Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th 1.23 “Badge of Honor”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

This week …. OH MY GOD, IT’S JOHN STOCKWELL!

Episode 1.23 “Badge of Honor”

(Dir by Michelle Manning, originally aired on July 5th, 1988)

Victor Haas (David Proval) is a club owner and also the head of Canada’s most violent ring of counterfeiters.  Detective Russ Sharko (Val Avery) is obsessed with taking Victor down.  Victor attempts to dissuade Sharko by using a car bomb to take out Sharko’s wife.  That just makes Sharko more determined.  However, when Sharko’s obsession leads to a bust-gone-wrong and a dead cop, Sharko is kicked off the force.  Sharko now has to take Victor and his man down on his own.  Fortunately, he happens to own an antique sheriff’s badge.  When he pins the badge on someone, that person suffers a violent death.

This sounds like a job for Micki and Ryan.  (Jack, again, is out of town.)  However, Micki and Ryan are distracted by the arrival of Tim (played by one of my favorite 80s leading men, the superhot John Stockwell).  Tim is Micki’s ex-boyfriend and soon, he and Micki are picking up where they left off.  (When the season began, Micki was engaged so I guess Tim must have been the boyfriend before the fiancé.)  Ryan gets jealous because — surprise! — he’s kind of in love with Micki.  Of course, just a few episodes ago, Ryan was in love with a preacher’s daughter.  And then, after that, he was in love with Catherine, who was murdered by an evil journalist.  Ryan seems to fall in love easily so….

Actually, wait a minute.  RYAN AND MICKI ARE COUSINS!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RYAN!?  Of course, they’re not first cousins but still …. it just doesn’t seem right!

Anyway, at first, it seems like Ryan might be correct to be suspicious of Tim because Tim approaches Victor and offers to help him with his counterfeiting ring.  But then we learn that Tim is with the FBI!  Why is the FBI working in Canada?  I guess maybe the show’s producers were still trying to convince viewers that Friday the 13th took place in America, despite the fact that all of the directors and most of the actors were Canadian and the show itself was clearly filmed in wintry Canada.  (This episode is a bit of an oddity in that all three of the main guest stars — David Proval, John Stockwell, and Val Avery — were born in the Lower 48.)  The important thing is that Tim’s a good guy but — uh oh! — Tim also gets shot and dies at the end of the episode.  Micki is a little bit sad but Ryan is kind of relieved because it means he’ll have a chance to hook up with his cousin….

SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL!?

This episode got a little bogged down with all of the counterfeiting stuff.  It felt more like an episode of Miami Vice than Friday the 13th.  The badge was also a bit of a boring antique because it didn’t really do anything other than kill people.  Other antiques changed the personality of the people who owned them and demanded a quid pro quo for their powers.  This antique is far more simple and kind of dull.

Oh well.  It’s a less-than-memorable episode but John Stockwell was hot and I’m a bit disappointed that he apparently won’t be making a return appearance.

Next week, we meet Ryan’s father and discover that he’s not a good man at all!

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.2 “Hargrove’s Call”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, T.S. investigates a shooting involving a retired police officer.  I wonder what Amy would think of all this.

Episode 3.2 “Hargrove’s Call”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on January 13th, 1990)

Bitter, retired cop E.V. Richter (J. Winston Carroll) lives alone, in a house that sits in a neighborhood that has seen better days.  He spends his days drinking and his nights fighting with the teenagers who live in the neighborhood.  One night, the teens are setting off firecrackers in an alley behind Richter’s house.  When Richter yells at them, one of the teens starts to approach his house with a firecracker.  Richter shoots him and then tries to plant a gun on the body.  However, by the time the police arrive, the gun has disappeared.

The wounded teen’s mother recruits Terri and Turner to prove that her son wasn’t carrying a gun when he was shot.  While Turner investigates and tries to discover what happened to the gun, Detective Dick Hargrove (David Hemblen) most deal with his own suspicion that his former colleague is not being honest about what happened.

This was an interesting episode, in that Richter was definitely the bad guy but he also had a legitimate reason to be upset.  Setting off firecrackers behind someone’s house is pretty obnoxious and responding to homeowner’s complaint by trying to toss a firecracker at him is …. well, actually, it’s kind of illegal.  At least, it is down here.  Maybe it’s different up in Canada.  Maybe in Canada, they settle disagreements with firecrackers all the time, I don’t know.  That said, when Richter tries to plant the gun, he reveals that he’s gone over the edge and it becomes apparent that if he hadn’t shot the kid over the firecrackers, he would have shot him over something else.  T and T will never be known as a nuanced or particularly thoughtful show but at least this episode tried to do something more than just follow the standard “Mr. T growls and beats people up” plot.

That said, I still find it weird and distracting that everyone on the show acts as if Terri has always lived in the neighborhood and has always been some sort of crusader.  Two episodes into season three and there’s still been no mention of what happened to Amy or why Terri is now suddenly the one in charge. Are we meant to assume that Terri was always around but not just seen during the first two seasons?  Or did something happen to Amy that required Terri to move to Toronto or wherever this show is supposed to take place?  The lack of even the most rudimentary of explanations feels weird and distracting.  Obviously, T and T was never a stickler for continuity but having a major character just vanish without explanation is a big deal.  Shouldn’t Turner be out looking for Amy or something?

Maybe that’ll happen next week.  We’ll see!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For Reservoir Dogs!

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 and Mastodon.  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, at 10 pm et, we’ve got 1992’s Reservoir Dogs!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Reservoir Dogs is available on Prime and Tubi!  See you there!

Music Video of the Day: Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know by Britney Spears (2001, dir by Herb Ritts)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s Britney on the beach!  This video was controversial when it was first released.  It seems rather tame now.

This video was directed by photographer Herb Ritts and Britney’s boyfriend was played by French model Brice Durand.  Supposedly, neither Justin Timberlake nor Lynne Spears were happy with this video.  Lynne felt it was too explicit and Justin apparently had an issue with Britney kissing another guy, even though Britney was just acting, it was just for the music video, and it’s not as if Justin wasn’t messing around behind Britney’s back.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 2.3 “Bless The Boys In Blue”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee and several other services!

This week, Jonathan and Mark become cops!

Episode 2.3 “Bless The Boys In Blue”

(Dir by Victor French, originally aired on October 2nd, 1985)

Well, here’s an episode that would never be made today.

While driving through Los Angeles, Mark talks about a story that has been in the news.  A police sergeant shot a young black teenager outside of a crack house.  The teenager was holding a gun but it was subsequently discovered that the gun was unloaded.  The policeman has been suspended from the force.  Mark, a former cop, is on the sergeant’s side.  Jonathan argues that the sergeant could have tried to talk to the teenager instead of shooting him.  Mark claims that Jonathan has no idea what it’s like to be a cop because he’s an angel.  Mark makes the mistake of saying that he wishes Jonathan could experience what it’s actually like to be a cop.

God — or “The Boss” as the show calls him — hears Mark’s wish and makes it come true.  Mark and Jonathan’s assignment is to become cops and, just to make things interesting, God takes away Jonathan’s special powers.  Jonathan becomes human, once again.  If Jonathan gets shot, he’ll actually get wounded.  One gets the feeling that Jonathan is being punished for his pride, though the show never comes out and says it.

On the first day on the job, Jonathan tries to talk a burglar into putting down his gun and it doesn’t go well.  If not for Mark surprising the burglar, Jonathan probably would have gotten shot.  Having learned his lesson, Jonathan is given back his powers so that he can convince the dead teenager’s father to forgive the cop who shot him….

If any show aired an episode like this today, it would be greeted with howls of protest and those howls wouldn’t necessarily be unjustified.  The episode is unabashedly pro-cop, to the extent that it doesn’t even seem to consider the countless number of police shootings that have been ruled unjustified over the years.  As well, asking the teenager’s father to forgive the man who shot his son so that the man himself can work through his guilt feels incredibly selfish on the part of Jonathan.

Then again, the police that we see in this 1985 show have little in common with the police we see in 2024.  For the most part, the cops in this episode walk a beat or drive around in their squad cars.  They’re normal, blue collar folks who are doing their job and who do their best to be polite to everyone.  There’s no body armor.  No one looks like they’ve spent weeks in the gym.  There’s no shaved heads or terse military-style lingo.  There’s no dismissive talk of “bad guys” and “good guys.”  There are no tanks rolling down the city streets.  In many way, this episode feels like it’s taking place in a different reality and, to an extent, I guess it is.  This episode is 39 years old but it feels like a work of ancient lore.

Retro Television Review: Sawdust 1.1 “Pilot”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Sawdust, which aired on CBS in 1987.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

From executive producer Ed Zwick, we have a show about a really terrible father.

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Jeffrey Hornaday, originally aired on July 3rd, 1987)

We bought a circus!

That’s the premise behind Sawdust, in which an accountant named Max Galpin (James Eckhouse) buys a circus after the owner dies.  He then pulls his teenage children out of school and, along with his wife, he decides to live with and run the circus.

What!?

Like seriously, why would he do that?  Unfortunately, the purchase of the circus and the moment when Max tells his family that he’s ruined their lives all take place off-screen.  Max mentions them in his voice-over narration and he says something about how, at an auction of the former owner’s possessions, he bid on the circus but he was surprised when he won.  So, I guess maybe Max wasn’t actually planning on buying the circus but he just bid on it to …. what?  I mean, as a part of my day job, I have been to auctions before and I’ve bid on stuff for my boss.  It was fun and yes, sometimes people do make bids just to run up the price of something.  But I still find it hard to believe that someone could 1) accidentally buy a circus and 2) justify uprooting his family to run the circus.

At first, Max’s wife (Marsha Waterbury) and his daughter (Kellie Overbey) and his son (Bradley Gregg) are not happy with him but that changes once they actually arrive at the circus and get caught up in the excitement of putting on a show.  Max’s daughter takes the longest to come around, mostly because Max wants her to wear a skimpy outfit while walking across a tight rope that is suspended above the ground.  His daughter probably wouldn’t die if she lost her balance but still, it would be embarrassing and what type of father does that to his daughter?  I mean, is walking across a tight rope an easy thing to do?  Meanwhile, Max gets shot out of a cannon, his wife works with an elephant, and his son dresses up like a gorilla.  Max is willing to risk his daughter’s dignity but his son just has to dress up like a gorilla.  What the Hell?

Max gets to know the ringmaster, Serge (Elya Baskin), who quits in a huff but then comes back because the circus is all he knows.  And Leslie Jordan shows up, not saying a word but playing various musical instruments.  We also meet a man who has been hired to serve as the tutor for Max’s kids because again, Max has pulled them out of school so that they can join the circus.  Max really is a terrible father.  What a jerk.  Seriously, his children have not only left behind all of their friends but also whatever hope they may have had of getting into an Ivy League college.  Now, they’ll have to settle for a state school.  And why?  Because their father, despite having no circus experience, decided to run a circus.

This pilot was so weird.  There was a laugh track but the show took itself oddly seriously.  Max is a character to whom most viewers would have mixed feelings and the rather frantic performance of James Eckhouse does little to make him sympathetic.  There would not be a second episode.

Music Video of the Day: Moonflower by Blackbriar (2024, dir by Cinebuds)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video has a very ominous atmosphere to it.  In fact, the feeling that I got, while watching it, was that it was taking place maybe a day or two before the end of the world.  That’s appropriate, considering that the name of the song’s record label is Nuclear Blast Records.

Speaking of nuclear blasts, I’m thinking of following the lead of someone who I saw on TikTok and becoming a self-employed nuclear disarmament consultant.  I don’t know that I would be all that good at the job but it sounds like I would have fun finding out.  I imagine that I would start the day by calling up world leaders and saying, “Have you disarmed yet?”  I know I’m at least half-as-smart as that woman on TikTok so …. I mean, how hard can it be?

If only there was a movie that could educate me about nuclear missiles and stuff….

AGCK!  Okay, maybe I should just leave that job up to the experts….

Anyway, enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 2.1 “The Face”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

This week, we start the second season of Monsters!

Episode 2.1 “The Face”

(Dir by Allen Coulter, originally aired on October 1st, 1989)

The second season of Monsters opens with two redneck brother, Ray (Gregory Grove) and Clifford (Gary Roberts), breaking into a house that is owned by an old widow (Imogene Coca).  Because the woman is known for paying for everything in cash and doesn’t even have a bank account, the brothers suspect that she has a fortune stashed away somewhere in the house.  (I’m not really sure how the brothers know that she doesn’t have a bank account and, for that matter, neither one of them really come across like they could open a bank account either.  Maybe just don’t judge people on whether or not they have a bank account, you know?)  When the dumbass brothers stumble across the woman in her bedroom, a struggle leads to Ray suffocating her but not before she bites a chunk out of his hand.

The wound on Ray’s hand refuses to heal.  Instead, it starts to resemble the face of the old woman and soon, Ray is hearing her voice and the wound itself appears to be talking.  Yikes!  Is Ray being driven mad by his own guilt and paranoia or is the woman’s spirit truly haunting him?  And will Ray ever be able to get the voice to stop or will he end up doing something unthinkable to his hand?

Either way, that talking hand wound is not particularly pleasant to look at.  The second season premiere of Monsters takes it cue from both the body horror of David Cronenberg and the comedic grotesquerie of Sam Raimi and that means that we get a lot of closeups of Ray’s bloody hand and we also see every detail of the lengths that Ray goes to try to silence the wound.  I started this episode cringing and, by the end of it, I had my own hands over my eyes because some of the imagery was just way too …. icky.

While the imagery was undeniably effective in its nauseating way, the overall story really didn’t carry much of an impact.  Ray and Clifford were both such idiots that it was difficult to really care about any story involving them.  In the end, they weren’t even interesting enough to make their downfall fun to watch.  This episode worked best as an example of gross-out horror and, if I had to guess, I think the episode’s main aim was to let viewers know that season 2 was going to be even more graphic than season one.  The episode makes for a fine highlight real for the show’s VFX and makeup teams but, as a story, it just falls flat.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Quentin Tarantino Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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 wishes a happy 61st birthday to director/screenwriter/cultural institution, Quentin Tarantino!

Here are….

4 Shots From 4 Quentin Tarantino Films

Reservoir Dogs (1992, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)

Jackie Brown (1997, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Guillermo Navarro)

Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Robert Richardson)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Robert Richardson)

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.9 “She Stole His Heart/Return of the Captain’s Brother/Swag and Mag”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

The Stubing Brothers are together again!

Episode 4.9 “She Stole His Heart/Return of the Captain’s Brother/Swag and Mag”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on December 8th, 1980)

This week, Captain Stubing’s no-good brother — Marshall Stubing — returns!  That means that it is once again time for Gavin MacLeod to put on a toupee and a fake mustache and to play a dual role.  (And, once again, he is credited as O.D. Warbux when playing Marshall.)

This time, Marshall is actually on the boat with the best of intentions.  He wants to marry Natalie Martin (Arlene Dahl) and, amazingly enough, Natalie wants to marry him as well.  Except — oh no! — it’s Zsa Zsa Gabor!  Gabor plays Marshall’s ex-girlfriend.  The character has a name but we’ll just call her Zsa Zsa because she’s basically playing herself.  Marshall is certainly tempted by Zsa Zsa but, in the end, he does the right thing and he marries Natalie.  In fact, the third Stubing brother, Milo Stubing (Sonny Wilde), shows up for the wedding.  Wait a minute, Sonny Wilde?  OH MY GOD, IT’S GAVIN MACLEOD IN ANOTHER WIG!

Gavin MacLeod plays three characters in this episode and let’s give him some credit.  It’s all very, very silly and Zsa Zsa Gabor is not for everyone but Gavin MacLeond pulls it off.  (Admittedly, there is one awkward scene where Merill has a conversation with Marshall and it’s obvious that no one told MacLeod where the other version of him would be standing so, as a result, Merrill appears to be looking over Marshall’s head while speaking to him but even that is kind of charming in its low-rent way.)  Gavin MacLeod appears to be having fun in this episode and that was definitely the correct approach to take to this show.  It keeps the story entertaining, even though not that much really happens with it.

As for the other stories …. eh, who cares?  I mean, when you’ve got Gavin MacLeod talking to himself and Zsa Zsa Gabor making a grand entrance into every scene, do you need any other stories?  Okay, okay, I’ll still talk about them, even though neither one is really that interesting.

Joan Van Ark plays a kleptomaniac from Oklahoma who falls for a psychologist played by Stephen Keep Mills.  Whenever she flirts with him, she ends up walking away with his wallet or his wristwatch.  Fortunately, they find romance and good mental health together.  The doctor could have just called the police and had her arrested but that would have made for a depressing ending.

Darryl Brewster (Ron Ely) is Vicki’s favorite actor.  He plays private detective Steve Swaggart on television.  Swaggart can win any fight but when Darryl is challenged to a real fight by another passenger (William Boyett), Darryl ends up trying to pay the guy off.  The passenger reveals Darryl is a coward and, for a while, everyone is disillusioned.  But then Darryl gives a speech about the difference between playing a brawler and being one and everyone forgives him, including his agent and soon-to-be lover, Maggie (Erin Gray).  The big problem here is that we’re asked to believe that Stubing would allow two passengers to schedule a fistfight on his ship without any repercussions.  That would be the sort of thing that I think would get most captains fired.  Obviously, Merrill was pre-occupied with his brothers but that’s really no excuse for putting the cruise line in legal jeopardy.

In short, it may be time to fire Stubing and let Gopher take over.

We’ll see if Stubing has gotten any better at his job next week.