The Longest Yard (1974) – Robert Aldrich

Burt Reynolds headlines as Paul Crewe, a former pro quarterback, who is not the nicest person. He’s abusive, violent, and isn’t always the best teammate. After a particularly ugly interaction with a woman the top of the film, Crewe ends up in a prison, run by Warden Hazen (Eddie Albert) and Captain Knauer (Ed Lautrer)….

Smallville (2004) – Facade, and Devoted

Facade was written by Holly Harold and debuted on 6 October, 2004. It’s his senior year, and Clark (Tom Welling) ignores Jonathan (John Schneider) and signs up for high school football, whose team has a new assistant coach, Jason (Jensen Ackles), Lana’s (Kristin Kreuk) new fella. That raises a number of ethical questions. We also…

Smallville (2001) – Hothead, and X-Ray

Hothead takes onto the Smallville Crows, the highschool football team overseen by the arrogant Coach Arnold (Dan Lauria). And Arnold is going to be our freak of the week. Written by Greg Walker this episode, which is helping to continue setting the pace and style for the series, first aired on 30 October, 2001. Arnold…

Smallville (2001) – Pilot, and Metamorphosis

The Superman mythos got the teen drama remix with Smallville. Perfectly cast and solidly scripted, the series ran for ten seasons, and while I did enjoy it, I never got past season five originally. We’re going to fix that this time out. The show launched with its Pilot on 16 October, 2001. Written by Alfred…

TIFF24: Ick dir. Joseph Kahn

I had a great time with Kahn’s Detention so was ready to happily slip into his latest effort, Ick. A bit of a combination between Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, Night of the Living Dead and The Faculty, Kahn’s film suggests that there is a lot of fun to be had, but it…

Magnum P.I. (2020) – The Night Has Eyes, and A World of Trouble

Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins (Perdita Weeks) are on the hunt for a stolen urn that may have been used in a murder and may in fact be more valuable than initially thought. Higgins also has to deal with the fact that her temporary visa is days away from expiring. Written by Ashley Charbonnet, this…

Magnum P.I. (2018) – Sudden Death, and Death is Only Temporary

Magnum (Jay Hernandez) helps T.C. (Stephen Hill) and one of his football little leaguers in Sudden Death. It first aired on 22 October, 2018, and was written by David Fury, and features Cyndi Lauper as a local lawyer, Vanessa Nero. Young Makoa (Zio Junk) looks for help from T.C. and Magnum when his father, Honi…

The Equalizer (1989) – Endgame, and Suicide Squad

Endgame is a tale of manipulation, and revenge, and seems to almost sneak up on the fringes of Saw territory, as the episode finds two sisters pitted against one another. Written by Coleman Luck, the penultimate episode of The Equalizer aired on 10 August, 1989, well after the season should have finished in May. McCall…

M*A*S*H (1977) – End Run, Hanky Panky, and Hepatitis

Harry Morgan directs the first episode this week, End Run, which was written by John D. Hess and debuted on 25 January, 1977. Morgan keeps his story threads separate, giving us some comedy with Klinger (Jamie Farr), Frank (Larry Linville) and Zale (Johnny Haymer) when Frank decides to pit the two against one another in…