Magnum P.I. (2024) – Ashes to Ashes, and The Big Squeeze

This is it, the last two episodes of Magnum P.I. They aired back to back on 3 January, 2024, First up, Ashes to Ashes. It was written by Tera Tolentino, Andrew Blazensky and Barbie Kligman. T.C. (Stephen Hill) and Mahina (Emily Alabi) come to Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins (Perdita Weeks) for help on an…

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) – Antoine Fuqua

Antoine Fuqua delivered another actioner with Olympus Has Fallen. Taking an obvious page from the Die Hard playbook of the lone hero taking on seemingly insurmountable odds, the story casts Gerard Butler in the role of Mike Banning, a secret service agent no longer on the President’s (Aaron Eckhart) protection detail after a horrific accident…

Magnum P.I. (2022) – The Long Sleep, and Close to Home

Magnum (Jay Hernandez) admits to Rick (Zachary Knighton) that he may have feelings for Higgins (Perdita Weeks) in The Long Sleep. But she may already have plans and ready to move onto her next relationship, did Thomas miss his chance? Written by Mike Diaz, Andre Jackson and David Wolkove, this episode, the penultimate of the…

The Man with the Red Tattoo (2002) – Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson delivers his last original James Bond novel. His last 007 book was the adaptation of Die Another Day. So that means he has to wrap up the villain, Goro Yoshida, that he set up in the previous book, Never Dream of Dying. At the PM’s request, James has been assigned to look out…

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Book 2: Earth (2006) – The Secret of the Fire Nation (The Serpent’s Pass, and The Drill), and City of Walls and Secrets

The Serpent’s Pass, and the series’ following episode, The Drill were initially aired back to back as a Nickelodeon Special called The Secret of the Fire Nation. The first episode, The Serpent’s Pass, was written by Joshua Hamilton and one of the series creators’ Michael Dante DiMartino. This and the following episode first aired on…

Star Trek: Picard (2023) – Vox, and The Last Generation

Showrunner Terry Matalas slips into the director’s chair to give us a powerful penultimate episode, Vox. Written by Sean Tretta and Kiley Rossetter, this episode was first broadcast on 13 April, 2023. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the rest learn that the symptoms of Irumodic Syndrome were simply a side effect of what was really wrong…

Star Trek: Picard (2023) – Dominion, and Surrender

Things are getting intense as we race towards the series finale. Dominion ups the stakes again. Written by Jane Maggs, it debuted on 30 March, 2023. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Crusher (Gates McFadden) learn some shocking truths about these new Changelings (augmented and developed by Starfleet under Project Proteus), especially Vadic (Amanda Plummer) as they…

The World is Not Enough (1999) Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson’s next Bond story was the adaptation of the Pierce Brosnan film, The World is Not Enough. It doesn’t differ too much from what ended up onscreen, but because it’s the written word, it allows one to recast the film, and I happily eject Denise Richards as Christmas Jones from the movie in my…

Star Trek: Picard (2020) – Stardust City Rag, and The Impossible Box

Jonathan Frakes directs Stardust City Rag, which starts off brutally, and takes us to some dark places with the characters even as Picard (Patrick Stewart) gets to pose as a villain. Written by Kirsten Beyer, this episode first aired on 20 February 2020 and opens with a Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) flashback as we…

Shin Godzilla (2016) – Hideaki Anno, and Shinji Higuchi

Crunchyroll, the streaming service, doesn’t just have anime series for every taste and genre, it also contains a number of films, among them is Shin Godzilla. I love a good Godzilla film so I was very eager to dive into this one, and was very happy to see that it had more in common with…