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…

The Prisoner (1967) – Checkmate, and Hammer Into Anvil

Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) squares off against Number Two (this time played by Peter Wyngarde) in a layered scheme in Checkmate. Written by Gerald Kelsey, this episode first debuted on 24 November, 1967. Inspired by a life-sized chess game, Six begins canvassing his own pieces, fellow prisoners, as he’s reasoned out how to tell the…

Beneath Her Skin (2021) – C.S. Porter

Nimbus Publishing, under its Vagrant Press, brings a new voice, C.S. Porter to the mystery genre, with their first novel, Beneath Her Skin, a lean, brisk, thriller. With the sub-title A Kes Morris File, one can assume that this will be Porter’s first foray into a series around their creation of Kes Morris, a female…

Tank (1984) – Marvin J. Chomsky

1984. A few short months before my family would be posted to a new home in the middle of the ocean, I was of an age that I was allowed to go see movies in the theatre with my friends (despite the fact that the theatres were in the city proper and not on the…

The X-Files (2001) – Salvage, and Badlaa

These two entries in The X-Files, while solid, failed to engage me as the previous stories of the season, and the series did. It’s not for lack of performances, I just wasn’t captivated by them, and they both seemed to circle around concepts of revenge. Salvage was written by Jeffrey Bell, and first aired on…

TAD 2021: Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break dir. Nick Gillespie

Closing out the Toronto After Dark Film Festival today is the UK film Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break. And what a way to close the festival! Without disclosing too much, this sure fire crowd pleaser follows Paul Dood (Tom Meeten) in his pursuit of a glimmer of internet fame by auditioning for internet sensation Jack…

The X-Files (2000) – First Person Shooter, and Theef

William Gibson and Tom Maddox pen First Person Shooter, an episode which first aired on 27 February, 2000.There are some elements of sexism and toxic masculinity throughout this story, because it has permeated the game culture that is at the episode’s heart. When a young man dies while playing an immersive First Person Shooter, evidence…