When I was a teen every time I came across Hill Street Blues I would find myself stopping to watch it, and would even set the VCR to record it (when I remembered to). I always found it interesting in the way that it worked to show the police officers of the Hill Street precinct…
Tag: hostage
Fringe (2009) – Earthling, and Of Human Action
The case that cost Broyles (Lance Reddick) his marriage resurfaces in Earthling. Written by J.H. Wyman and Jeff Vlaming, this episode first debuted on 5 November, 2009. When a strange, crumbling body draws the attention of Fringe Division, Olivia (Anna Torv), Peter (Joshua Jackson), and Walter (John Noble), Broyce has information to share about a…
The X-Files (2001) – Deadalive, and Three Words
Series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz pen the first episode back for The X-Files after its month away, and it starts with a gut punch. Mulder (David Duchovny) us dead, and he’s buried. Deadalive first aired on 1 April, 2001, and it plunges us right back into the mythology of the series, as three…
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…
Battlestar Galactica 9: Experiment in Terra (1984) – Ron Goulart and Glen A. Larson
This week, I dive into another Galactica adaptation. Not coming out until 1984, years after the show was cancelled, this novel adapts a pair of episodes, Baltar’s Escape and Experiment in Terra (which on retrospect feels like a trial run for the Bellasario created Quantum Leap). This time out there are no Adama’s Journals or…
TIFF 2021: Attica dir. Stanley Nelson
Taking a look at the five day rebellion, and hostage taking in September of 1971 at Attica prison, Nelson’s documentary is a stark, unflinching look at the prison system, the industry of it, the culture and race clash that is inherent in it, and the larger world as a whole. Filled with interviews from those…
The X-Files (1998) – The Pine Bluff Variant, and Folie a Deux
The Pine Bluff Variant, the first of the two episodes this week, is more of a conspiracy thriller, and gives us an X-Files episode without any supernatural or paranormal leanings. Written by John Shiban, the episode first hit the airwaves on 3 May, 1998. Scully (Gillian Anderson) is suspicious of Mulder’s (David Duchovny) behaviour, especially…
Brokenclaw (1990) – John Gardner
James Bond is back in action this week in John Gardner’s tenth 007 book, and probably my least favourite of the series at the moment. This one took me too long to get into, and then I felt not a lot really happened in the story to begin with until the climax. Bond is in…
Chuck (2012) – Versus the Bullet Train, Versus Sarah, Versus the Goodbye
We’re racing to the conclusion this week! Chuck (Zachary Levi) has been captured by Nicholas Quinn (Angus Macfadyen) and is aboard a bullet train in Japan in Chuck Versus the Bullet Train. Written by Nicholas Wootton this episode debuted on 20 January, 2012. Chuck thinks Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey (Adam Baldwin) are dead, but…
Millennium (1996) – 5-2-2-6-6-6, and Kingdom Come
Writers James Wong and Glen Morgan pit Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group against a serial bomber in 5-2-2-6-6-6 (which entered into a phone pad spells K-A-B-O-O-M), which first aired on 22 November, 1996. Raymond Dees (Joe Chrest) is a bomber, there is sexual transference involved, as well as the desire to be…
The Mind Reels 