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 High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991! The series can be streamed on YouTube!
This week, it’s time for another party!
Episode 1.8 “Little White Lies”
(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on December 19th, 1989)
There’s yet another party being held and Diana (Chrisa Erodotu) desperately wants to attend!
Who?
Diana has been on the show for a while but this is the first episode to feature her at the center of a story. She’s a friend of Kathleen’s and she wears glasses and …. well, that’s pretty much all we’ve learned about her in the past. In this episode, it’s revealed that she’s Greek, her parents are dead, and she lives with her overprotective brother (Nick Stamiris). Her brother doesn’t want Diana to go to a party. In fact, when he catches her smoking, he throws a fit and he ground her. He may seem a bit harsh but I had some sympathy for the character. He’s barely an adult himself but he has to keep an eye on and take care of Diana. I think he’s being too overprotective but I get where his mind is at.
Diana, however, decides to sneak out of the house and go the party on her own. She has a crush on Yick and he might be there! When she arrives, she has a drink and sits on the couch while holding a bottle of alcohol. How could this go wrong …. oh wait, who just walked into the party and spotted Diana sitting there with the alcohol? It’s her brother! Diana gets dragged home and has a big fight with her brother.
Poor Diana! That said, this is something that happened to a lot of Degrassi students over the course of the series, most of whom I felt I knew a lot better than Diana. Diana’s just kind of been a nonentity up until this episode so it’s hard for me to get worked up, one way or another, over her situation. It doesn’t help that Diana continually compares herself and her friends to The Outsiders and yes, I do mean the book about the juvenile delinquents in Oklahoma. Degrassi High deserves some credit for giving the less-cool students just as much attention as Joey, Caitlin, and the main stars but the whole Outsiders is just a bridge too far for me.
Speaking of Joey, he, Snake, and Wheels decide to go a strip club! It doesn’t work out, even with the use of fake IDs. First off, when they arrive at the club, they discover that two of the fake IDs have Joey’s name on them. Joey is sure the bouncer won’t notice. Then, they discover that they’ll only have enough money to pay the cover charge if they pool all their money together. Unfortunately, since they’ll also have to order drinks inside the club, they still only have enough money for two of them to go in. Snake and Wheels head in to the club, deserting their friend Joey. A prostitute approaches Joey and asks if he would like to have a good time but the clueless Joey says that he has to get home. Meanwhile, Snake and Wheels pay $8 for two Cokes and are then kicked out when they say they can’t afford anything else. Who would have guessed life in Canada could be so difficult!
This episode felt a bit too familiar for its own good. Diana’s story is one that we’ve seen dozens of times on Degrassi. And Snake, Joey, and Wheels are always doing something stupid and getting kicked out of places. This episode wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable either.
In 2020’s Nomadland, Frances McDormand stars as Fern.
Fern had a job working in an U.S. Gypsum plant in Nevada but, after years of steady employment, she’s laid off. Recently widowed and struggling to pay the bills, Fern sells almost everything that she owns and moves into a van. She travels across the country, taking work where she can find it and hanging out at other camps with self-styled “nomads.” She meets Bob Wells, the real-life guru of the van-dwelling, nomad lifestyle. She forms cautious friendships with other people who have decided to spend their lives in their vans, traveling from one location to another. Some of them are people who have fallen on hard times. Some of them are just people who don’t want to be tied down. One thing that becomes clear about Fern is that, while she’s a kind and caring soul, she’s also not one to allow people to get too close to her. She values her independence.
The film becomes a portrait of people who have been largely forgotten by conventional society but who have created a society of their own. (Fern may occasionally work at an Amazon warehouse but one gets the feeling that she would never order anything from there herself.) The film centers on Frances McDormand’s performance as Fern but most of the people that she meets are played by actual nomads. Director Chloe Zhao directs in documentary fashion, emphasizing the natural beauty of America and the lined but strong faces of people who are determined to live life their own way.
Nomadland can seem like a curious best picture winner. It’s almost plotless and, at time, the film itself can seem a bit heavy-handed in its portrayal of the nomad lifestyle. (I value my independence but I doubt that I could handle living in a van. And, even if I could handle it, I wouldn’t want to.) Even though it’s only been a few years since Nomadland won its Oscar, it sometimes seems as if it’s become one of the forgotten Best Picture winners. Some of that is because Nomadland won during the COVID pandemic, at a time when the release a lot of the films that were expected to be big Oscar contenders (like West Side Story and Top Gun: Maverick) were moved back so they could be released in theaters. While Nomadland did get a limited theatrical release, most people who watched it did so on Hulu. The 2020 Best Picture nominees were films that probably would not have been nominated in a different year and Nomadland, with its cinema verité style, is far more lowkey than the typical dramatic Oscar winner. Fairly or not, the film’s reputation has also suffered due to the failure of director Chloe Zhao’s The Eternals.Nomadland is perhaps now best known as being a part of a cautionary tale about what happens when a director makes an acclaimed film and then gets hired to do a Marvel movie.
(You have to feel bad for Chloe Zhao, who was the second woman to win the Oscar for Best Director but who was given the award as a part of perhaps the worst ceremony in the history of the Oscars. So determined were the producers to end on the triumphant note of Chadwick Boseman receiving a posthumous Oscar that both Zhao and Nomadland‘s victories were treated as distractions. And then, of course, Boseman didn’t even win the Oscar. It was an awkward night all around.)
That said, I can understand why Nomadland was embraced when it was released. It came out at a time when people were not only scared of getting COVID but also having to deal with the government’s heavy-handed approach to dealing with the pandemic. Living off the grid and away from society was something that looked very attractive to a lot of people back then. Future film students may be confused as to why Nomadland was so honored but it was definitely a film of its time. People forget (or willfully choose to ignore) how crazy things felt during the pandemic. When Fran told the world to leave her alone, she spoke for many.
The time is the Great Depression and you are a lawyer who has had a terrible run of luck. You’ve lost your money, your home, and your wife. Sent to prison for a pretty crime, you befriend the legendary outlaw John Dillinger. When you are both released on the same day, it’s time to get back to doing what Dillinger does best, robbing banks.
American Outlaws: The Dillinger Game is a choose-your-own-adventure style game, in which you are a member of Dillinger’s gang and an associate of outlaws like Baby Face Nelson, Red Hamilton, and Homer van Meter. The choices start out simple. Do you accompany Dillinger on his latest robbery? Do you head to Indiana with Dillinger or do you instead decide to join Baby Face Nelson’s gang? The choices start to get more difficult. Do you run when the cops show up? Do you fight with the cops? When a member of the gang orders you to shoot someone, do you do it? The game keeps a running tally of the number of gunfights you’ve taken part in, the number of people you’ve injured, the number that you’ve killed, the number of banks you’ve robbed, and the amount of money you’ve made. Depending on the decisions you make, it’s totally possible to make it all the way through this game and retire without having killed or even injured someone. It’s also possible to be such a viscous outlaw that even Baby Face Nelson wouldn’t mess with you. The longer your play, the more money you can potentially make but the more money you make, the more likely it is that you’ll commit a crime that will make it impossible for you to safely retire. You could end up the last member of the Dillinger Gang. You could also just as easily end up getting taken down by the FBI.
It helps to know the history of the Dillinger gang. That saved my life at least once. In fact, it’s really not difficult to survive the game. The sensible decisions are there and easy to make. But why be sensible when you’re hanging out with John Dillinger and there’s more and more money to be made?
This is a good game because every choice really does effect what happens to your bank robber. There are no throw-away choices and who your outlaw turns out to be really does depend on the decisions that you make. Because there are so many different outcomes, this is a fast-paced game can be played again and again.
Say what you will about Lyndon B. Johnson, he was one of the few presidents to understand that the Hulk was not the menace that the media made him out to be. In 1967, he even issued full amnesty to the Hulk in recognition for the number of times that Hulk had saved the planet. Gil Kane captured the moment in Tales To Astonish #88.
Guilty of only being feared and misunderstood! That was something that LBJ could probably relate to in 1967. Unfortunately, after a fight with the masked criminal known as the Boomerang, Hulk was once again viewed as being a menace and General Ross threw the amnesty order away. I guess that’s what they mean when they talk about the Deep State.
LBJ wasn’t popular with young readers and he didn’t make many appearances in the world of comics. It’s a pleasant surprise that, one of the few times that he did appear, it was to do the right thing and offer some temporary hope to the Incredible Hulk.
“Well, I see we’re trying a new experiment this morning. I hope that doesn’t prove to be a disturbing influence.”
With those words, President Dwight D. Eisenhower opened the first ever televised (though pre-taped) presidential news conference. For the first time, viewers at home could watch as the President took questions from the members of the press and answered them in his own words. Today, we take it for granted and we even get bored with televised news conferences and speeches. But seventy years ago today, on January 19th, 1955, what Eisenhower did was considered to be revolutionary and a little dangerous. How would the public react to actually seeing the man who led the country answering questions in person.
Eisenhower was asked about the dangers of Communist China, the new budget bill, and his own opinion about how his first term had gone and whether had any plans for a potential second term. Eisenhower laughed at the last query, saying, “It looks like a loaded question.”
Obviously, the new experiment worked. The pubic continued to like Ike and, when he did run for a second term, he was elected just as easily as the first time. The Democrats didn’t even bother to put a new candidate and instead just brought back Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower would be succeeded by John F. Kennedy, who went on to perfect Eisenhower’s “new experiment.”
Ving Rhames plays Sonny Liston, one of the greatest heavyweights who ever boxed but whose legacy will forever be overshadowed by the man who defeated him twice, Muhammad Ali.
Phantom Punch hits all of the well-known notes of Liston’s life. He grows up dealing with poverty and racism. He goes to prison as a young man and it is there that a sympathetic priest (Rick Roberts) helps him discover that his talent for fighting can be transformed into the skills needed to be a heavyweight contender. Sonny turns pro after he’s released but, even as he angles for a championship fight, he’s still collecting debts for mobsters like Savino (David Proval). Sonny becomes the champ after defeating Floyd Patterson but is hated by white boxing fans who resent that, unlike previous black champs, he doesn’t seem to care about their approval. Both of his losses to Ali lead to accusations that he threw the fights. With the help of his manager (Nichols Turturro), he works his way back up the rankings and is poised for another shot at the title but the Mafia now wants him to throw his fights for real. In 1971, Liston dies of what the police claim was a heroin overdose even though everyone knew that Liston hated needles. There’s not much new to be found in Robert Townsend’s biopic of Liston but Ving Rhames is convincing as Sonny and even brings some humanity to one of boxing’s most fearsome champs. It was a movie made for boxing fans and Rhames looks credible throwing a punch.
As I watched the movie, I wondered whether Liston really did throw his fights against Ali. I don’t think he did, even though both fights were strange. In the first fight, Sonny put something on his gloves that irritated Ali’s eyes. When that didn’t stop Ali, Sonny retired to his corner and didn’t come out for the seventh round. That led to rumors that the Mob ordered him to throw the fight but if you watch the match, it’s obvious that Sonny was trying to win and he just wasn’t prepared for Ali’s quickness. Liston knew he was losing and, with an aggravated shoulder injury making it difficult for him to throw his heavy punches, Liston bowed to the inevitable and refused to give Ali the chance to knock him out. The second fight was the one where the phantom punch occurred. Liston fell so quickly that, when I first saw it, I thought he had thrown the fight. It wasn’t until I watched the fight in slow motion that I saw that Ali did make contact with Liston before he fell. Liston may have been many things but but he wasn’t a chump. The so-called phantom punch was fast but it was real.
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 Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC! It can be viewed on Peacock.
This week, season 2 of Homicide comes to a close with an episode directed by John McNaughton, of Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer fame.
Episode 2.4 “A Many Splendored Thing”
(Dir by John McNaughton, originally aired on January 27th, 1994)
The second season finale of Homicide opens with Bolander in a good mood and Munch feeling that life is pretty much pointless. It’s a reversal from what we’ve seen over the last few episodes of Homicide and, as annoyed as I got with all the storylines about Bolander’s private life, I was still happy to see Bolander happy in this episode. As an actor, Ned Beatty’s performance is a lot interesting when Bolander is looking forward to the future. By that same token, Richard Belzer always seemed to be trying to hard whenever it came to playing Munch’s happiness. Belzer was born to play a cynic and, in this episode, he delivers his lines with a bitterness that is both funny and authentic.
Bolander is dating Linda and I have to admit that, despite my initial weariness, I really like Ned Beatty and Julianna Margulies as a couple. Bolander and Linda go on a double date with Kay and Danvers. Awwww, two couples in love and having dinner together! How sweet! Uh-oh, here comes Munch….
While Munch is ruining Bolander’s date, Bayliss is getting in touch with his own dark side. An investigation into the S&M-related death of a young woman leads to Bayliss and Pembleton arresting a man who killed her during rough (but consensual) sex. Bayliss and Pembleton spend their investigation in Baltimore’s red light district. Bayliss claims to be disgusted by the whole scene, leading to Pembleton calling him out for being judgmental. Pembleton tells Bayliss that he can’t be a good detective unless he’s really in touch with every aspect of his existence. After the murder is solved, the woman’s co-worker, Tanya, gives Bayliss the gift of a leather jacket. Tanya is played, in a very good performance, by the actress Adrienne Shelley. Tragically, Shelley herself would, 12 years later, be murdered in her New York apartment. And while it’s tempting to write about the irony of Shelley appearing on a show like Homicide, I’d rather recommend that everyone see Waitress instead. It was the second feature film that Shelley directed and it is very good.
Finally, Lewis investigates a man who committed murder because he felt someone had taken his favorite pen. Lewis searches for a deeper motive but in the end, it really was all about a pen. Lewis, I’ve noticed, always seems to get the cases that show just how random life and death can truly be.
The second season of Homicide ends with Lewis giving Felton a pen, Bayliss putting on his new leather jacket and walking the streets of Baltimore, and Munch, Bolander, and Linda watching fireworks explode over the harbor. It’s a good way to end a season. As dark as the show was (and as dark as this particular episode was), the season ends on a note of hope. There is happiness out there for those willing to look for it.
The 1993 made-for-cable television film VOYAGE opens with Morgan Norvell (Rutger Hauer) and his wife Kit (Karen Allen) headed to their 20-year class reunion. Morgan didn’t really want to go, but Kit talked him into it. It seems that Morgan was a champion diver back in high school. We know that because he’s looking at some pictures at the reunion that are meant to illustrate what a great athlete he once was. I say “meant to illustrate” because the man in the pictures looks absolutely nothing like a potentially younger Hauer would. Hauer is a big boned man, known for his blond hair. This guy in the pictures is scrawny with dark hair, but I’ll just move on, I guess. Morgan and Kit seem to be enjoying themselves, when they run into Kit’s old friend Gil Freeland (Eric Roberts) and his wife Ronnie (Connie Nielsen). It’s kind of awkward at first because Gil asks Morgan if he remembers him, and Morgan doesn’t, even though they were in the same class. Isn’t that the worst? I was recently at an Arkansas Razorbacks football game, and as I walked away from the concession area with my beverage, this lady’s voice said, “Well, if it isn’t Brad Crain.” I looked at the group of people standing in front of me, including the lady who said my name, and I immediately knew I was in trouble. They all looked kind of familiar, but a long time ago “kind of familiar,” and I knew none of their names. And then she asked that question I was hoping to avoid, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I had to admit I didn’t. We spoke for a few moments, and then I headed to my seat feeling a little embarrassed. I told my family about the exchange a few days later, and my sister Pam said that the lady was her best friend in school and that she used to spend the night at our house when we were kids. But the truth is that I still don’t really remember her, and now I’m starting to worry about how the hell I can’t remember her!
After that initially awkward moment, Morgan, Kit, Gil and Ronnie sit down together and start talking about their lives. We learn that Morgan is an architect (ala Paul Kersey), that Kit is an author, that Gil is a dentist, and that Ronnie just looks good. If she told her profession, I missed it. In a case of giving way too much information to people you haven’t seen in 20 years, Morgan and Kit tell the couple of their plans to go to Monte Carlo where they have a sailboat, which they plan to sail down the coast of Italy until they reach Malta. It seems that they purchased a hotel that is in much need of repair, and that they are going to live on the boat for a year, while Morgan puts his architect skills to good use and restores the property. The couple, who have had their share of struggles, are using this adventure as a fresh start in their marriage. Well Gil and Ronnie think this all sounds like a ball and even say that they’d love to join them for a few days if they could. No specific plans are discussed, and Morgan and Kit say that would be great, without expecting they’ll see them again after this night. Wrong! While Morgan is getting the boat ready in Monte Carlo, Gil and Ronnie show up. They have a good day on the ocean together and are enjoying some champagne that night when Gil proceeds to invite himself and Ronnie to go along with them on down the coast for a few days. She doesn’t want to be rude, but Kit is not for this idea so she kicks Morgan under the table. This is supposed to be their time to work on their relationship. Morgan should have known better than to say that Kit and Ronnie could join them for a few days, because any person who’s married or in a relationship should understand the under the table “kick to the shin.” But in a complete dumbass move, he invited them along anyway.
And this is where things really start going in a different direction. That first night, Ronnie makes a sexual move on Morgan, which he somehow has the strength to turn down, while Gil and Kit are downstairs reliving old times… Strike 1! That same night, Morgan is awakened to the sounds of a person on the deck and finds Gil up there. Gil says he was needing some fresh air and dropped his champagne, but Morgan finds the fuel cap is loose after Gil goes back downstairs… Strike 2! A couple of days later, Ronnie tries to kiss Kit, Gil catches a fish and bashes its head in instead of just throwing it back and then has the nerve to imply to Morgan that he had sex with Kit in high school… Strikes 3, 4, and 5! Morgan knocks the crap out of Gil and then makes them get off the boat when they get back to shore that day.
And from that point forward, Morgan and Kit sail on down the coast of Italy, making their way to Malta where they rebuild both their relationship and the Hotel Riviera, and live happily ever after! I’m just kidding, the rest of the movie consists of Gil and Ronnie terrorizing the couple, ultimately wanting to kill them for far more nefarious purposes than I’ll reveal here. I believe that most people in the world will fit into 2 categories: those who want to watch a movie where Eric Roberts terrorizes and tries to kill Rutger Hauer, and those who don’t want to watch such a movie. I’m really writing this up for those in the first camp, so I don’t want to spoil this movies surprises!
Back in 1993, Rutger Hauer’s run as a big-screen lead was nearing its end. With a couple exceptions, he would spend the rest of the decade appearing in made-for-cable TV films and other low budget direct-to-video type fare. Eric Roberts, who had received an Oscar nomination a decade earlier, was also mostly doing low budget direct-to-video fare, TV movies, and the occasional character part in a larger budget movie. This is an interesting time for both actors as their careers were transitioning. But we’re talking about two guys who know how to act, as evidenced by Hauer’s 174 acting credits on IMDB and Roberts’ 760 acting credits on IMDB (and counting as he has 4 credits in 2025 already). Both Hauer and Roberts are capable of playing complete psychos, so I’m not sure how they settled in on Roberts to play the psycho in this one. It may be because Hauer played a psycho stalker in his earlier movie from 1993, the made-for-HBO film BLIND SIDE, but that’s just a guess.
I enjoyed VOYAGE when I watched it the night of its premiere on the USA Network on June 2nd, 1993, and I enjoyed it when I watched it again this morning. I’m a huge fan of Rutger Hauer, and I’ve always appreciated Eric Roberts. For me, it’s a real treat seeing these two guys face off. I enjoy that Hauer gets to play the “hero” while Roberts is the dangerous creep, and Roberts is as creepy as it gets in this movie. Hauer’s role isn’t very flashy, as he’s a pretty normal guy who finds himself in a bad situation, but he is Rutger Hauer so it’s not a surprise that he’s able to summon the strength to fight for his and his wife’s lives. VOYAGE was directed by John Mackenzie. Mackenzie made some good films earlier in his career, including the phenomenal British crime film THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980), the Charles Bronson corrupt union drama ACT OF VENGEANCE (1986), and the Michael Caine / Pierce Brosnan spy thriller THE FOURTH PROTOCOL (1987). While VOYAGE is certainly not his most accomplished work, Mackenzie knows how to make a film, and he does a fine job here. And finally, I always enjoy a movie filmed in beautiful locations, and Malta definitely makes for some beautiful views.
Ultimately, I think your enjoyment of VOYAGE will come down to whether or not you like the idea of Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts fighting it out to the death. I personally like that idea.
I’ve been thinking about Eraserhead ever since I first heard the news about David Lynch’s passing.
Filmed in harsh but beautiful black-and-white and first released in 1977 (after a production period that lasted for seven years), Eraserhead tells the story of Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), an awkward young man who has the haircut that gives the film it’s name and who wanders through the film like an alienated character in a Kafka story. He lives in an industrial landscape and almost every scene seems to have the sound of machinery droning away in the background. He lives in an dark apartment and it appears that there’s a woman living in a radiator who sings that, “In heaven, everything is fine,” while stomping on sperm creatures. Occasionally, a mysterious woman in the hallway talks to him. Henry doesn’t seem to have a job or any sort of interests. He doesn’t really have much of a personality. Jack Nance, who would go on to become a member of David Lynch’s regular ensemble, has a permanently dazed expression on his face. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Henry, even if he isn’t quite sympathetic. In Heaven, everything is fine but in Henry’s world, it’s much different.
Henry has a girlfriend named Mary X (Charlotte Stewart). Mary lives with her parents in an apartment near the train tracks. When Henry goes over to her place for dinner, her father shows off how he can’t feel anything in his arm. Eating a piece of chicken becomes awkward when it appears to be alive and bleeding. Mary seems to have some sort of seizure. Mary’s mother informs Henry that Mary has had a mutant baby and Henry must take care of it. The baby (represented by a grotesque puppet) has no arms or legs or, it would appear, skin. It cries constantly, despite Henry’s attempts to care for it. The baby is the only truly sympathetic character in the film.
Eraserhead is often described as being a film that’s difficult to understand but, by Lynch standards, it’s not that hard to figure out. Lynch himself said that the film was fueled by his own anxiety over being a father and, throughout the film, Henry tries to take care of the baby but everything he does just makes things worse. As is often the case with Lynch’s film, many viewers get caught up in wondering why when they should just be paying attention to what happens. Why is the baby a mutant? Because it is. Why does Henry live in the middle of an industrial park? Because he does. Who is the scarred man who appears at the start of the film and who apparently pushes the levers that lead to Mary’s pregnancy? Again, it’s less important who he is and more important that he’s there and now, Henry is a father despite being woefully unprepared. Even if the viewer learned the scarred man’s identity (or if Henry even learned of his existence), it wouldn’t change Henry’s situation. (Technically, of course, the man is Sissy Spacek’s husband and frequent Lynch collaborator, Jack Fisk.) Eraserhead is a visually surreal film but it’s also an very emotionally honest one. Henry may be stuck in, as Lynch once put it, a “dream of dark and disturbing things,” but his fears and his anxiety are portrayed realistically That emotional honesty is something that would appear in all of Lynch’s work and it’s why he was one of our most important filmmakers.
Sadly, David Lynch is now gone. So is Jack Nance. But their work will live on forever.
Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes, Herbert Cardwell)
Through the Shattered Lens 