Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Innocent, and Homecoming

This week, we have a pair of episodes that feature a couple of recognizable guest stars, who went on to become series regulars on M*A*S*H, and The Innocent features a cool new title music arrangement, and it took me a moment to recognize him, but Sam Elliott as IMF agent Doug. Written by Marc Norman…

The X-Files (2018) – My Struggle III, and This

After an almost two year wait, The X-Files returned on 3 January, 2018 with a season opener that was written and directed by series creator, Chris Carter. Viewers may have felt they got stiffed a little by the reveal that the season finale, My Struggle II, was actually just a vision had by Scully (Gillian…

M*A*S*H (1978) – Point of View, Dear Comrade, and Out of Gas

Ken Levine and David Isaacs delivered Point of View, which was first broadcast on 20 November, 1978. The episode gives us a unique perspective on the show, it’s all told from the narrative point of a patient who arrives in the 4077th. Private Rich (David Hunt Stafford) takes some shrapnel to his throat during an…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – David Yates

This is it. It all led to this film, after seven films, the Harry Potter franchise comes to its close with this, the second part of the adaptation of the seventh and final novel. Picking up where the first film left off with Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) claiming the Elder Wand, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma…

Dagon (2001) – Stuart Gordon

So I figured I would take a look at another Lovecraft adaptation, and despite the title of the film, the story is more in line with The Shadow Over Innsmouth, with a slight lean towards Dagon. And while I appreciate what Gordon set out to do, he’s hampered by horrible lighting and photography, and terrible…

Peril at End House (1932) – Agatha Christie

It’s time to check in with that little Belgian investigator, Hercule Poirot, is doing. He and Hastings return in Agatha Christie’s Peril at End House. And to keep the genre fresh, this time Poirot and his slawart companion are determined to stop a murder before it happens. When a chance meeting with Nick Buckley, a…

The X-Files (1997) – Small Potatoes, and Zero Sum

Small Potatoes brings back fan favourite writer Darin Morgan, this time in an acting role, in a script penned for him by Vince Gilligan. First debuting on 20 April, 1997, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) get to delve into a comic episode that sees them encountering Eddie Van Blundht (Morgan) after they investigate…

The X-Files (1997) – Unrequited, and Tempus Fugit

Howard Gordon and series creator Chris Carter pen the teleplay for this episode from a story developed by Gordon to show that even in the late 90s the horror and worry over Vietnam POWs was still with us and haunting American society. With an original airdate of 23 February, 1997, Mulder (David Duchovny), Scully (Gillian…

A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) – John Moore

Bruce Willis returns for a fifth time as New York cop John McClane in an instalment which I desperately hope isn’t the final one in the series because it’s so abysmally bad and you don’t want a series like this to go out on a bad note. Directed by John Moore (who’s past films didn’t…

For Special Services (1982) – John Gardner

John Gardner’s second 007 novel, updating Ian Fleming’s James Bond for the 1980s, is on the book shelf this week, and delivers the crisp, solid, sex and violence filled thrill ride we’ve come to expect from England’s top spy. This story, set largely in America, sees the return of Bond’s old nemesis, SPECTRE, with the…