Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.14 “It Creeps!”

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!

Wake up in the morning, it’s time to make a feminist slasher film….

Episode 1.14 “It Creeps!”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on February 6th, 1990)

Shane’s back!

We haven’t seen Shane since he showed up at the last junior high dance.  Shane, of course, is the ex-boyfriend of Spike and the wayward father of Emma.  Shane took LSD while at a concert and either jumped or fell off a bridge.  When we see him in this episode, he’s suffering from brain damage.  One minute, he’s greeting Spike like his best friend.  Another minute, he’s yelling at her and suddenly acting aggressive.  Spike still tries to be nice to him, despite Liz’s comment of “He’s creepy.”  (Seriously, what is going with Liz this season?)  What’s really disturbing, though, is that Shane’s only close friend still appears to be Luke, the idiot who gave him the acid in the first place.

(Seriously, how did Luke get away with that?)

That was the B-plot of this episode.  The A-plot featured Lucy finally making her feminist horror film, It Creeps!!, for her creative writing class.  Personally, I like the idea behind It Creeps!!  It’s a slasher movie where, for once, it’s the guys getting knifed in the shower instead of the girls.  It’s the type of thing that would get Lucy a deal with Blumhouse today.  I’m a little bit surprised that she was able to get away with making it for a school project but I guess that 80s were a more innocent time.  If a student shot a bloody slasher film in her school today, she’d probably be suspended.

Lucy shows her film to the class and is shocked when they laugh at certain parts.  She runs out the room but her creative writing teacher assures her that class is enjoying her film.  He tells her that she did a good job, considering that it was her first film.  (It’s a hundred times better than Michael Scott’s Threat Level Midnight.)  Lucy returns to the classroom, just in time to find everyone cheering as Wheels dies on screen.

Of course, those of us who know our Degrassi history, know how this is going to turn out.  After graduation, Wheels is going to be driving drunk and he’s going to have the accident that will not only send him to prison but will also leave Lucy crippled and temporarily blinded.  Seriously, this show is a lot darker if you already know what’s going to happen in School’s Out!

As for this episode, it was a good one.  The plot with Lucy’s film worked because the end result actually looked like something that had been filmed by a moderately talented teenager who owned a somewhat beat-up video camera.  And I was glad that the show remembered that Shane existed.  Amanda Stepto did a wonderful job portraying Spike’s reaction to seeing Shane.  This was Degrassi High at its best.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 3/10/25 — 3/16/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!  The 17th is not only St. Patrick’s Day but it’s also Kurt Russell’s birthday!  Buckle up because things are going to get wild in about an hour!

Here’s a quick look at what I watched over the previous week.

Films I Watched:

  1. Bagdad Cafe (1987)
  2. Blood Father (2016)
  3. Captain Ron (1992)
  4. Circle of Friends (1995)
  5. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
  6. Deepwater Horizon (2016)
  7. Dixie Dynamite (1976)
  8. Executive Decision (1996)
  9. Fools’ Parade (1971)
  10. The General (1998)
  11. Get Shorty (1995)
  12. The Food of the Gods (1976)
  13. Hogan’s Goat (1971)
  14. Michael Collins (1996)
  15. Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972)
  16. Poseidon (2006)
  17. The Snapper (1993)
  18. Soldier (1998)
  19. The Strongest Man In The World (1975)
  20. Superdad (1973)
  21. Swing Shift (1984)
  22. The Van (1996)
  23. The Velvet Underground In Boston (1967)

TV Shows I Watched:

  1. Check It Out!
  2. CHiPs
  3. Dark
  4. Degrassi High
  5. Fantasy Island
  6. Friday the 13th: The Series
  7. Highway to Heaven
  8. Homicide: Life On The Street
  9. Miami Vice
  10. Pacific Blue
  11. St. Elsewhere
  12. Welcome Back, Kotter

Links From The Site:

  1. Arleigh reviewed Code of Silence!
  2. Jeff reviewed Sidekicks, Born To The West, and Far and Away!
  3. Brad reviewed Shane and Red Sun!  He wrote about Blood Father and shared scenes from Karate Kid and Lone Wolf McQuade!  He paid tribute to Paul Fix!
  4. Erin reviewed Touchback and Dreamer!  She also shared The Strangest Sin, Wild Parties, Swamp Sister, Born Innocent, The Canceled Czech, The Ides of March, and Climb A Broken Ladder!

News and Links From Last Week:

  1. Producer Stanley R. Jaffe Dies At 84
  2. A profile of Isabella I of Castile
  3. March 15 Painting For Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2025! Painting Chicago’s River Green! Here’s How They Do It!

Want to check out last week?  Click here!

 

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.6 “A Model Citizen”

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.

No one’s happy this week.

Episode 3.6 “A Model Citizen”

(Dir by John McNaughton, originally aired on November 11th, 1994)

Welcome to Baltimore, where everyone is depressed.  Consider this week’s episode of Homicide: Life On The Street.

  1. The episode opens with Munch, Bolander, Howard, and Felton in a morgue, waiting for the results of an autopsy.  They start talking about the shows that they watched as children and how many of them had their origins right in Baltimore.  Of course, none of those shows are on the air anymore.  Munch mentions his favorite childhood shows and is ridiculed for liking things when he was a kid.
  2. Emma Zoole (Lauren Tom), an artist who makes models of crime scenes for use in criminal court, stops by the department.  She’s looking for Steve Crosetti, to get his input on a recreation.  Meldrick Lewis tells her that Crosetti’s dead but he offers to help.  Lewis has a crush.  However, Emma likes Bayliss and Bayliss likes Emma.  Bayliss is even turned on by the fact that Emma sleeps in a coffin.  However, when Bayliss sees how upset Lewis is over his relationship with Emma, Bayliss tries to break up with her.  They end up having sex in the coffin instead.
  3. That’s it!, Lewis declares.  He cannot go into the bar business with Tim Bayliss.  Then again, there might not be a bar business anyway because Munch got kicked out of the state-required alcohol awareness class.  Munch, for whatever reason, decided to argue about whether or not a bartender could really be held responsible for getting someone drunk.
  4. Pembleton, Russert, and the city of Baltimore are all being sued by serial killer Pamela Wilgis.  Wilgis claims that Pembleton violated her civil rights when he interrogated her.  Pembleton’s entire interrogation style is put on trial.  He feels like he’s being attacked on all sides.  Finally, Pembleton gets depressed enough to reenter a church, even though he earlier claimed to no longer have any use for religion.
  5. Munch and Howard investigate the accidental shooting of a child by his older brother.  Much gets extremely upset while searching for the gun, taking Howard totally be surprise.  Howard comes to realize that Much actually cares about protecting children from violence and Munch realizes that the world is a terrible place.
  6. Beau Felton returns to his house and discovers that both his wife and his son have left and they’ve taken all the furniture with them.  Goodbye is scrawled, in lipstick, on the bathroom mirror.
  7. Much ends up sitting outside, staring at the ground while Lewis and then Howard both talk to him about how much life sucks.
  8. No one wants to end up like Steve Crosetti, Howard says at one point.  Good luck!  This job is depressing!

This was a good episode, one that really captured the emotional turmoil of seeing the worse that humanity has to offer while, at the same time, acknowledging that depressed people often use humor to deal with their feelings.  A few of Munch’s and Lewis’s line made me laugh out loud but seriously, I felt so bad for both of them!

Hopefully, everyone will have cheered up by next week.

Song of the Day: Theme From CHiPs by John Parker and Alan Silvestri

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As today is Erik Estrada’s birthday, it’s obvious what today’s song of the day has to be.

No matter what you may think of the show, this theme has one of the greatest bass lines of all time.  If you’re not dancing, you might want to call 911.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Bernardo Bertolucci 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, the Shattered Lens celebrates Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Bernardo Bertolucci Films

The Conformist (1970, dir by Bernardo Betrolucci, DP: Vittorio Storaro)

The Last Emperor (1987, dir by Bernardo Bertolucci, DP: Vittorio Storaro)

The Sheltering Sky (1990, dir by Bernardo Betrolucci, DP: Vittorio Storaro)

Stealing Beauty (1996, dir by Bernardo Bertolucci, DP: Darius Khondji)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.10 “Shrink from Sendrax”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and Peacock!

This week, corporate sends a visitor to Cobb’s for reasons that are never exactly clear.

Episode 3.10 “Shrink From Sendrax”

(Dir by Jayne Schipper, originally aired on November 15th, 1987)

I’m just going to do a mini-review of this episode because I’m busy working on our big St. Patrick’s Day extravaganza here at the Shattered Lens!

  1. Remember that new company that bought out Cobb’s?  It can be easy to forget about them.  Well, in this episode, they send a psychiatrist named Dr. Matthews (Graham Harley) to check on everyone’s mental health.  Why would they do that?  I mean, is Cobb’s grocery store really that important to them?  It seems like a lot of money to spend on checking whether or not the cashiers are feeling good about themselves.
  2. Admittedly, I haven’t had that many jobs and I’ve never worked in a grocery store.  If you told me that I had no choice but to sit down and talk about my life with a psychiatrist as a condition of my employment, I would probably quit.  It’s not that I have anything against psychiatrists.  It’s just that I believe therapy should always be voluntary.
  3. The episode’s highlight was Leslie wanting to spend hours talking to the psychiatrist about the party that was thrown when he turned two years old.  Aaron Schwartz, who is often underused on this show, really got a chance to show off his comedic skills in this episode.
  4. Gordon Clapp’s Viker also got a few good scenes.  In general, any episode that features Clapp is, at the very least, going to make me smile.
  5. Howard freaks out over the psychiatrist and the questionnaire that he’s forced to fill out.  He gets some advice from 14 year-old stockboy Brad, played by T and T‘s Sean Roberge.  This is Brad’s third appearance on the show and I get the feeling that he was originally meant to be a major character but the show’s writers couldn’t figure out what to do with the character.
  6. This third season has had a lot of weird detours and characters.  We haven’t heard anything else about Howard’s brother.  The corporate liaison, TC Collingwood (Elizabeth Hanna), is occasionally pictured in the opening credits and occasionally not.  What happened to the stockboy who had a crush on Marlene?
  7. Anyway, to prove that he’s not crazy, Howard dresses up like a clown because he knows that only way to prove he’s not crazy is to act crazy while realizing that he’s acting crazy or something.
  8. Marlene and Christian, the two most consistently interesting characters on the show, were not in this episode and that kind of made the whole psychiatry angle feel useless.  The idea of Marlene and Christian reacting to ink blots is such a good one that I personally would have delayed production on this episode until Kathleen Laskey and Jeff Pustil were available to appear in it.

Gordon Clapp and Aaron Schwartz were great but, overall, this was pretty dumb episode.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 3/9/25 — 3/15/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This what yet another week where I didn’t really watch any television, beyond the shows that I review for this site and also the weekly episode of Dark that I watch with Case Writes.  I’ve been busy getting ready for Monday, which is both St. Patrick’s Day and Kurt Russell’s birthday.  But I have to admit that, even since my Dad passed away last year, watching silly reality shows hasn’t really appealed to me the way that it used to.  I don’t how to explain it.  I guess tastes change!

Anyway, maybe I’ll get caught up on Abbott Elementary, Survivor, and all the rest next week!  I guess I’ll have to or else this weekly post is going to start to feel a bit superfluous!

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back Kotter 4.20 “Oo-Oo I Do! Part One”

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 Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC  from 1975 to 1979.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime.

Horshack makes a decision about his future.

Episode 4.20 “Oo-Oo I Do! Part One”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on May 25th, 1979)

Horshack is shocked to suddenly realize that he has a girlfriend.  To be honest, I think everyone’s a little shocked.  Horshack doesn’t exactly come across like someone that anyone would want to have a romantic relationship with.  He’s not particularly handsome, he’s got that terrible voice, he’s got those weird personal habits, and he’s like 50 years old and still in high school.

Still, when Horshack learns that he’s going to be transferred to another school because his mother married a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City, Horshack asks Mary Johnson to marry him.  And Mary says yes.

NO, MARY!  RUN, MARY, RUN!

So, let’s just consider this.  One reason why Gabe Kaplan refused to appear in much of season four is because the show’s producers refused to consider his suggestions that the Sweathogs should graduate high school and move on to City College.  But the producers were totally willing to have Horshack get married while in high school.  Sure, that makes sense.  Admittedly, people do get married in high school but few of them would marry Arnold Horshack.  Plus, most high school marriages — at least in my experience — involve an unexpected pregnancy and it’s hard to view Horshack as being anything other than asexual.  He’s just too weird a character for a episode dealing with real things, like love and marriage.  I could buy Epstein getting married.  I could buy Washington getting married.  Beau …. sure, I could buy that.  What would have been really cool would have been if one of Travolta’s episodes had featured him getting married.  Even better would have been an episode where Gabe and Julie got divorced.  Seriously, it would have made more sense than someone voluntarily saying, “I want to spend the rest of my life with the school weirdo.”

This is the first part of a two-part episode.  If I’m not saying much about this episode it’s because this episode was 75% Horshack and Horshack annoys the heck out of me.  When the show began, he was weird but he wasn’t quite as cartoonish as he became in the third and fourth seasons.  This whole marriage two-parter was apparently a backdoor pilot for a show about Horshack adjusting to married life.  Seriously, out of all the Sweathog, that’s the one they wanted to spin-off?

(What’s annoying is that occasionally –– like in this episode where Horshack was drinking — Ron Palillo would get a chance to show that he actually wasn’t a terrible actor but the show’s writers usually did him absolutely no favors.)

This episode really showed how far the show had fallen.  Horshack is getting transferred to a new school and Gabe is nowhere to be seen.  Horshack is getting married and again, Gabe is nowhere to be seen.  It’s Welcome Back, Horshack now and the Sweathogs are truly doomed.