Loretta Swit) are working the…
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) – Tom McLoughlin
Jason (C.J. Graham) is back for another go around, as he gets resurrected and is now a truly unstoppable killer. Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews – the third actor to play the role, another problem that causes a lack of empathy and continuity with the character) is no longer in a mental institution, but he’s still…
The X-Files (1998) – Mind’s Eye, and All Souls
Tim Minear delivers his second, and final X-Files this week with Mind’s Eye, which first aired on 19 April, 1998, and earned its guest star, Lili Taylor and its editor, Casey O. Rohrs, Emmy nominations. Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called in by a detective, Pennock (Blu Mankuma) for help in…
Mission: Impossible (1967) – The Survivors, and The Bank
The second season of Mission: Impossible continues to up its game with The Survivors. In fact, three episodes in, and I feel this second season has a completely different feel from the first. Sure, there’s the arrival of Phelps (Peter Graves) but, so far, the stories feel sharper, arguably more tense, and pretty damned enjoyable….
Blast From the Past (1997) – Raymond Benson
Benson takes over 007’s adventures from John Gardner, and delivered this short story that first appeared in Playboy in 1997. Benson shows that he can tell a Bond story in true Ian Fleming style, though the ending definitely is a little more adult, but hardly surprising given the context of where it was published. James…
