Daily Archives: July 20, 2025

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.11 “Showtime, Part 2”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 and Tubi

In yourself, you must believe….

Episode 2.11 “Showtime Part 2”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 28th, 1991)

The students of Degrassi High struggle to move on from the suicide of Claude Tanner.  The talent show goes on, with all of the money raised being given to Claude’s parents.  Snake, for his part, goes to therapy and stays home from school.  When Joey visits him, Snake mentions that, when he found Claude, half of his face was missing.  Meanwhile, Caitlin is haunted by visions of Claude, smiling and trying to hand her a flower.

This episode was not quite what I was expecting.  Instead of embracing the melodrama (as Degrassi: The Next Generation would have), this episode is low-key and realistic about showing the ways that people deal with grief and trauma.  Snake is understandably shaken but what makes his scene so poignant is that he’s obviously struggling to pretend like he isn’t or that life can go back to normal after what he’s seen.  I spent this entire episode waiting for Caitlin to breakdown.  She didn’t and really, I have to commend the show for that because I sometimes think we put too much pressure on people to release all of their emotions before they’re ready to do so.  Caitlin is still emotionally number and it’s going to be a while before she’s ready to really talk about what happened.  And that’s okay!  Sometimes, it takes a while.  It’s only now, nearly a year after he died, that I’m really starting to realize how depressed I’ve been over the past year.  All those times that I thought I was moving on, I was really just distracting myself from the pain.  And now, with that one year anniversary approaching, I find myself crying at the most random of times.  It’s not pleasant.  My heart hurts on most days.  But I know that eventually, I’ll make it through.  Everyone grieves in their own way and apparently, this is the way that I grieve.

This was a good Joey episode.  Not only did Caitlin agree to tutor him in his science class but Wheels finally paid back the money that he stole from Joey’s mother.  During their study session, Joey and Caitlin talked about the suicide, with Joey asking if Caitlin knew Claude.  I guess the show’s writers forgot that, last season, Joey was intensely jealous over Caitlin and Claude’s relationship.  Still, regardless of that continuity error, the scenes between Joey and Caitlin were well-written, well-acted, and emotionally honest.

In other words, this was a good episode.  I’ve seen a lot of shows that have dealt with suicide.  I’ve rarely seen any that dealt with it as well and as honestly as Degrassi High.

10 Movies For The Week (7/20/25)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here Comes Shark Week

This upcoming week is Shark Week.  At the risk of making the most obvious recommendation ever, Jaws (1975) is currently on Netflix.  I doubt that I need to sell anyone on the film.  Jaws is one of those films that everyone accepts is a classic.  I’ll just say that every time that I watch Jaws, I’m surprised at how well it has held up over the years.  I watched it a few weeks ago while flying to Hawaii and, even when viewed in less than ideal conditions, it still held my attention and made me jump a little.  To be honest, I sometimes miss the Spielberg who directed Jaws.  It’s such a fun and scary movie, all the more so because it was made by a director who clearly lived for film.  Jaws is currently streaming on Netflix.

Jaws 2 (1978) does not get the same respect as the first Jaws, nor does it deserve it.  That said, I can’t help but kind of like Jaws 2.  If the first Jaws has a timeless quality to it, Jaws 2 is proudly a product of the 1970s.  Jaws 2 has some pacing issues but it also features Roy Scheider going totally crazy at the end of the film.  After giving a fairly subdued performance in the first Jaws, Scheider went all out for Jaws 2.  Just listen to him yell at that shark!  Jaws 2 is also on Netflix.

Jaws 3 (1983) is a bit of a guilty pleasure, largely because it was originally filmed in 3-D and the special effects are charmingly bad.  Roy Scheider does not return for this one but Dennis Quaid shows up as Chief Brody’s son.  This film was shot at SeaWorld Orlando but the main message seems to be, “Stay away from Seaworld!”  For the record, I relate to Lea Thompson’s character.  It can be viewed on Netflix!

The makers of Jaws: The Revenge (1987) decided to see what would happen if they made a Jaws film that centered on the least interesting character from the first film.  With Chief Brody having died of a heart attack and one of her sons having been eaten by a shark, Mrs. Brody heads down to the Caribbean and is apparently followed by a shark.  Its dumb but Michael Caine is charming and I’m a completist at heart.  If you’re going to watch one this week, you might as well watch all four!  Jaws: The Revenge is on Netflix.

Great White (1981) is an Italian film that was also released under the title The Last Shark.  Directed by Enzo G. Castelleri, Great White was so similar to Jaws that Universal actually sued the filmmakers in an attempt to keep the film from being released in the States.  To me, that’s always seemed like an overreaction.  There were hundreds of Jaws rip-offs released after 1975.  Great White is actually a pretty entertaining film.  James Franciscus and Vic Morrow team up to take on a giant shark.  The shark eats a helicopter.  This film can currently be viewed on YouTube.

In Praise of Joseph Sargent

Jaws: The Revenge was directed by Joseph Sargent.  Sargent would have been a hundred years old on July 22nd.  Sargent was a classic, no-nonsense director who could handle many different genres.  Here’s a few Sargent films that are not Jaws: The Revenge.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) is probably Sargent’s best film.  Four criminals hijack a subway train.  The police spend their time negotiating, arguing, and searching.  It’s certainly my favorite example of the “New Yorkers Will be Rude To Anyone” genre.  Featuring great performances from Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Jerry Stiller, and Martin Balsam, this is one of the great New York heist films.  It can be viewed on Tubi.

Maybe I’ll Come Home In The Spring (1972) is a personal favorite of mine, a made-for-television film featuring a young Sally Field as a hippie who returns home and David Carradine as her controlling boyfriend.  This is a lowkey but effective look at life in the suburbs and it features an excellent performance from Sally Field.  It can be viewed on Tubi.

Tribes (1970) features Jan-Michael Vincent as a peace-loving hippie who is drafted and Darren McGavin as the drill sergeant who tries to turn him into a soldier.  Jan-Michael Vincent is absolutely gorgeous in this film.  It can be viewed on YouTube.

Odds and Ends

Paul Verhoeven celebrated a birthday a few days ago.  The original (and still the best) Robocop (1987) is available on Tubi.  Much like Jaws, it’s a film that has stood the test of time and survived countless imitations.

Finally, with the sequel due to be released on the 25th, this week is a great time to amuse yourself with the original Happy Gilmore (1996)!  I love this film and I make no apologies for it.  Bob Barker beating up Adam Sandler?  Seriously, how can you not love this film? Personally, I’ve always felt bad for Shooter McGavin.  Making him hit that ball off of Richard Kiel’s foot?  Totally unfair!  Happy Gilmore is streaming on Netflix.

Click here for last week’s movies!

 

Monday Night Mayhem (2002, directed by Ernest Dickerson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the late 1960s, television coverage of football is dull and boring.  The games are played during the day and the announcers have no personality.  An executive at ABC named Roone Arledge (John Heard) changes all of that by convincing the NFL to start scheduling games for Monday night.  Arledge launches Monday Night Football, a broadcast that puts the viewers at home in the stadium.  Arledge explains that he wants cameras everywhere.  He wants the sidelines and the stands to be mic’d up.  And he wants announcers who will make the game interesting.  He picks an experienced radio announcer named Keith Jackson (Shuler Hensley), former Dallas quarterback Don Meredith (Brad Beyer), and finally an egocentric, loquacious, and opinionated sports reporter named Howard Cosell (John Turturro).  The straight-laced Jackson only lasts a season and finds himself overshadowed by Meredith’s good ol’ boy charisma and Cosell’s eccentricities.  Arledge brings in Frank Gifford (Kevin Anderson) as a replacement and changes both sports and television forever.  Monday night football becomes huge but so do the egos of the men involved.

Based on a non-fiction book by Bill Carter, Monday Night Mayhem is a look at the early days of Monday Night Football, with most of the attention being given to the mercurial Howard Cosell.  As a work of history, it’s pretty shallow.  There’s a lot of montages set to familiar 70s tunes and there’s plenty of familiar stock footage.  Beyer and Anderson do adequate impersonations of Meredith and Gifford without really digging for much under the surface.  Monday Night Mayhem is dominated by John Turturro’s performance as Howard Cosell.  Turturro doesn’t look like Cosell and he really doesn’t sound that much like Cosell but he does capture the mix of arrogance and bitterness that made Howard Cosell such a memorable and controversial announcer.  In its breezy manner, the film hits all the well-know points of Cosell’s life and career, from defending Mohammad Ali to considering a run for the Senate to trying to reinvent himself as a variety show host to the controversy when he was though to have uttered a racial slur during one of the games.  I wish the film had a bit more depth but John Turturro’s committed but bizarre performance keeps it watchable.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.18 “In Search of Crimes Past”

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 Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Giardello sets a dangerous precedent.

Episode 3.18 “In Search of Crimes Past”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on April 14th, 1995)

A woman (Felicia Shakman) takes Colonel Barnfather hostage, pointing a gun at his head and demanding that Bolander reopen the investigation into a murder that occurred sixteen years ago.  Bolander was the primary on the murder and the man that he arrested is scheduled to be executed in just a matter of hours.  The woman with the gun is the man’s daughter.  Russert wants to bring in the hostage negotiators but Giardello instead orders Bolander to take a look at the files and the evidence and to try to see if he arrested the wrong man.

I’m not really sure I buy Giardello’s response.  Giardello claims he has no choice but actually, it seems to me that Giardello is setting a dangerous precedent.  In Baltimore, if you think a relative has been wrongly convicted, you can apparently just take someone hostage and demand the case be reopened.  I’m not sure those are the rules that anyone wants to set.

Now, of course, it turns out that Bolander did arrest the wrong guy.  It perhaps would have been more interesting if Bolander had look at the files and said, “Yeah, I got the right guy,” but then this episode wouldn’t be able to make a statement against the death penalty.  Bolander realizes that he made a mistake and also that the actual murderer is a man who committed suicide that very evening.

While that’s going on, Pembleton and Bayliss investigate the death of an elderly woman who appears to have slipped and drowned in her bathtub.  Her husband (Barnard Hughes) seems to be heartbroken.  Of course, the husband actually killed her.  He has fallen in love with another woman and he killed his wife so that he could be with her.  I preferred this storyline to the Bolander one, just because it featured a lot of Pembleton/Bayliss scenes and a good performance from Barnard Hughes.

Finally, Munch hired a new bartender.  He didn’t bother to tell his partners beforehand but how could Lewis and Bayliss possibly complain about Munch hiring Jerry Stiller to tend bar?  (Technically, Stiller was playing an Irishman named McGonical.)  This was a minor but likeable storyline, mostly because of Jerry Stiller’s likably bizarre performance.

So, this was yet another good but not great episode.  The Bolander storyline was a bit too melodramatic for its own good.  It’s not the sort of thing that would have happened during the show’s first two seasons, back when the whole point was to be realistic.  But that Bayliss/Pembleton storyline featured the show’s two most compelling characters doing what they did did best.  This episode was not perfect but it held my attention nonetheless.

The Pulps Go To The Moon

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

by John Melo

56 years ago today, the first manned spaceflight to the Moon touched down on the lunar surface.  Let’s celebrate this wonderful anniversary with a little help from the pulps!  Not only were these covers illustrated by some of the finest artists working in the business but they also show how people imagined life on the Moon before Neil Armstrong took his one small step.

by Joe Orlando
by Roger Kastel
by Frank Frazetta
by Edmund Emshwiller
by Albert Drake
by Lawrence Sterne Stevens
by Robert Graef
by Howard V. Brown
by Walter Popp
by Enoch Bolles

 

Scenes That I Love: James Lovell Dreams Of The Moon In Apollo 13

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Apollo 13 (1995, dir by Ron Howard, DP: Dean Cundey)

Today we have an absolutely beautiful scene from 1995’s Apollo 13.  In this scene, astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) takes a look at the moon and, for a minute, thinks about what could have been, if only a malfunction hadn’t scuttled Apollo 13’s moon landing and left Lovell and his two crewmates apparently stranded in space.  Though Lovell may dream of walking on the moon, he knows it won’t happen and that his only concern now is getting both himself and his crew back home.

Some critics have a tendency to dismiss Ron Howard as just being a director who makes middlebrow films but this scene shows him to be a director who instinctively understands not only what it’s like to dream but also what it’s like when reality intrudes on those dreams.  This scene features both Howard and Tom Hanks at their best.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Moon Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, we pay tribute to the moon!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 “Moon” Films

A Trip to the Moon (1902, dir by Georges Melies)

Moonraker (1979, dir by Lewis Gilbert)

Moon (2009, dir by Duncan Jones)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012, dir by Wes Anderson)

Music Video of the Day: The Other Side by Public Service Broadcasting (2015, dir by Rafe Gibbons)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video is for Public Service Broadcasting’s inspiring tribute to space exploration, The Other Side! Yes, those are the voices of actual NASA engineers and astronauts, experiencing the dark side of the moon for the very first time. This is from PSB’s classic album, Race for Space.

Enjoy!