Yearly Archives: 2022

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 10/31/22 — 11/6/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I hope everyone had a great Halloween and a good week.  I, like everyone else here at the TSL Bunker, am still recovering from Horrorthon.  I’ve been exhausted for the past few days and I’m looking forward to taking it relatively easy for the rest of November.  At the same time, I’m also looking forward to my birthday this upcoming week!  Yay!

Did you remember to change your clocks?

Here’s what I watched and listened to this week!

Films I Watched:

  1. The Collection (2012)
  2. The Flight That Disappeared (1961)
  3. Halloween (1978)
  4. Light Blast (1985)
  5. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  6. Patriot Games (1992)
  7. The Seduction of Gina (1984)
  8. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Abbott Elementary
  2. The Amazing Race
  3. Atlanta
  4. California Dreams
  5. City Guys
  6. Family Feud
  7. Fantasy Island
  8. Ghost Whisperer
  9. Hang Time
  10. Highway to Heaven
  11. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  12. King of the Hill
  13. Law & Order
  14. The Love Boat
  15. Night Flight
  16. The Office
  17. One World
  18. Saved By The Bell
  19. Survivor

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. Blanck Mass
  3. Blondie
  4. Britney Spears
  5. The Chemical Brothers
  6. Coldplay
  7. Cypecore
  8. ELO
  9. Goblin
  10. John Carpenter
  11. Katy Perry
  12. Kylie Minogue
  13. Lenny Kravitz
  14. Lorde
  15. Michael Fredo
  16. Miya Folick
  17. The Prodigy
  18. Rita Coolidge
  19. Saint Motel
  20. Taylor Swift
  21. Yvonne Elliman

Trailers:

  1. 6 Horrific Trailers for October 31st, 2022
  2. Avatar: The Way of Water

Live Tweets:

  1. The Shattered Lens Live Tweets Halloween
  2. Light Blast
  3. Patriot Games
  4. 10 Things I Hate About You
  5. The Collection

News From Last Week:

  1. Singer & Rapper Aaron Cater Dies at 34
  2. Actor/Director Doug McGrath dies of a heart attack
  3. Rapper Takeoff Shot Dead In Houston
  4. Actor Andrew Prine Dies At 86

Links From Last Week:

  1. The Magical Beauty Of Venice Italy At Night! From Watery San Marco Square’s Live Music To The Smallest Streets!
  2. The World’s Common Tater’s Week in Books, Movies, and TV 11/4/22

Links From The Site:

  1. Case reviewed It Came Nameless In The Spring and Close Your Eyes!
  2. Erin shared Nolan Ryan, True Crime Cases, The Hawk of Egypt, Spicy Western Stories, Next Stop Shame, November, 0 Days To Halloween, and Night Light!
  3. Erin has some baseball news: The Phillies Win Game 3, The Astros Take Game 4, The Astros Are Just One Game Away, and The Astros Have Won The World Series (yay!)
  4. Erin wished you a happy Halloween and also acknowledged the end of the season!
  5. Erin shared Halloween Through The Years!
  6. Leonard reviewed Possession!
  7. Jeff shared music videos from Guns N’ Roses and Phil Collins!
  8. Jeff examined what would happen if Dracula ran against LBJ!
  9. Jeff paid tribute to Steve Ditko!
  10. I reviewed Hang Time, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, City Guys, One World, and California Dreams!
  11. I shared music videos from Aaron Carter, Britney Spears, Lorde, Lenny Kravitz, and Cypecore!
  12. I reviewed The Seduction of Gina, To Save A Life, Night of the Comet, Killers From Space, Survival of the Dead, All The Kind Strangers, King of the Lost World, Terror at London Bridge, Cyborg Cop, Last Shift, A Trip to the Moon, and God’s Club!
  13. I shared scenes from 10 to Midnight and A Field In England!
  14. I paid tribute to Jean Rollin!
  15. I shared my week in television!
  16. For Halloween, I shared 8 Shots From 8 Horror Films, an AMV, an episode of Highway to Heaven, an episode of the Real Ghostbusters, and Night of the Living Dead!
  17. I shared a message from Silver Shamrock!

More From Us:

  1. For Reality TV Chat Blog, I reviewed the latest episodes of The Amazing Race and Survivor!
  2. At my music site, I shared songs from Danny Elfman, ELO, Kylie Minogue, Miya Folick, Lorde, Britney Spears, and Aaron Carter!
  3. At my dream journal, I shared: No Dreams Last Night, Fragment of a Hotel Dream, Fragment of a Dream, and Last Night’s Ambiguity!
  4. At her photography site, Erin shared: Sun in Black and White, Not Abandoned, Have a Seat, Lost in the Tree, Green, and Pink Flowers!  For Halloween, she shared: Smile, The Arrival, Passageway, Cabin, Barn, Skeleton, Jake and Max Halloween, One Dark Street, The Old House, Evil Tree, Who Why?, Driving, Unknown, Boooo!, Still Smiling, Floating Skeleton, Welcome, At the End of the Path, In A Very Odd House Very Odd Things Will Happen, Camera, One Piece of Film, Lights in the Dark, and Upon Opening It They Discovered The Body Was Gone!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Retro Television Reviews: The Seduction of Gina (dir by Jerrold Freedman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1984’s The Seduction of Gina.  It  can be viewed on Tubi!

Gina (played by Valerie Bertinelli) is bored.

She’s a 20 year-old newlywed who spends her days going to college and her nights sitting in a tiny apartment and waiting for her husband, David (Fredric Lehne), to come home.  David is an intern at a hospital.  He works the nightshift and, as a result, he’s usually exhausted and not particularly communicative.  Unlike her husband, Gina comes from a wealthy family and she’s due to inherit a good deal of money as soon as she turns 21.  However, David stubbornly refuses to use any of Gina’s money to make either of their lives better.  He gets angry when Gina even mentions the possibility.  He’s prepared to spend the next ten years living in a crummy apartment and working terrible hours.  Once he establishes himself as a doctor, he says that he and Gina can start to think about starting a family.  Are you getting the feeling that David has control issues?  Because that’s definitely the feeling that I got from him.

Bored and frustrated, Gina turns to gambling.  Who can blame her?  Not only is it a way to make some money and bring some excitement into her life but it’s also something that she’s really good at!  She starts out just putting bets on horse races.  (The owner of a nearby bodega is also a bookie.)  She uses the money to buy a new television set, which David totally freaks out about.  Soon, Gina is sneaking off to Lake Tahoe.  While David works at the hospital, Gina hits the blackjack table and spins the roulette wheel.  She even attracts the eye of Keith Sindell (Michael Brandon), a handsome lawyer who loans her money and obviously has an interest in her that goes beyond card games.  Every morning, she jumps in her car and rushes back to San Francisco, arriving at her apartment before David gets home and lying to David about what she’s been doing all night.

It starts out well but this wouldn’t be a TV movie if there wasn’t a bit of drama.  Unfortunately, Gina’s luck starts to change and she soon finds herself in debt.  The owner of that bodega is a lot less nice when he’s demanding his money.  And Keith might be willing to cheat on his wife with her but he still expects her to pay back the money that he’s given her.  The world of gambling turns out to be harsh and unforgiving.  Gina is forced to find ways to get the money.  If that means lying to her husband, her father (played by Ed Lauter), and her accountant, so be it.  She might even have to — gasp! — get a job as a cocktail waitress!

It’s obvious from the start that Gina is going to get into trouble, or at least it’s obvious to everyone but Gina.  And really, isn’t that the way life is sometimes?  Usually, the only person who can’t see the walls closing in is the person who is about to get crushed.  The Seduction of Gina is melodramatic and predictable but Valerie Bertinelli is likable in the role of Gina and the scenes in casino are enjoyably gaudy and a little bit sordid.  It’s an entertaining movie, a Lifetime film that came out before Lifetime.  The film’s message is not to gamble but The Seduction of Gina makes winning look like so much fun that it probably inspired more people to hit the casinos than to stay at home and balance the checkbook.  In the classic DeMille fashion, this film offers both sin and a hint of salvation but it understands that sin is more entertaining to watch.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 10/30/22 — 11/5/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve spent this week in a state of exhaustion as I’ve tried to physically and mentally recover from this year’s Horrorthon.  Here’s a few thoughts on what I watched over the past seven days.

Abbott Elementary (Wednesday Night, ABC)

The commercial was amusing and I enjoyed the scene where everyone realized that the reason they had allowed the commercials to be filmed was because they had gotten used to being followed around by cameras.  I enjoyed hearing about the shows that the characters happened to be watching when they saw the commercial.  I’m not really sure that Abbott needs a supervillain, though.

The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about the latest episode of The Amazing Race here!

Atlanta (Thursday Night, FX)

Al moved out to a farm and nearly got killed by a feral hog.  Brian Tyree Henry’s reactions were priceless.

California Dreams (YouTube)

Surf dudes without attitude …. kinda groovy …. I watched a few episodes and wrote a few reviews that will be dropping over the course of the next few weeks.  I’ll be glad to be done with season 2 because, as everyone knows, season 3 is when this show gets good.

City Guys (Tubi)

98 Degrees played Manny High and Chris dated a goth!  You can read about it here.

Family Feud (Weekday afternoons, Buzzr)

On Monday, I watched two episodes of this deathless game show.  They were both Halloween episodes from the 80s so everyone was wearing a costume.  I have no idea who won.  Survey says, “Didn’t much attention!”

Fantasy Island (Tubi)

I wrote about Fantasy Island and Leslie Nielsen here!

Ghost Whisperer (Hulu)

I watched an episode of my favorite guilty pleasure on Monday.  Jennifer Love Hewitt helped Hillary Duff deal with a ghost.  Meanwhile, Melinda’s dead husband continued to hang out in someone else’s body.  That was a weird season.

Hang Time (YouTube)

I watched a few episodes of Hang Time yesterday and today and I wrote and scheduled reviews for all of them.  Keep an eye out on Monday.

Highway to Heaven (YouTube)

I shared this episode on Monday.  Jonathan battled the devil for Mark’s soul.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Hulu)

I watched the episode in Sunday in which Mac and Dennis tried to create an economy based on Paddy Bucks.  Meanwhile, Frank chopped off a finger while trying to sale knives.  I fell off the couch laughing.

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (Apple TV+)

Erin and I watched this classic on Sunday.  It’s a part of our Halloween tradition.  A few years ago, Erin wrote about this special and why it continues to appeal to us.

King of the Hill (Hulu)

I watched two episodes on Monday.  The first was the episode where Hank fights for the right to trick or treat.  The second was one of my favorites, in which Bobby buys a pack of Tarot cards and accidentally joins a coven.

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

A fashion designer is murdered while crime spirals out of control in New York.  This was actually a pretty good episode, even if the mystery itself was rather routine.  It was an episode that acknowledged just how powerless people feel in the face of America’s current crime wave and it put the blame squarely on our elected officials.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I wrote about my latest voyage here.

Night Flight (NightFlight+)

I watched an episode of this entertainment news show from 1992.  The show contained a profile of Bruce Springsteen, some footage of Duke Ellington performing, and then a few comedic shorts featuring Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, and others.

The Office (Peacock)

On Halloween, I watched the first Halloween episode.  Imagine how different the series would have been if Michael had fired Creed instead of Devin.

One World (Tubi)

I binged the entirety of this show on Thursday and Friday.  Here are my thoughts on two episodes.

Saved By The Bell (Hulu)

Zach and the gang went on a mystery weekend!  It’s about as close as this show ever got to a Halloween episode so I watched it on Halloween.  Even when Zach thought people were actually being murdered, he seemed oddly unconcerned.

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about the latest episode of Survivor here!

Toy Story of Terror (Sunday Night, ABC)

I watch this special every year.  I have to admit that it’s never quite as good as I seem to remember it being but, that said, how can you not love the toys?

Retro Television Review: California Dreams 2.6 “Surfboards and Cycles” and 2.7 “A Question of Math”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing California Dreams, which ran on NBC from 1992 to 1996.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, love is in the air as Jake and Tiffani realize that they could make beautiful music together.  Meanwhile, the pressure of exam season threatens the future of the Dreams!

But first, the opening  credits.  Again, because the post-Jenny opening credits for season two have not been uploaded to YouTube, you have to imagine Jennie Kwan in the place of Heidi Noelle Lenhart.

Episode 2.6 “Surfboards and Cycles”

(Directed by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 16th, 1993)

In a storyline that shows how much the second season of California Dreams owed to every single season of Saved By The Bell, the members of the band have to pick an elective.  Sly and Matt enroll in home economics so they can meet girls and are stunned to discover that their teacher is a hardass former Marine who expects culinary perfection.

Meanwhile, Tiffani and Sam enroll in auto shop so that they can meet boys.  Also enrolled in auto shop is Jake.  Jake is convinced that women don’t belong in auto shop and Tiffani and Sam quickly prove his point by revealing that they know nothing about cars.  (I would also be clueless in auto shop but I will say that my sister Melissa can fix anything on a car.)  That said, Tiffani and Jake still fall in love.  The band panics because Jake and Tiffani seem like such opposites.  So, Sly and Tony go out of their way to plant seeds of doubt in Jake and Tiffani’s mind.  When Jake insists on wearing his leather jacket to the beach, Tiffani dumps his ass.  Yay, Tiffani!

But …. oh no!  Before breaking up, Tiffani and Jake wrote a duet.  Matt wants to make the song a part of the regular Dreams set list but how can he do that if Tiffani and Jake aren’t speaking?  Looks like it’s time to take over Sharky’s and trick Tiffani and Jake into meeting for the most romantic dinner of their lives!  Somehow, it works.  I’m just wondering why Sharky was always willing to let the Dreams shut down his place of business whenever they felt like it.  That doesn’t seem like a good business model.

This episode was pretty derivative and the main message appeared to be that Matt’s a jerk who can’t come up with a song on his own.  But Tiffani and Jake actually were a pretty cute couple and they had a likable chemistry together.  That chemistry pretty much saved this episode.

Episode 2.7 “A Question of Math”

(Directed by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on October 23rd, 1993)

The entire school is freaking out about midterms!  Sam becomes a tutor but her latest student, an arrogant football star (Richard Hillman), pretends to like her just so he can get out of paying her!  Luckily, Sam gets her revenge by tricking him into buying a fake test that has all the wrong answers.  Way to go, Sam!  Ruin that guy’s future!

That most interesting about this episode is that the football star was played by Richard Hillman, who also played Kirsten Dunst’s jerk of a boyfriend in Bring It On.  This was an enjoyable episode, even if I have my doubts about whether or not everyone would go that crazy over a high school midterm.  Maybe it’s just because I’m also watching One World and experiencing first hand what happens when a cast has absolutely no chemistry but I’ve really grown to appreciate the cast of California Dreams.  They all just seem like they sincerely enjoy hanging out together and, for the most part, they’ve got enough comedic timing that they can save even a weak joke.

What does the future hold for the surf dudes with attitude?  We’ll find out next week.

Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Collection with #ScarySocial

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #ScarySocial, ArtAttackNYC will be hosting 2012’s The Collection!

This 2012 horror film is a sequel to The Collector!  Will the world’s dorkiest serial killer finally face justice?

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  The film is available on Prime.  I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Music Video of the Day: Hold It Against Me by Britney Spears (2011, dir by Jonas Åkerlund)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s Britney, bitch!

Actually, this video feels even more appropriate today than it did when it was first released in 2011.  This video was meant to symbolize not only Britney’s career (up to that point) but also the Britney herself had returned to reclaim her superstar status.  Today, of course, it feels more like Britney has returned to reclaim her life.

Enjoy!