The X-Files (1996) – Sanguinarium, and Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Valerie Mayhew and Vivian Mayhew pen Sanguinarium,an episode that combines witchcraft and dark magics against the backdrop of a cosmetic surgery clinic. First airing on 10 November, 1996, this episode sees agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) called in to investigate a violent death during a run of the mill plastic surgery operation,…

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – Donald F. Glut

After Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, we were treated to two more novels, Han Solo at Star’s End, and Han Solo’s Revenge both written by Brian Daley. Both novels debuted in 1979, and I read them last year on vacation. And my sister I both owned one, I had Star’s End, she had Revenge. But…

True Grit (1969) – Henry Hathaway

Ten Bad Dates With De Niro brings me a classic western on their list of titles that bring movie tears to the eye. John Wayne delivers an Oscar winning turn as Rooster Cogburn in Henry Hathaway’s cinematic adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel. I won’t lie, I came to the Coen Brothers version of the story…

Shogun (1980) – Disc 2

The epic mini-series adaptation of James Clavell’s novel (he also served as one of the show’s producers), Shogun continues this week, as I dive into disc two, which includes episode two and parts of episode three which originally aired on the 16th and 17th September, 1980, following the airing of the three hour premiere on…

Strange Weather (2017) – Joe Hill

Joe Hill delivers another great read with this collection of four short novels, all of whom, in some form or another tie in with strange weather. Each of the stories are about one hundred pages each, and completely captivate with Hill’s addictive narratives, and engaging characters, details, and horrifying moments. Snapshot delves into a bit…

Moonlighting (1989) – Perfetc, and When Girls Collide

This week brings us the penultimate instalment of my Moonlighting exploration. It all wraps up, somehow, next week. But first let’s get through these two episodes. Up first is Perfetc. Written by James Kramer, Chris Ruppenthal and Jerry Stahl from a story by Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn it debuted on 9 April, 1989. David…

Foresight (2020) – Ian Hamilton

This week, Ian Hamilton takes us back to another chapter in ‘Uncle’ Chow Tung’s life. Originally created for the Ava Lee book series, Uncle served as Ava’s mentor and partner. Now with this new series, Hamilton continues to fill out this character’s back story with his signature whip smart dialogue and frenetic story pacing. It’s…

Tides of the Dark Crystal (2018) – J.M. Lee

The third volume of the Dark Crystal novels continues to interweave with the Netflix series, Age of Resistance, even though some of the details are different. That doesn’t detract from the story, it just another version of the telling, perhaps a song told by Kylan the Gelfling as I join him, Naia, Tavra, Amri of…

Song of the Dark Crystal (2017) – J.M. Lee

The second novel in The Dark Crystal series by J.M. Lee (again featuring illustrations by Cory Godbey) picks up just after the events of the first book, and actually ties in with episode four of The Age of Resistance series on Netflix, though some of the details of characters meeting have changed since the novel…

The Haunting of Hill House (2018) – Blu-Ray Review

Last year Netflix dropped the addictive, binge it all at once series, The Haunting of Hill House from writer-director Mike Flanagan. And now it comes home on blu-ray with extended episodes and commentary tracks to enhance the viewing experience as one of the most famous haunted house tales comes home in a new way. Taking…