Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Jane Campion. Today’s scene that I love comes from Campion’s 1993 film, The Piano!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Jane Campion. Today’s scene that I love comes from Campion’s 1993 film, The Piano!
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 67th birthday to cinematic provocateur, Lars Von Trier!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Lars Von Trier Films
Enjoy! You survived April!
This week, I definitely watched more movies than television. Here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch!
Accused (Tuesday Night, Fox)
This week’s episode was pretty good. Adam Bakri, who played Samir, played obsessed well. Accused is a fairly uneven show, which is to be expected considering that every episode has a different director, writer, and cast. But this week’s episode did a good job of holding my interest for the entire running time.
Are You Being Served? (Sunday Night, PBS)
This extremely broad British sitcom pops up on PBS occasionally. I’ve never been that impressed with it, despite the fact that it was made by the same people who made Allo Allo. To be honest, I kind of resent that my PBS station has replaced Allo Allo with this. Anyway, this week’s episode featured the tacky employees of a tacky department store trying to stay warm despite the cold weather and the store’s lack of heat. No one died during the episode so I guess they succeeded. I honestly didn’t pay much attention.
Barry (Sunday Night, HBO)
Oh my God, it’s Guillermo del Toro! This was another great episode, though I did feel bad for everyone who got shot at the end of it. The assassins with the podcast were a good example of what this show does so well. I also loved the class’s reaction to Sally trying to use Gene’s methods to teach her class.
Beavis and Butt-Head (Paramount Plus)
Okay, seriously, Old Beavis and Old Butt-Head freak me the fuq out! It’s always so jarring to see a story about them as adults paired up with a story about them as teenagers. To be honest, it’s kind of depressing. I mean, it’s not like it’s a shock that they’re going to grow up to be losers but still, Butt-Head is a heart attack waiting to happen and Beavis reminds me of this old guy who always tries to talk to me whenever I find myself near Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. Of course, the old guy only has one arm and even less teeth than Beavis but still, they have the same jawline.
Anyway, it was a funny episode this week. Teenage Beavis and Butt-Head’s utter stupidity and lack of physical ability while trying to egg the house made me laugh. It’s just sad to realize that they’re peaking in high school. Throwing an egg in a tree is as good as its ever going to get for the two of them.
Oh well. At least Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head are getting to enjoy the universe.
Beef (Netflix)
I finished watching Beef on Sunday. You can count me amongst those who suspect that the final episode was actually a dream. Anyway, it was an excellent show. I kind of hope that there aren’t any more seasons because I really can’t imagine anything topping what’s already been done.
Dirty Pair (YouTube)
Anime action! I watched another episode of Dirty Pair on Saturday morning. I had no idea what was going on but a lot of stuff blew up.
Farmer Wants A Wife (Wednesday Night, Fox)
This show is definitely one of my favorite reality shows right now, even though that’s largely due to it providing an antidote for the ickiness of the previous season of The Bachelor. That said, I can’t help but notice that the show makes it look like farming is all rodeos and barn dances. I have farmers in my family and, believe it or not, they go to the movies, they liked to read, and sometimes they just like to stay at home and binge whatever’s on Netflix. Hopefully, the potential wives understand that not every night is going to involve a barn dance. Anyway, the farmers still do not have wives.
Half Nelson (YouTube)
You can check out my thoughts on this week’s episode by clicking here. Only one more episode to go and then I’ll be moving on to Freddy’s Nightmares.
Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)
To be honest, I nearly turned off this week’s episode when it opened with a congresswoman talking about how she had to go to a “freedom caucus” meeting because the Law & Order reboot has always been at its worse whenever its tried to deal with politics. In general, anyone who is to the right of Bernie Sanders is usually portrayed as being pure evil on Law & Order and that was certainly what happened this week as the token Republican congresswoman repeatedly complained that her husband’s murder was bad for her career. That said, the case itself was actually an interesting one and, for once, the episode was willing to admit that people can genuinely disagree with each other without having nefarious motives for doing so. This week’s trial dilemma had no easy answers.
Price and Maroun continue to be two of the most inconsistently-written characters on television. When the reboot started, Maroun was unquestionably loyal to Price and her devotion actually came across as being a bit creepy. One got the feeling that she would murder someone if Price told her to. Over the last few episodes, though, Maroun has been disagreeing with Price on everything and essentially suggesting that he’s just not very good at his job. Personally, I prefer the perpetually annoyed Maroun to the meek Maroun of the past. Price, meanwhile, abruptly went from being a self-righteous liberal to being a self-righteous pragmatist.
This week’s episode deserves some credit for ending with Price having to cut a deal to get a conviction. Far too often, Law & Order has portrayed Price as being “Super Lawyer,” with his superpower being the ability to get a conviction despite having a ludicrous weak case. Infallible Price was almost as annoying as Meek Maroun. Talented but still flawed Price, on the other hand, has the potential to be a far more interesting character.
The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)
I wrote about The Love Boat here.
Night Court (Tuesday Night, NBC)
*Yawn* From what I understand, this show is doing well in the ratings but I have to imagine that’s entirely due to Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette. Whenever an episode spends a good deal of time with any of the other characters, like this week’s did with Neil reuniting with his high school crush, it’s torturously dull. At this point, it’s pretty obvious that Abbi is going to break up with Rand at the end of the season and season 2 will find her newly single.
Night Flight (Night Flight Plus)
The episode that I watched on Friday night was about African music of the 80s. It was an interesting history lesson.
The Old Guys (Sunday Night, PBS)
PBS is showing The Old Guys again. This week’s episode featured the old guys going out on what turned out to be a triple date. The jokes were obvious but the cast was likable.
Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)
I was sorry to see Kane voted out this week but I was even more sorry that apparently, not a single fake idol is going to be used this season! Seriously, this season had three fake immunity idols and now, they’re all out of the game without anyone trying to play even one of them! I know I seem to say this every week but I really miss old school Survivor, where Jeff Probst openly ridiculed the players and we didn’t learn anything about their lives back on the mainland. Now, everyone has a sob story and Probst is all “Up with people!” It just feels weird. You can read more of my thoughts on this week’s episode here!
Waco: The Aftermath (Sunday Night, Showtime)
This episode featured great work from Michael Shannon as the FBI agent who still feels guilty for his part in creating the monster that he’s now having to fight. Elohim City, by the way, is a real place and it still exists. This is an interesting series and one that deserves a bit more attention than it’s been getting.
Yellowjackets (Sunday Night, Showtime)
Last night, in the 90s, Misty killed the most annoying of the survivors. In the present, Taissa went to the home of the 2nd-most annoying of the survivors so, if nothing else, we know that Van’s going to be around for a while. Speaking of annoying, Callie finally figured out that her new boyfriend is cop so she lied and said that Shauna had been having an affair with Randy Walsh. You kind of have to wonder what Randy thinks about some of the things he’s been put through over the past few days.
Yes, Minister (Monday Morning, PBS)
Oh well! Even if PBS is no longer showing Allo Allo, at least they brought back Yes, Minster. This week’s episode was the one in which Hacker’s daughter planned a protest to save a colony of badgers and Sir Humphrey had to make plans to save Hacker from embarrassment. This was also the episode in which Hacker decided that he was tired of the civil servants keeping secrets and tasks from him, just to then discover how much pointless minutia truly goes into being a member of the government. It was very British and it was very funny.
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 California Dreams, which ran on NBC from 1992 to 1996. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, we finally meet Sly’s father!
Episode 5.6 “Reel Teens”
(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on October 12th, 1996)
Reel Teens, a reality show, follows around Jake and the California Dreams for a week and reports on how they handle stress. Since this episode is from the 90s, the entire episode is shot in the style of the Real World, with skewed camera angles, colorful title cards, and random use of black-and-white. Though Jake assures the viewing audience that “Jake Sommers doesn’t do stress,” it turns out that he actually has a lot of stress. Jake has to fix Tiffani’s car. He has to write a song by Friday. He has to turn in his term paper and, for his home economics class, he has to sew a wedding dress.
I enjoyed this episode. It was actually a pretty clever satire of 90s-style reality television. Plus. Jake’s wedding dress was actually really nice. Good for him!
Episode 5.7 “Father Knows Bets”
(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on October 19th, 1996)
After five seasons, we finally get to meet Sly’s father! To be honest, I was expecting him to be some sort of greasy, used car salesman type of guy. I was thinking of maybe the TNBC version of Frank Reynolds from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Instead, it turns out that he’s a high-powered businessman who had apparently never been a part of Sly’s life. In fact, his father is so neglectful that all of Sly’s bad and obnoxious behavior suddenly makes perfect sense.
However, in this episode, Sly finally goes too far when he develops a gambling addiction. Sly wins his first few bets and then he loses big. And, since Sly made the mistake of putting the band’s equipment up as a collateral, the Dreams lose big too. Sly sells his car in order to pay back the band but, by this point, Jake has already called Sly’s father and told him what’s going on. Sly and his father finally have a heart-to-heart talk outside of Sharky’s and you know what? It’s actually extremely touching. By the end of this show, Michael Cade had developed into a very good actor and he proves it in this episode.
Meanwhile, all of the school is wondering who will be given the Himalaya Award, which honors the most unique student. Tony is on the committee and he whispers to everyone that the winner will be Jake. However, it turns out that the winner is Tony and the rest of the committee lied to him because they knew Tony couldn’t keep a secret. “I can keep a secret!” Tony says, in front of all the people who he previously told Jake was going to win.
Hey, it made me laugh!
This was a good episode. if you need proof of just how much better California Dreams was than the other Peter Engel-produced sitcoms of the 90s, compare this episode to the Saved By The Bell episode were Zack Morris talked to his Dad or the City Guys episode where Chris found out his parents were getting divorced.
Coming up next week, a clip show and a senior prom!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. 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, for #ScarySocial, ArtAttackNYC will be hosting 1997’s Breakdown, starring Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan, and J.T. Walsh!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime. I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
In honor of what would have been Fred Zinnemann’s 116th birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from 1953’s From Here To Eternity, one of the two Zinnemann-directed films to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
In this scene, Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) proves that he’s still a skilled boxer. That’s not something that Prewitt wants the world to know because he’s still guilt-stricken over accidentally blinding one of his sparring partners. Captain Holmes wants Prewitt to fight on the regimental team. Prewitt would rather just play the bugle but, as he shows in this scene, he can still throw a punch if he’s forced to. It leads to a lot of drama, the majority of which is forgotten in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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 73rd birthday to Australian filmmaker, Phillip Noyce. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Phillip Noyce Films
Today’s music video of the day is sure to haunt your nightmares. Chucky has got nothing on Alfie!
Enjoy!
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 Half Nelson, which ran on NBC from March to May of 1985. Almost all nine of the show’s episodes can be found on YouTube!
Last week, I took a look at the sixth episode of Half Nelson, which was called Nose Job and which featured Rocky (Joe Pesci) dealing with an obsessed plastic surgeon who was stalking a former girlfriend. That episode featured not only two villains (it turned out that the plastic surgeon wasn’t the only homicidal stalker in Hollywood) but is also ended with Victoria Jackson’s Annie O’Hara starting a romantic relationship with Gary Grubbs’s Detective Hamill.
Nose Job was followed by an episode called Chariots For Hire. It apparently aired on April 26th, 1985 and that’s really all I can tell you about the episode. Chariots For Hire is the only episode of Half Nelson that has not been uploaded to YouTube. I can’t even find a plot summary for it on the imdb. Chariots For Hire is apparently the lost episode of Half Nelson.
Fortunately, the eighth episode of Half Nelson is on YouTube. So, let’s pick up the adventures of Rocky Nelson in Malibu Colony!
Episode 1.8 “Malibu Colony”
(Dir by James Sheldon, originally aired on May 3rd, 1985)
Rocky, Annie, Beau (Dick Butkus), and Kurt (Bubba Smith) have been assigned to guard what Rocky claims is “one of the most valuable art collections in the world.” Fortunately, this job means that they get to spend a few days hanging out in a fabulous beach house in Malibu! Standing out on the deck of the beach house, Annie looks out at the ocean and says that she can hardly believe that China is on the other side of it.
“I wonder how the egg rolls stay fresh crossing over from that far,” Kurt says.
Before anyone can ponder that question for too long, a half-naked woman runs screaming down the beach while being pursued by two thugs in suits. Rocky saves the woman from the thugs and sends her into the beach house so that she can borrow some clothes from Annie. Once dressed, the woman explains that she’s Nancy Norton (Shari Shattuck) and that she was fleeing from a nearby yacht club. She claims that the owner of the club has some naked pictures of her and she needs to get them back. Rocky, deciding that the art can protect itself, helps Nancy sneak back into the club so that she can retrieve her photographs. However, when she sees the club’s president, Crane (John Beck), she suddenly holds up a gun and shoots at him. Rocky is able to push Crane out of the way of the bullets and then he chases after Nancy.
Fortunately, both Rocky and Nancy make it out of the club without anyone realizing that they’re together. Despite the fact that she nearly made him an accessory to murder, Rocky still wants to help Nancy. Nancy explains that there are no pictures and she wasn’t trying to kill Crane. (“I just wanted to scare him.”) Nancy’s father lost a lot of money while playing poker with Crane and now Crane is threatening to kill him if he doesn’t pay. But Nancy is convinced that the poker game was rigged. The reason she was in club earlier was to take a look at Crane’s cards.
(For some reason, she thought it would be smart to do that while wearing a bikini, the top of which was somehow lost while she was fleeing Crane’s guards. That explains that partial nudity, which I am sure was definitely viewed as being important to the plot and not just as an attempt to boost the show’s ratings.)
Having saved Crane’s life, Rocky is able to get Annie, Kurt, and Beau jobs at the club. Annie models clothes. Kurt and Beau work as waiters. Rocky’s boss, Chester (Fred Williamson), shows up at the club with Dean Martin and is shocked to see all of his employees working there. Dean demands that Chester give them all raises so that they can quit their second jobs.
Eventually, Rocky finds his proof that Crane is a criminal and, with Chester’s help, he takes Crane down. After being stuck in the office for the past few episodes, Chester actually gets to do something in this episode. It’s always nice to see Fred Williamson in action and making it even better is that he smokes a big cigar while he’s taking down the bad guys. Finally, after eight episodes, Half Nelson reminded everyone of why Fred Williamson was so cool to begin with.
This episode definitely earns some points for allowing the entire supporting cast — from Fred Williamson to Victoria Jackson to Dean Martin — to play a role in solving the case of the week. One of Half Nelson‘s biggest flaws was that the appealingly quirky supporting characters often felt underused and Malibu Colony finally gives them a chance to show what they could have done as an ensemble. The mix of Pesci’s wise guy nerve, Jackson’s spaciness, Williamson’s effortless coolness, and Butkus and Smith’s comedic relief is actually pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, as good as the heroes are, Crane is pretty boring villain and the case of the week isn’t particularly interesting. In particular, Nancy’s actions never really make that much sense.
Oh well. This was a flawed episode but it still offered up a hint of what Half Nelson could have been. Next week, I will be reviewing this show’s final episode. Until then, L.A. — you belong to me!