Cleaning Out The DVR: The Wrong Cheer Captain (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“She definitely picked the wrong cheer captain,” Carol (Vivica A. Fox) says toward the end of Lifetime’s The Wrong Cheer Captain and what else can I say but, “Damn right!”

Seriously, Anna (Sofia Masson) may be a good cheerleader and she may have a lot of experience and she may have even been recruited to go to her new high school so that she could be a member of the cheerleading squad but she definitely should not have been named captain. Not only is Anna failing her classes and vaping on school grounds but she also has a bad habit of murdering people! Of course, Anna only commits murder because a past trauma and because she wants so badly to succeed as a cheerleader but still, murdering is definitely not a good habit. I mean, if the school has a no vaping policy, I can only imagine what their policy on murder would be!

Perhaps a better pick for cheer captain would have been Carol’s daughter, Kate (Alexis Salmon). Of course, Kate is actually pretty busy trying to prove that Anna murdered her best friend so it’s not like Kate doesn’t already have a lot to deal with. Oddly enough, even though the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Anna is murderer, Kate can’t get anyone to listen to her. The principal is skeptical. The cheerleading coach just wants to win competitions. And Kate’s mother keeps trying to blame everything on drugs. She even orders Kate not to hang out with her boyfriend because of his past use of steroids….

Wow, there’s a lot going on at this high school! Who knew that the world of high school cheerleading was so ruthless?

Well, everyone. Everyone knows that high school cheerleading is perhaps the most dangerous activity that someone can involve themselves with, especially if they’re starring in a Lifetime film. And if you’re in a Lifetime film that has the word “Wrong” in the title, it’s even more dangerous! I’ve lost track of how many Wrong films David DeCoteau has directed by Lifetime but it certainly does seem like a lot of them feature cheerleaders. They also all feature Vivica A. Fox, usually playing a no-nonsense authority figure and ending the film by using the title as a way to sum things up. “It looks like you hired the Wrong Landscaper,” Vivica will say and, even though you didn’t actually do the hiring and he was instead only sent by an agency, you nod and agree because you know better than to openly disagree with Vivica A. Fox. Instead, you face the truth and admit that, even if it doesn’t seem that way, you were still somehow wrong.

The Wrong films have become a bit of a Lifetime mainstay, loved for their campy melodrama, their Canadian locations, and, of course, Vivica A. Fox. The Wrong Cheer Captain has a lot in common with the other Wrong films but then again, that’s part of the appeal of these films. They’re like comfort food. You watch them because of their comforting familiarity and because you know exactly what you’re going to get. The Wrong Cheer Captain delivers exactly what it promises, cheerleader mayhem and plenty of different takes on the term “wrong.” Who could possibly complain about that?

Cleaning Out The DVR: The Price of Fitting In (dir by Alpha Nicky Mulowa)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What is the price of fitting in?

Well, according to this Lifetime film, the price is getting hooked on synthetic marijuana, losing a scholarship to the best school for STEM in the country, and disappointing your mother. That last one has got to be the worst part of it all. I remember when I first started college, I would occasionally pop a handful of Dexedrine in the morning and then stay up for four days straight. It was fun at the time but I always felt terrible whenever I would go home for the weekend and see my mom. In fact, the main reason why I eventually stopped doing that wasn’t because it was messing with my health (though staying up for four days straight when you have asthma isn’t something I would necessarily recommend) but because I didn’t want my mom to blame herself if I ended up killing myself after falling asleep while driving.

Now, me, I experimented with drugs because I was curious and I thought that I might have an interesting experience or two. Charlie Cunningham (played by Elizabeth Adams) uses drugs because she’s under too much pressure. Her parents have just gotten an acrimonious divorce. Her father is always breaking his promises to her. Her mother, Amber (Lora Burke) is always working and is overprotective of Charlie. Charlie wants to pursue a career in STEM and she’s had trouble with pills in the past. (It’s implied that it all started at “STEMP camp,” which makes sense since that sounds like the most boring camp on the planet.)

When Charlie enrolls at a new school, Amber is hoping that it will be a new start for her. However, no sooner has Charlie gotten involved with her new school’s robotics club than she finds herself tempted back into her old ways. Her fellow teammates insist that synthetic marijuana is the best way to take the edge off and, of course, it’s totally legal! Soon, Charlie is buying so much that even the clerk at the local weed shop is giving her the side eye. However, it turns out that synthetic marijuana is linked to all sorts of bad stuff and soon, Charlie is losing interest in school, screwing up at robotics club, and passing out in alleys!

I’m probably making the film sound a bit more overdramatic and campy than it is. Though it’s hard not to notice that every bad thing that can happen does happen as far as Charlie’s drug use is concerned, the film never quite veers into Reefer Madness or “No Hope With Dope” territory. Lora Burke and Elizabeth Adams are well-cast as mother and daughter and both of them gave sincere and grounded performances, which kept the film from going totally over the top.

That said, the most interesting thing about the film was not Charlie’s use of drugs but instead the character of Andrew Fell (Nick Smyth), the sleazy high school guidance counselor who, upon discovering that Charlie is again using, proceeds to use that information to manipulate, control, and blackmail her. Everyone has met someone like Andrew Fell. They’re the people who claim to care about you but who ultimately go out of their way to keep you weak and dependent. Smyth did a wonderful job bringing the character to loathsome life. Every time he popped up and told Charlie that he was worried about her or threatened to call her mother about his concerns, my skin crawled. Though the film may have primarily been concerned with drug abuse, it was a better portrait of how people in positions of authority will often abuse the power and trust that comes with it.

The Price of Fitting In is a bit of a misleading title, as Charlie never quite fits in no matter what she does. Still, it’s an improvement on the film’s original title, Trouble in Suburbia. I’ve often complained about Lifetime’s habit of renaming films but, in this case, they made the right choice.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Deep Blue Nightmare (dir by Jared Cohn)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yay! It’s an Asylum shark movie!

By this point, all of our readers should know that I love the Asylum and I love shark movies. Unfortunately, with the SyFy channel moving away from showing original films, there’s been a definite lack of Asylum shark movies on television. So, it was good of Lifetime to step up to the plate and show Deep Blue Nightmare!

(Deep Blue Nightmare was originally released, in 2020, as Shark Season. However, because Lifetime is addicted to changing the titles of the films that they acquire, the title was changed to Deep Blue Nightmare. I think either title works. Shark Season gets right to the point of the film — SHARK! — while Deep Blue Nightmare sounds a bit more lifetime-y.)

It all starts out with three acquaintances kayaking out to a remote island. One giant shark attack later and you’re down to two people, who are now isolated in the ocean. Sarah (Paige McGarvin) and Meghan (Juliana Destefano) have every reason to hate each other, seeing as Meghan was dating Sarah’s ex-boyfriend. But now that the ex-boyfriend has become shark nourishment and Sarah and Meghan are floating out in the middle of nowhere, they’re going to have to work together if they’re going to survive!

Fortunately, Sarah’s father is James (Michael Madsen) and James used to be a member of the Civil Air Patrol! If James can figure out where the island is actually located, he can direct the patrol to rescue Sarah and Meghan. But, of course, he’s going to find the island before the shark gets around to eating his daughter because, as quickly becomes apparent, the shark isn’t going anywhere.

As Steven Spielberg proved nearly fifty years ago, you really can’t go wrong with sharks. Their reputation for being the ultimate aquatic predator might be overstated but they’re certainly among the most cinematic of the creatures living in the ocean. Of course, movie sharks are always a bit more clever than real life sharks. Real life sharks just eat whatever happens to be in front of them. Movie sharks are far more calculating and they also have the ability to jump out of the water and cleanly bite someone in half whenever they feel like it. That may or may not be realistic but, in the end, it’s not reality of how a shar behaves that really matters. Instead, it’s the fact that no one wants to get eaten by a shark or lose a limb to a shark. It’s true that Bethany Hamilton managed to maintain a good attitude even after losing an arm to a shark attack but, deep down, we all know that we’re nowhere near as cool as Bethany Hamilton.

Another thing that makes sharks effective cinematic threats is that they always seem to pop up near the most tranquil of beaches and in the bluest water. In Deep Blue Nightmare, there’s quite a contrast between the beauty of the ocean and the fearsome predator that’s hunting underneath the surface. The shadow of the shark serves as a reminder of the potential chaos that lurks behind every corner. Enjoy the beach. Enjoy the water. But never forget that a shark could get you at any minute.

I enjoyed Deep Blue Nightmare. If you’re a fan of shark action, it makes for an entertaining 90 minutes. It’s always nice to see Michael Madsen playing someone other than a gangster who delivers sotto voce threats and Paige McGarvin and Julianna Destefano are likable in the lead roles. This is a film to watch the next time you find yourself missing the ocean.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Psycho Storm Chaser (dir by Buz Wallick)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“I know you!,” more than one person says during Psycho Storm Chaser, “You’re on TV! You’re Dr. Carl!”

And indeed, Carl Highstrom (played by Rob Hillis) is a bit of a local celebrity. He’s the guy who goes out in the middle of a hurricane and films himself talking about how everyone should be either evacuating the area or taking shelter. He’s the man who you trust during tornado and hurricane season! He’s out there, performing a public service! Thank you, Dr. Carl!

Of course, you’ll notice that the title of this Lifetime film is Psycho Storm Chaser. And, when we first meet Carl, he’s in the process of murdering a young woman who tried to hide in her basement during a hurricane. It turns out that Carl takes the weather very seriously. He’s also a big believer in following the directions of the National Weather Service. If the alert says that you need to take shelter, you better take shelter! If the alert tells you to leave the area, that doesn’t mean that you think about doing it. That means you do it! And, if you don’t, Carl will come by your house and kill you.

Unfortunately, Abby Fields (Tara Erickson) can’t leave the area, despite the fact that a hurricane is rapidly approaching. She’s a home care nurse and she’s been hired to take care of a house-bound coma patient. There’s no way to get the patient to a hospital. So, Abby has to stay in the house with another nurse and the patient’s sister and she has to hope that, even with a hurricane raging outside, the power doesn’t go out. Still, Abby is determined to her duty and it’s going to take more than a storm to defeat her!

Unfortunately, Carl really doesn’t care about the fact that Abby’s just doing her job. That’s because Carl is a psycho storm chaser!

What can I say about Psycho Storm Chaser? It’s such a simple idea for a film and yet I absolutely loved it! In my case, a lot of that is because I’m from Texas so I’ve known my share of self-styled storm chasers and most of them have been a bit off. Maybe not psycho but …. well, off. When Carl started ranting about how important it was to do what the Weather Service said, I was reminded of every local meteorologist who has ever interrupted regular programming to order me to get into a “tornado-safe room.” (I’m not sure which room that would be, to be honest. My favorite room is the second-story bedroom but that’s probably not a good place to be during a tornado.) When Carl first spotted Abby and had a dramatic moment due to her reminding him of someone from his past, I recalled the frantic storm chaser who went on television a few years ago and announced that a tornado had just ripped through an elementary school. “THE TORNADO HAS HIT THE SCHOOL!” he shouted, even though anyone watching the footage could see that the tornado was clearly nowhere near the school. After having caused a mass panic, that storm chaser was not asked to appear on television anymore.

Rob Hillis played Dr. Carl and he was a lot of fun in the role. He was just so grim and judgmental and goddamn serious about it all that it was hard not to get a kick out of the scenes of him lecturing anyone who didn’t evacuate the area. Carl was an entertainingly over-the-top villain and Hillis played him with just the right mix of humor and menace. He hated the weather but he loved his job.

Psycho Storm Chaser is an entertainingly silly film. It’s obviously not meant to be taken seriously. Instead, it’s just something to keep you amused until after the rain passes.

Film Review: Spirit Riders (dir by Brian T. Jaynes)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One of the main reasons why I love living where I do is because, any time I get in my car, I have a choice to make. I can drive for 20 minutes in one direction and soon find myself in downtown Dallas. Or, I can drive 20 minutes in the opposite direction and find myself out in the country, driving past horse ranches. I’ve always had a weakness for horses, which are not only majestic in appearance but also very loyal in personality.

Considering that, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’ve always had a weakness for movie about people who learn about responsibility by taking care of a horse. Apparently, I’m not alone in that because there are like hundreds of movies that feature that exact plot. These films always seem to tell the same basics story, i.e. out-of-control teen is sent to a horse ranch and spends the first half of the movie trying to run away and the second half of the movie learning how to ride. And I have to admit that, despite how predictable they may be, I end up enjoying just about everyone of these films that I see.

For example, consider the 2015 film, Spirit Riders. 17 year-old Kacie (Alexandria DeBerry) is a rebellious teen who gets in trouble with the law and who is sentenced to a work-release program at Spirit Riders, an equine therapy camp for disabled and physically challenged young people. At first, she struggle with all of the rules. She wants to smoke. She wants to fight. She wants to sneak off with her boyfriend, who is a total loser despite bearing a slight resemblance to Eric Balfour. She doesn’t want to make friends. She certainly doesn’t want to take care of a horse.

However, she soon meets Rex (Lance Henriksen), who is the owner of the ranch. Rex is tough but compassionate. He’s been around for a while and he’s heard all of the excuses. Rex tells her to stop feeling sorry for herself and to take care of her horse. Rex is stern but it’s obvious that he cares. Rex, in short, is the type of character that Lance Henriksen was born to play. A lesser actor would have just played Rex as being a serious-minded hardass but Henriksen does a good job of projecting the compassion that lurks underneath Rex’s no-nonsense exterior. Henriksen is one of those actors who sometimes seems as if he’ll appear in any film that’s offered to him. I mean, there aren’t many actors who can brag about appearing in everything from Pumpkinhead to Dog Day Afternoon to Near Dark to Spirit Riders to countless direct-to-video actions films. And yet, no matter what the role or the film, Henriksen always gives a good performance. Along with his undeniable physical presence, he just projects a certain integrity, the type that we usually associate with actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age of westerns and war films. Even when he’s playing a villain, you respect him. In Spirit Riders, he’s playing a good man and he makes that compelling.

I don’t want to oversale Spirit Riders, of course. It’s a fairly predictable film, one that will play best with people who already like horses and who can tolerate some occasionally heavy-handed plotting. But Alexandra DeBerry gives a good performance as Kacie and Lance Henriksen turns Rex into a monument to decency. The ranch itself is lovely to look at and so are the horses. It’s a pleasant film, one that’s won’t change the world but which I still enjoyed watching.

Film Review: Mahler (dir by Ken Russell)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1974 film, Mahler, opens with a stunning shot on a beautiful little hut sitting at the end of a pier that overlooks an idyllic lake. Suddenly, the hut bursts into flames. Two children watch, both with oddly happy expressions on their face. A nude woman breaks free from a white cocoon while a rock that looks oddly like a face appears to watch her.

Suddenly, the scene changes to a train that’s traveling through Europe in the early 20th century. Traveling on the train is Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell) and his wife, Alma (Georgina Hale). Every time the train stops, a crowd of people gathers and tries to get Mahler’s attention. Mahler, however, is obviously ill. Obsessing on death, he has Alma draw the shades.

The film switches back and forth, from the conventional train setting to extremely stylized views of what one can only presume is taking place in Mahler’s head. When Mahler has a heart attack, he envisions himself in a glass coffin, screaming as he watches Alma with her lover, Max (Richard Morant). Every word that he hears on the train prompts him to think about the past but the past, as Mahler remembers it, is full of anachronistic details and references to events that took place long after Mahler’s death. Mahler either remembers or imagines a trip to an insane asylum, where he meets a crazed man who claims to be the Emperor. When Mahler thinks about how he converted to Catholicism to further his career, he imagines himself jumping through rings of fire while Richard Wagner’s widow, Cosima Wagner (Antonia Wilson), dressed like a Nazi dominatrix, taunts him. The hut at the lake appears again, an apparent paradise where Mahler works on a composition about the death of his child. Alma, meanwhile, surrenders her own musical ambitions, burning her compositions in a nearby forest.

Hmmm …. so, what we have here is a biopic of a renowned composer of classic music, one that is extremely stylized and features a good deal of religious symbolism. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that this is a Ken Russell film. Especially early on in his career, the British director took an obvious joy in taking conventional genres and shaking them up with his own flamboyant style. In fact, by Russell standards, Mahler is almost a conventional film. For all of the shocking images to be found in Mahler, the film is still easier to follow than either Tommy or Lisztomania. (There’s no scene in Mahler that’s quite as in-your-face as the scene in Lisztomania involving the giant phallus.) If anything, one looks at Mahler in that glass coffin and Cosima Wagner with that swastika on her backside and thinks, “Well, Ken Russell was a bit subdued this time out.” (Indeed, even the scenes of Mahler tied to a cross aren’t that shocking if you’ve seen other Russell crucifixion scenes.)

That said, Ken Russell’s relatively subdued approach works well with Mahler. By keeping one half of the film conventional and one half of the film flamboyant, Russell comments on how we always tends to remember the events of our past as being more extreme than they actually were. We internalize our fears and our prejudices and we make them into reality in our memories. Mahler’s memories may be over-the-top but then again, the same can be said for everyone’s memories. When Mahler imagines his family as being almost cartoonish stereotypes, Russell is showing how Mahler has internalized the anti-Semitism of German society. When he pictures Cosima goose-stepping as he converts to Catholicism, Russell shows that Mahler was aware that he rejecting his heritage for his career. (Some might find some of the images to be sacrilegious but Russell himself was a practicing Catholic. Only the truly faithful could be as sincerely critical of the Church as Russell often was in his movies.) Meanwhile, that the far more conventional scenes on the train work is largely due to the perfect casting of Robert Powell and Georgina Hale. They’re believably in love but, even more importantly, they’re both believably brilliant. You look at both Powell as Mahler and Hale as Alma and you instantly accept that they could both compose beautiful music. The film portrays Mahler as being an early 20th century rock star and Powell plays the role with a mix of charisma and frailty. As played by Powell, Mahler is someone who knows that he destined to be remembered as a great composer but who also struggles with the price that he’s paid to achieve his dream.

Ken Russell was a truly unique talent and, while Mahler may be a bit more conventional than some of his later films, it’s still a good example of what made him such an important (if underrated) filmmaker.

Film Review: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (dir by Joseph Sargent)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to New York in the 1970s! While the intellectuals flock to the latest Woody Allen movie and the wealthy throw radical chic parties in Manhattan and disturbed young men drive taxis at night and pray for a real flood to clear away all the vermin, most of the city’s citizens are just trying to make it through the day. For many of them, that means spending an hour or two riding the subway. In some ways, the subway is the great equalizer. The minute that you sit down on a filthy train car, it doesn’t matter how old you are or how you vote or the color of your skin. All that matter is finding a way to avoid making eye contact with anyone else.

Four men, all wearing obvious disguised, board the downtown Pelham 1-2-3 train. They all look suspicious but, this being New York, no one wants to make eye contact. Everyone just wants to reach their next stop. The men — who are known as Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw), Mr. Green (Martin Balsam), Mr. Grey (Hector Elizondo), and Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman) — have other plans. Revealing that they’re armed, they take the 18 passengers of the first car hostage. Their leader, Mr. Blue, has a simple demand. He wants a million dollars to be delivered to the car within an hour. If the money’s late, he will kill one hostage every minute, until he receives what he wants.

While the cold-stricken mayor (Lee Wallace) tries to figure out how to 1) raise a million dollars and 2) handle the situation without losing any potential votes in his reelection campaign, Lt. Zach Garber (Walter Matthau) communicates with Mr. Blue via radio. With Mr. Blue underground and Zach above ground, the two of them establish a cautious rapport. Robert Shaw plays Blue as being efficient, polite, but ruthless while Walter Matthau plays Garber with his usual rumpled but intelligent style. As embodied by Matthau, Garber is New York City in human form while Shaw is perfectly cast as the outsider who, for at least an hour or two, has managed to bring the city to its knees.

Even though the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is often described as being a Walter Matthau film or a Robert Shaw film, the film’s main character actually is the city of New York City. The film portrays the city as being chaotic, angry, and unpredictable but, at the same time, also resilient and strong. Yes, Garber may spend a lot of time bickering with his co-workers but, in the end, he and Lt. Rico Patrone (Jerry Stiller, another great New York figure) work together to do what has to be done to resolve the situation. For all the time that’s spent on how Mr. Blue and his compatriots take that train hostage, just as much time is spent focusing on how the police, the politicians, and the Transit Authority react to what’s happened. Not having any firsthand knowledge of the New York subway system (beyond being told not to use it when I was in NYC a few years ago), I can’t say whether or not the film is realistic but what’s important is that it feels realistic. Even though the film is full of familiar character actors, it still seems as if you’re just watching a bunch of New Yorkers having a very long day. Though guns are fired and there is a runway train, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three takes a refreshingly low-key approach to its story. There’s no huge action set pieces. The film’s classic final shot hinges not on Garber’s marksmanship but instead on his ability to remember the small details.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is one of my favorite heist movies. It’s well-acted. It’s got an interesting plot. It’s got a few moments of unexpected humor. Robert Shaw is a great (and, at times, almost compelling) villain while Walter Matthau and Jerry Stiller make for a great detective team. The great Martin Balsam also turns in a wonderful turn and, even though he’s playing a bad guy, it’s hard not to sympathize him. You need only see his apartment to understand why exactly he felt the city of New York owed him more than it had given him. Best of all, The Taking of Pelham One Two Tree is a tribute to a great American city. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three celebrates New York City in all of its rude, messy, and brilliant glory.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 9/20/21 — 9/26/21

Posted on September 26, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

People are so emotionally fragile nowadays that Halloween will probably cease to be a holiday in another few years. So, we better enjoy this upcoming October because who knows what the future might hold.

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week, as I prepared for the annual Shattered Lens horrorthon!

Films I Watched:

Television Show I Watched:

Bachelor in Paradise
Big Brother
Dancing with the Stars
Friday the 13th: The Series
King of the Hill
Ordinary Joe
Smash
Survivor
The Ultimate Surfer
The Voice
The Walking Dead

Books I Read:

Who Killed The Homecoming Queen (1997) by R.L. Stine

Music To Which I Listened:

Backstreet Boys
Big Data
The Beatles
Blotto
Bob Dylan
Britney Spears
The Chemical Brothers
Coldplay
Crud
The Crystal Method
Daft Punk
deadmau5
Fitz and the Tantrums
Jakalope
Jake Bugg
Jimmy Cliff
Katy Perry
Lorde
Muse
O-Town
Phantogram
Saint Motel
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Staind
Taylor Swift
Toots & The Maytals

Trailers:

News from Last Week:

Links From Last Week:

Links From The Site:

Erin shared: Lord Vanity, Build My Gallows High, Some Die Slow, Swamp Sister, The Wench Is Dead, Oh Careless Love, and Four Lost Ladies!
Jeff shared music videos from Gerry Rafferty, April Wine, Kate Bush, Rainbow, David Bowie, The Specials, and Bootcamp!
Ryan interviewed Austin English and took a look at Monsters and The Butchery!
I reviewed the latest episode of The Walking Dead and shared my week in television!

More From Us:

Ryan has a patreon! You should consider subscribing!
For SOLRAD, Ryan reviewed Jesusfreak!
At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared September and Ni Ten Ichi Ryu!
At her photography site, Erin shared: Forbidden Tree, Creeping Up, Texas Nice, Looking for the Sun, Grass, Hole In A Tree, and Evening Approaches!
At Pop Politics, Jeff shared: It Could Still Happen, Beto Again, Pop Politics Endorses Curtis Sliwa For Mayor of New York, Is Nature Healing?, 2024 Profile: Francis X. Suarez, 2024 Profile: Rick Scott, and In Honor Of October and The Tomb of Dracula!
On my music site, I shared songs from Britney Spears, deadmau5, Saint Motel, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, The Chemical Brothers, and Blotto!
At my dream journal, I shared all sorts of disturbing dreams: Last Night’s Plane Crash Dream, Last Night’s Stalker Nightmare, Last Night’s Backyard Nightmare, Last Night’s Detective Nightmare, No Dreams Last Night, Last Night’s Blogging Dream, and Last Night’s Dream Within A Dream!
I reviewed Big Brother the Big Brother Blog!
At the Reality TV Chat Blog, I shared My Mistake, It’s Time To Open Up The Diary Room For Week 12, Survivor 41.1 “A New Age,” About Tonight, and Big Brother 23 — The Results of Parts One and Two of the Final HoH Competition!

Want to see what I did last week? Click here!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/19/21 — 9/25/21

Posted on September 25, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I spent most of this week planning and preparing for the big October horrorthon (yes, it does take a month to prepare) but I did watch a bit of television. I also made the decision not to watch American Crime Story: Impeachment, despite having the two most recent episodes on the DVR. The first episode just didn’t capture my interest and there’s way too much that I want to do to spend any more time than necessary on the Clintons. So, Impeachment is now off my DVR. If I hear that it’s good, I might get caught up with it later.

Here’s some thoughts on what I did watch this week:

Bachelor In Paradise (Tuesday Night, ABC)

I’ve stopped paying attention to what actually happens on this show. Some of that’s because I’ve been busy getting ready for October. More of it, though, is just because this show is primarily about watching attractive people hang out on the beach. Actually paying attention to what they’re talking about would just take away from the fun of it all.

Big Brother (24/7, Paramount Plus and CBS)

Yay, it’s almost over! The highlight of this week was Kyland nearly getting into physical altercation with Xavier over being voted out of the house. I had mixed feeling about the whole thing. It was interesting television but I didn’t particularly feel good about watching it. I wrote more about this show over at the Big Brother Blog!

Dancing With The Stars (ABC, Monday Night)

I used to love this show but I’ve kind of been over it for a while. I will still set the DVR for this season but, after just one episode, I really have a hard time imagining anyone other than JoJo and Jenna winning. I’m torn, because I liked Dance Moms, The Office, and the Spice Girls. I guess I’m Team Melora/JoJo/Melanie. I would definitely prefer not to have Mr. Peloton win.

Friday the 13th: The Series (YouTube)

This is an old 80s horror show, which ran for about three seasons and was about a cursed antique store. (Jason Voorhees is nowhere to be seen.) All three seasons, I recently discovered, been uploaded to YouTube. I watched a few episodes this week in preparation for our upcoming Shattered Lens Horrorthon! I’ll have more to say about this show in October.

King of the Hill (Wednesday afternoon, FX)

The episode where Hank and Bobby enter the father/son shooting contest despite the fact that Hank’s a terrible shot is one of the few cartoons to consistently make me cry. It’s such a sweet episode.

Ordinary Joe (Monday Night, NBC)

This is a new series about a guy named Joe. The day he graduates from college, he has to make a decision. He can either go talk to the girl he just met or he can talk to his girlfriend or he can talk to his uncle. The show features three alternate realities, each determined according to whom he decided to speak with. In one reality, Joe is a rock star. In another, he’s a cop. In another, he’s a nurse. Unfortunately, he’s pretty boring in all three of those realities. The idea behind this show is interesting but the pilot suffered from some pretty obvious This Is Us-style plotting. We’ll see how the rest of the series does, though. The premise has enough promise that I’ll give it a second and probably even a third chance.

Smash (Friday, E!)

Yes, E! did indeed do a Smash marathon on Friday. I watched an episode or two, perhaps hoping the show would turn out to be more fun than I remembered. Smash is the show that made the term “hate watch” well-known. To be honest, it was rarely even interesting enough to be a hate watch. The Marilyn musical feels like it really would be a pain to sit through. This is the show that begged us to believe that Katharine McPhee could somehow be a better Marilyn Monroe than both Megan Hilty and Uma Thurman. It was a disappointing show, let’s just leave it at that.

(Dammit, now I want to rewatch the whole thing.)

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

Yay! Survivor’s back! I wrote about the 41st Season Premiere at the Reality TV Chat Blog!

The Ultimate Surfer (Tuesday Night, ABC)

I honestly didn’t even realize that Tuesday was the finale until a few minutes before the show ended. That’s how much I was actually paying attention to the show. As I’ve said before, the appeal of this show was essentially that it featured attractive, wet people. Congrats to the winners.

The Voice (Monday Night, NBC)

I watched a bit of The Voice but I have to admit that I got bored with it. The singers are good but they’re all good in the same generic way. Blake and Kelly are the fun judges. I would probably want to be on Kelly’s team, just because we’re both from Texas.

The Walking Dead

I wrote about this week’s episode here.

TV Review: The Walking Dead 11.5 “Out of the Ashes” (dir by Greg Nicotero)

Posted on September 24, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As opposed to what we’ve previously seen since the start of the 11th season, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead focused on multiple storylines.

At the Satellite Outpost, Negan and Maggie continued to argue about whether or not anyone else in their party would be smart, lucky, or brave enough to join them. At this point, Maggie and Negan pretty much sound like an old married couple and, considering the chemistry between Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, that could very well be what they end up becoming by the time the show ends. Sorry, Glenn! Anyway, this time Maggie won the argument because Gabriel and Elijah eventually showed up and proved that people could be depended upon. Yay, Maggie! Unfortunately, if Gabriel’s the best you go, you probably have bigger problems to deal with than just a philosophical disagreement.

At Alexandria, Judith tried to keep the other kids from taunting the Walkers and potentially getting everyone killed. Judith had a point but seriously, no one likes a snitch.

Aaron, Carol, Lydia, and Jerry returned to the ruins of Hilltop on a supply run. It turned out that Hilltop was also being used as a home by the last surviving Whisperers! Their leader, Keith, insisted that the Whisperers were no longer a threat. Aaron didn’t quite buy that and he wanted to torture and then kill Keith. Fortunately, Carol talked him out of it. Keith lost an arm but he got to keep his life. And he also told them where Connie’s hiding! Now, of course, is where I should remind our readers that, until the start of this season, I hadn’t really watched the show since Carl died so I’m not exactly sure who Connie is. But I guess I’ll soon find out.

Meanwhile, at the Commonwealth, Eugene and the crew got to watch a really neat presentation on VHS tape that welcomed them into the community. Eugene then went for a walk with Stephanie and nearly screwed everything up when he broke into the radio room and tried to contact Alexandria! Or did he? See, my theory is that the Commonwealth is still setting Eugene up. They’re manipulating him to reveal everything that he knows about Alexandria but they’re doing it in a way that makes it seem as if they actually don’t want to know anything about Alexandria. They’re manipulating him into contacting Alexandria by pretending like it’s something they don’t want him to do. It’s all very clever and it’s the type of thing that Eugene always seems to fall for, despite the fact that he’s the smartest guy on the show.

This week’s episode, which was directed by Greg Nicotero, was a definite improvement over the past few episodes. I liked the fact that it focused on several different groups, as opposed to getting bogged down with one repetitive storyline. I liked that it revisited the Whisperers and showed that, as far as they were concerned, they were the heroes and the Alexandrians were the villains. (The show has always been at its best when it has acknowledged that even the bad guys are just scared, lonely, and trying to survive the end of the world.) The Judith subplot was handled well and showed that some things — like obnoxious children –are never going to change.

Mostly, though, I just liked the Commonwealth stuff. From the minute I saw that introduction on the VHS tape, I was all about the Commonwealth. The intro may have looked cheap and all the happy scenes were obviously staged but, seriously, it’s easy to see why some people would find it appealing after spending years fighting other humans and trying to avoid Walkers. I loved the way the tape went from celebrating community to celebrating “security.” It felt very relevant to our current times, a true libertarian’s nightmare. You want to have ice cream and watch your kids play? Then you’ve got to accept the legion of armored men watching everything that you do. And, as always, I loved the oddball intensity of Josh McDermitt in the role of Eugene. I would seriously watch a spin-off that was just Eugene going to different communities and voicing his disappointment with their life choices.

This was a good episode, one that took a look at how different communities are trying to find some sort of normalcy in the face of the zombie apocalypse. The remains of the Whisperers are just scrounging to survive. Alexandria is trying to balance the needs of the collective with the need of every human being to be an individual. And the Commonwealth is living in denial, embracing the myth that random chaos can be controlled by strictly enforced order.

I’m looking forward to seeing where things to go. After a few weak episodes, The Walking Dead might be able to reclaim some of its lost narrative momentum. Here’s hoping!