Stargate SG-1 (1998) – Spirits, and Touchstone

When an SG team goes missing on a mining expedition SG-1 is sent to investigate and find themselves encountering a a transplanted tribe of Indigenous peoples who have very strong views about the SGC turning their mountain into a mining site. Written by Tor Alexander Valenza, Spirits first aired on 23 October, 1998. Before SG-1…

The Fall Guy (2024) – David Leitch

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt deliver a fun action-comedy that reinvents the classic 80s television show and pays homage to a stunt work (which still doesn’t have an Oscar category!). Colt Seavers (Gosling) is a high-profile stunt performer, arguably the best, and he’s been working as Tom Ryder’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) stunt double for years. He…

Stir of Echoes (1999) – David Koepp

Stir of Echoes got lost in the theatres when it went up against the ghost story The Sixth Sense. Based on the novel by Richard Matheson and adapted by Koepp who settled into the director’s chair as well, the film lets Kevin Bacon just shine, and features some well-executed visuals including the hypnotism sequence featuring…

Magnum P.I. (2023) – Appetite for Danger, and Night Has a Thousand Eyes

While Kumu (Amy Hill) documents a dark part of Hawaiian history, doing interviews with Cade (Martin Martinez) as her cameraman, with survivors of the Japanese internment camps in Hawaii following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sab Shimono, the wonderful actor, plays George, and tells his story, something Shimono went through himself. It’s a great story…

Magnum P.I. (2021) – Island Vibes, and The Harder They Fall

Robin introduces a new character in his White Knight books, and it sounds very much like Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks), who by the way, is still with Dr. Ethan (Jay Ali) on his Doctors Without Borders assignment. A misstep there causes Higgins to get some help from her old employers at MI6. Meanwhile, back on…

Magnum P.I. (2019) – Blood in the Water, and The Day It All Came Together

The penultimate episode of season one of the reimagined Magnum P.I. was written by Gene Hong, and first debuted on 25 March, 2019. While T.C. (Stephen Hill) deals with the imminent arrival (and then non-appearance) by his father, with lots of needling from Rick (Zachary Kingston) and Shammy (Christopher Thornton), Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins…

Mississippi Burning (1988) – Alan Parker

Mississippi Burning was relevant when it was made in the late 80s (it was relevant when I watched it nine years ago and wrote about it then), and sadly, here in 2024, it’s still relevant, because racism still seems to be way too rampant. The Oscar-winning film (Cinematography) has a stellar cast and is based…

Star Trek: The Joy Machine (1996) – James E. Gunn

James E. Gunn takes the original story treatment for The Joy Machine by Theodore Sturgeon, who gave us the TOS episodes Shore Leave and Amok Time, and turns it into a novel that feels very much like an Original Series episode. When a couple of Federation investigators disappear on a planet, one that Captain James…

The Expanse (2015) – Dulcinea, and The Big Empty

I loved the moment when I discovered James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series of novels. There’s space opera in it, but so much of the worlds they created are grounded in reality, and they all rely on hard science. So when the television series came along, I was super excited. But I kept waiting before…