As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be The Octagon, selected and hosted by Sweet Emmy Cat!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up The Octagon on YouTube or Tubi, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then, at 10 pm et, switch over to Twitter and Prime, start Swingers, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Despite the superhero fatigue, Marvel’s engine keeps on chugging. While not exactly the same as DC’s The Suicide Squad, Marvel’s Thunderbolts brings together a group of heroes & villains together in the hopes that they can work together against a larger threat. If you haven’t studied, watching AntMan & the Wasp, Black Widow, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier will get you caught up on recent events.
Thunderbolts focuses on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who is caught in a crossfire that includes the U.S. Agent, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), The Ghost, a.k.a. Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and the newly rehabilitated Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). I’m happy to see that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is back in the mix, along with Yelena’s dad Alexei, played by David Harbour.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts will be in cinemas May 2025.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989! The series can be streamed on YouTube!
This week, everyone’s thinking about food.
Episode 3.9 “Food For Thought”
(Dir by Eleanore Lindo and Kit Hood, originally aired on January 30th, 1989)
The science fair is coming up and the Farrell twins are doing their project on eating disorders. One of them, I think it’s Heather, is convinced that everyone at Degrassi has an eating disorder. She even speculates that Lucy has an eating disorder, even though Lucy explains that it’s a combination of exercise and her metabolism that allow her to remain thin. “Some people are just thin,” the other twin says and that’s an important thing to remember. Not every skinny girl has an eating disorder and assuming that they do can be very harmful to their self-image.
Alexa worries that she’s fat. After she asks Simon if she’s fat, Simon stupidly says, “I don’t know.” (Simon isn’t very smart.) Alexa asks the Farrell twins if it’s possible to just be anorexic for a week. To Alexa, that sounds like a much better way to lose weight than to exercise.
Meanwhile, the person who actually does have an eating disorder — Kathleen — is left to struggle alone. Kathleen is the girl who always has to be the first to raise her hand with the answer in class. She has to be the first to get involved with every school project She always has to be the first to tell everyone else why they’re wrong. Kathleen is a bossy perfectionist who insists that she doesn’t need anyone’s help. As a result, Kathleen is not particularly popular. Melanie is Kathleen’s only friend, largely because Melanie is one of the few people to understand that Kathleen’s home life sucks. Her father is always working and her mother is an alcoholic. Kathleen wants to win the science fair so her parents will be proud of her and maybe they’ll stop fighting for a few minutes.
Along with everything else, Kathleen is bulimic. Despite already being thin, Kathleen is skipping meals and throwing up whatever she eats during the day. She’s also taking laxatives. (Ew!) Melanie, sensing that something is wrong with Kathleen, takes a look at Kathleen’s diary while Kathleen is busy throwing up. Melanie discovers that Kathleen is obsessed with losing ten pounds by the end of the week.
Needless to say, it all catches up with Kathleen. After only receiving honorable mention in the science fair, Kathleen faints in the school hallway. (It’s really not a show about an eating disorder until someone faints.) What sets this episode apart from the typical episode about an eating disorder is that, even after she faints, Kathleen refuses to admit that she has a problem. The episode ends with Kathleen refusing to listen as Melania tries to convince her that she needs to get help. It’s a dark ending but it’s also a realistic one. Problems are never as easily solved as television would have you believe.
This episode was an example of what Degrassi does so well. Kathleen, a character who most shows would simply portray as being a one-dimensional bitch, is revealed to be suffering more than perhaps any of the other regular characters. Instead of treating her like a joke or a stereotype, this episode invites us to consider why Kathleen acts the way that she does. For all the well-intentioned students at Degrassi, the classmate who needs them the most is left to suffer in isolation.
Our annual October Horrorthon is just 8 days away! I’ve been busy getting ready, as you can tell be looking at the films and the book listed below.
Earlier this week, Jeff and I drove to Fort Smith, Arkansas so I could visit the Book Barn and pick up a bunch of horror paperbacks. I can’t wait to read and review all of them this October! As well, when I returned home, I received a copy of Eric Roberts’s just-published autobiography! This has been a good week to be a book lover!
This upcoming week, it’s back up to the lake for a few more days of writing and contemplation as I prepare from my favorite three months of the year!
Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week!
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 1993’s The Only Way Out! It can be viewed on YouTube.
“I’ll kill you before I let you go,” Tony (Henry Winkler) says to his terrified girlfriend, Lynn (Stephanie Faracy).
Agck! Those are frightening words and they are certainly not something that you would expect to hear from a character played by notorious Hollywood nice guy Henry Winkler. And, indeed, it would probably shock most of the characters in the film if they knew how Tony talked to Lynn. Tony is a grad student who has worked at any number of jobs. While some people might say all of those jobs prove that Tony has a hard time sticking to anything, Tony has obviously learned how to convince people that he’s actually a just a determined man working his way through grad school and taking whatever job will help to pay the bills. Tony is friendly and romantic and given to grand gestures. He’s the type who shows up unexpectedly at Lynn’s place of employment with flowers. He’s the type of guy that strangers applaud while those close to him look for any way to escape.
Lynn knows all about the other side of Tony. Tony is controlling, obsessive, and abusive. He hits her. He barks orders at her kids. When she tells him that she wants him out of her life, he refuses to go and blames her for all of their problems. He’s someone who can quickly go from being everyone’s friend to being a monster. He preys on insecurity and, whenever anyone stands up to him, he plays the victim. Tony is a classic abuser and the fact that he’s played by the likable Henry Winkler makes him all the more disturbing. Like most abusers, Tony knows how to turn on the charm. He knows the power of a smile and a few complimentary words.
Lynn is in the process of getting divorced from an architect named Jeremy (John Ritter). It’s been a remarkably amicable divorce, with Jeremy and Lynn agreeing on joint custody and apparently not bearing any ill feelings towards one another. The only problem is that Lynn cannot bring herself to actually sign the divorce papers. Jeremy wants to marry Susannah (Julianne Phillips) and Susannah is not happy about the long wait. She’s even less happy when Jeremy takes it upon himself to try to protect Lynn from Tony. Soon, Tony is stalking Jeremy and Jeremy finds himself considering a particularly extreme solution to his problem.
It’s John Ritter vs Henry Winkler and the casting of two of Hollywood’s best-known nice guys as violent rivals works surprisingly well. Winkler is memorably unhinged while Ritter plays a guy who is struggling to hold onto a life that, until Tony shows up, seemed to be perfect. In the end, it’s not just Tony who catches us by surprise by just how far he’s willing to take things. The film’s ending took me by genuine surprise. Featuring excellent dramatic turns from two actors best known for their comedic skills, The Only Way Out is a superior melodrama.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewingthe Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!
This week, Howard once again ruins Edna’s life.
Episode 2.12 “High Tech”
(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 11th, 1987)
Howard has a gambling problem!
Wait a minute …. I thought that was the plot of last week’s episode.
Well, it’s the plot of this week’s episode as well. After Howard invests Edna’s life savings ($10,000, though it should be remembered that this is Canadian money) in a Venezuelan gold mine, Edna can only watch in horror as an earthquake rips through Venezuela and wipes out the gold mine. (She should just be happy that she invested before Chavez and Maduro came to power.) Howard, however, is sure that he can win her money back because he has a tip about a sure thing in an up-coming boxing match….
That’s it! Edna demands that Howard go to therapy.
Which Howard does. Dr. Cravitz (John Stocker) seems to be a little crazy himself, especially when people accidentally call him “Clavitz.” The doctor does help Howard to realize that he has a gambling problem. His mother used to take him to bingo halls while his father spent all of his time playing poker. Howard is a bad gambler because he’s trying to both win his parent’s love and get back at them for neglecting him while he was growing up. Damn, that’s depressing.
Howard returns to the store, diagnosed but hardly cured. Fortunately, he gets a call from his stockbroker, telling him that the gold mine is now worth $10,000 because there’s oil underneath the gold. Edna gets her money back, minus the money that Howard lost on the boxer.
This episode is another one where Howard is a complete and total buffoon. I prefer the episodes where Howard is an idiot to the ones where he’s actually competent. A competent manager is not a funny manager but a buffoonish boss who makes life difficult for the people working under him …. hey, who can’t relate to that? That’s why The Office was better when Michael was boss than when Andy took over. No one watches a show like this to root for management.
This episode had some funny moments. There was an entertaining B-plot about Christian installing a new computerized checking system and accidentally ordering three-years worth of potatoes at one time. (I had to smile when a jump cut revealed that every display in the store was now potato-related.) Even better, Gordon Clapp finally returns as the dim-witted handyman, Viker. Clapp’s ultra sincere line delivery made Viker into a hilarious character and the scenes where Viker gets on Howard’s nerves are always entertaining. When we first see Viker, he’s upgrading his lunchbox. Later, he tells Howard that “an important person called with an important message, that’s all I remember.” This show works best when it embraces absurdity and Viker is so wonderfully absurd that you can’t help but love the character.
Through the Shattered Lens 