The IMF team, led by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) has a tough assignment this time with The Field. Written by Wesley Lau from a story by Lau and Judy Burns, it first aired on 23 January, 1971. An enemy nation has control of an island in the Adriatic, and they have turned it into a…
Tag: murder
Diablo Mesa (2022) – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Grand Central Publishing was kind enough to send me the latest Preston & Child thriller, Diablo Mesa, which came out in February. It had been a long time since I dug into a Preston & Child book, but back in 2014, I was plowing through their Pendergast series until my pile of To Be Read…
Mission: Impossible (1971) – Cat’s Paw, and The Missile
Things get personal for Barney (Greg Morris) this week as I dig into some more assignments from Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series on blu-ray. Cat’s Paw was written by Howard Browne, and first aired on 9 January, 1971. Barney’s older brother is murdered for getting too close to a high tech criminal organization, which…
Scream 2 (1997) – Wes Craven
In 1996, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson delivered the game-changing Scream, a meta horror movie that was a hit with audiences and critics alike. And it seemed before the opening weekend was over, that a second film was already being lined up for the cameras. Looking back, I think if they had made us wait…
The Last House on Needless Street (2021) – Catriona Ward
Catriona Ward delivers a fantastic, engaging tale that is horrific, heartbreaking, and revelatory. I discovered this title when I went searching for something scary to read, something to freak me out, and mess with my brain a bit. The Last House on Needless Street does exactly that. The book is broken up into three narratives,…
The Prisoner (1967) – It’s Your Funeral, and A Change of Mind
Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) finds himself ensnared in an assassination plot in It’s Your Funeral. Written by Michael Cramoy this episode was first broadcast on 8 December, 1967. There’s a new up and coming Number Two (Derren Nesbitt), he’s a bit of a heir apparent, and a different type of Number Two than we’ve seen,…
Mission: Impossible (1970) -Butterfly, and Decoy
Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team (with Willy (Peter Lupus) back) head to Japan in Butterfly. Written by Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig from a story by Sheldon Stark, it first aired on 31 October, 1970. There’s some uncomfortable things that go on in this episode as the characters pose as various Japanese…
The X-Files (2018) – Nothing Lasts Forever, and My Struggle IV
The series penultimate episode, written by Karen Nielsen, and first airing on 14 March, 2018, is a bit of a monster of the week episode, while also pontificating on aging, belief and faith. And the fact that the I Want To Believe tag is removed from the opening credits and changed to I Want to…
The Lovely Bones (2009) – Peter Jackson
Director Peter Jackson adapted Alice Sebold’s heartbreaking novel, The Lovely Bones, to the big screen alongside his collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and while there are a lot of differences from the book to film (the novel definitely has more adult themes, and things were toned down for the teen, twenty-something audiences), and some…
Fletch’s Moxie (1982) – Gregory McDonald
Fletch is back! In the fifth book of the series, Gregory McDonald brings investigative reporter, and accidentally wealthy, I.M. Fletcher to Florida, where he has been summoned by his on again off again romance with actress Moxie Mooney who is on location shooting a truly horrible movie. During prep for an on-camera interview, her manager…
The Mind Reels 