This is actually the second Super Bowl commercial to feature John Krasinski. He’s also the director and (I believe) one of the starts of A Quiet Place.
I’d be lying if I ever said that, while I was watching him on The Office, I ever imagined that John Krasinski would become an action star. However, it appears that he’s managed to do just that.
Glee, Part 2?
It’s time for a creepy twin episode!
If there’s anything that I’ve learned from television and the movies, it’s that twins always have special powers and that those powers often lead to people dying. I’ve also learned that, roughly 75% of the time, one twin will be saintly while the other will be a total jerk. I have to admit that, whenever I meet twins in real life, it’s always a bit of a let down when it turns out that they’re not planning on taking over the world or opening up some sort of soul-sucking vortex.
In this case, the twins are Judy and Chucky Poundstone (both played by Karin Konoval). Judy is in a mental hospital. Chucky is a hoarder. Both Judy and Chuck are also inhabited by Demon Judy and Demon Chucky, which could be a sign of either multiple personalities or demonic possession, depending on what you believe in. All four of them are constantly playing a telepathic game of hangman, spelling out the names of the people who have annoyed them. (Chucky, in particular, has a judgmental streak.) Early on, it’s mentioned that their parents both hanged themselves. Look at their old hangman games and you’ll see drawings of both “Mom” and “Dad.”
People are dying. The authorities say that they’re all committing suicide but almost all of them, before dying, claimed that they were being pursued by a doppelgänger. When one man manages to survive being attacked by his doppelgänger, that’s all it takes to get Mulder interested in the case. Scully, of course, is skeptical about whether or not people are actually being murdered by their doppelgängers. Not Mulder, though. He has Twin Peaks experience, after all. He knows better than to laugh off talk of doppelgängers.
This was a stand-alone episode of The X-Files, a monster of the week episode. There was no talk of conspiracies or the Cigarette Smoking Man or William or anything else. Judging from the reaction on twitter, a lot of people were happy about that. Myself, I found it a bit jarring to go from the paranoia of This to the relatively straight forward investigation featured in Plus One. I guess I’m just always surprised to discover that Mulder and Scully are not only still working for the FBI but they still take their jobs seriously. Speaking for myself, if I had been through half of what they’ve been through, I’d probably end up fleeing the country and living off the grid in Canada.
That’s not to say that Plus One wasn’t a good episode. I didn’t like it quite as much as everyone else did but, at the same time, it did have its share of creepy moments. To be honest, anything involving a doppelgänger is going to be creepy. I also enjoyed the deliberately absurd scene where the lawyer attempted to suicide-proof his house. How many guns and swords does one attorney need? For some reason, the fact that Mulder and Scully didn’t really seem to care that much about any of the “innocent” people who were killed amused me to no end. I don’t know if that was deliberate or not but there was just something very amusing about the way both of them just shrugged at the idea of the lawyer chopping off his own head. Eh, they seemed to be saying, we’ve seen worse. Karin Konoval played both Chucky and Judy. She was great as Judy but a bit less convincing as Chucky. (In all fairness, the scenes between Mulder and Chucky featured the episode’s clunkiest dialogue.)
One final question raised by tonight’s episode, what is the current status of Mulder and Scully’s relationship? Judging from tonight’s episode, I would say that they’re friends with benefits.
So, here I am.
I’m sitting here and I’m trying to make out my annual list of the good things that I saw on television last year and I just realized something.
I didn’t watch much TV last year. Oh, don’t get me wrong. The television was often on, in order to provide background noise. I’m not a huge fan of silence. But it was usually just tuned to something random. It was rare that I ever said, “Oh my God, I have to watch this.”
Oh well. Let’s see what I can come up with:
And finally, the worst thing that I saw on television in 2017:
The Murder of Laci Peterson. This multi-party A&E documentary was an obvious attempt to 1) duplicate the success of O.J.: Made in America and 2) exonerate Scott Perterson for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci. Laci’s name may have appeared in the title but she was mostly an afterthought as the majority of the show’s running time was devoted to Scott’s creepy sister and her attempts to spring him from prison. Heavy-handed, manipulative, and way too smug for its own good, the show did inspire a lot of people twitter to declare their belief in Scott’s innocence. (The show’s argument, by the way, was that Laci was murdered by a Satanic cult because, as one Modesto detective put it, Meth addicts are very superstitious.)
Tomorrow, our look back at 2017 continues with my picks for the best novels of 2017!
Previous entries in the TSL’s Look Back at 2017:
If nothing else, last night’s episode of The X-Files was definitely an improvement over the season premiere.
The whole thing started off with a bang, as a bunch of Russians showed up and tried to gun down Mulder and Scully. It turns out that apparently, the Executive Branch has hired a Russian agency to handle America’s secret intelligence work. The Russians can even give orders to the FBI. Yes, it’s all about Trump and I’m sure the Resistance loved it while the majority of MAGA probably wasn’t watching The X-Files to begin with. Speaking for myself, as a fairly nonpartisan reviewer, I stopped being shocked by Russian villains a long time ago. At this point, whenever a mobster or a mercenary shows up in a movie or TV show, I always expect to hear a Russian accent before they even open their mouth.
Anyway, as Skinner explains, the fact that the Executive Branch now hates the FBI is going to make it even more difficult for Mulder and Scully to do their thing. I’m not really sure how much I agree with Skinner on that, though. If there’s anything that quickly became apparent about these Russian mercenaries, it was just how totally inept they were at their job. They literally blew up Mulder and Scully’s apartment and yet, Mulder and Scully still escaped without a scratch. Later, another Russian assassin popped up and, even though he had the element of surprise on his side, he still couldn’t manage to hit either one of them. Part of me hopes that the Russian ineptness was deliberate on the part of the show. That would be the ultimate joke, wouldn’t it? The Russians aren’t even good at their job and they still managed to secretly take over the country.
When Mulder and Scully weren’t running from the Russians, they were dealing Langley, an old friend who, despite having been dead for 16 years, still kept appearing on Mulder’s phone and asking if Mulder was there. It turns out that Langley, like a lot of geniuses, arranged for his consciousness to be transported into a simulated world after his death. However, it turns out that the simulation is actually a prison where people like Steve Jobs are being used for slave labor.
It also turned out, of course, that Erika Price (the great Barbara Hershey) was the one behind both the Russians and the dead slave labor. She explained that every time you use an iPhone, a piece of your mind is scanned and stolen. When you think about it, that makes perfect sense.
Last night’s episode was all about paranoia, which is one reason why I enjoyed it. Admittedly, things did get off to a somewhat shaky start with the whole shoot out between Mulder, Scully, and the Russians, which was so haphazardly edited that I was worried I was going to get carsick just from watching it. But, after that, the episode became a deliberately paced mediation of darkness, death, and a paranoia. The extended sequence where Mulder and Scully explored the shadowy National Cemetery was brilliantly handled. As I watched, I was very much aware that there was undoubtedly a secret behind every tombstone.
That said, the main reason that last night’s episode worked was because of the playful chemistry between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The main problem with the premiere — well, one of them — is that Duchovny and Anderson didn’t have many scenes together. Instead, Anderson spent almost the entire episode is the hospital while Duchovny spent his time driving through tobacco country. Last night, though, Duchovny and Anderson were together in nearly every scene and their banter was the best thing about the show.
As I watched last night’s episode, I was able to understand why so many people love The X-Files. It’s not the conspiracies. It’s not even the monsters. Instead, it’s all about the way that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson bounces lines off of each other. Here’s hoping that the rest of the season understands this as well.
“Nothing will die. The stream flows, the wind blows, the cloud fleets, the heart beats. Nothing will die.” — John Merrick’s Mother, quoting Tennyson, at the end of The Elephant Man (1980)
Was Twin Peaks: The Return a movie or a TV show?
As I sit here on January 9th, 2018, that’s a question that’s still on my mind. There are many critics who insist that Twin Peaks: The Return should be viewed as being a 16-hour movie. It’s a claim that I, myself, have made several times. In order to support this argument, we point out that David Lynch and Mark Frost didn’t sit down and write 16 different scripts. Instead, they wrote one 900-page script which they then filmed and subsequently divided into 16 different “chapters.” It’s really not that much different from what Quentin Tarantino did with Kill Bill or what Peter Jackson did with both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. As well, Twin Peaks: The Return was such a monumental artistic achievement that calling it a TV show just seems somehow diminishing.
And yet, the fact of the matter is that Twin Peaks: The Return did air on television. It aired in 16 different episodes, which were aired on a weekly basis. To many, that fact alone makes Twin Peaks: The Return a television show.
It may all seem like a silly question to some readers. However, for those of us who like to make best-of lists at the start of the new year, it is a legitimate issue. Should I include Twin Peaks: The Return at the top of my list of the best 26 films of 2017 or should I rave about it in my list of good things I saw on television in 2017?
My solution is to do neither. Twin Peaks: The Return was such a monumental achievement that it deserves a best-of entry of its very own.
(Of course, not everyone is going to agree. For everyone who loved Twin Peaks: The Return, there was someone else who hated it with just as much of a passion.)
Months after the show ended, Twin Peaks: The Return continues to haunt many viewers. As the Man From Another Place once told Agent Cooper, “She is full of secrets.” When the show ended, many of the show’s mysteries were left unsolved. Really, we shouldn’t have been surprised. As a filmmaker, David Lynch has always been most interested in mysteries than solutions. What happened to Audrey? Why did Laura/Carrie scream? At the end of the show, was Dale trapped in another world or another time? Was BOB really destroyed?
Interestingly, David Lynch actually provided viewers with two endings. The first ending, which occurred halfway through Part 17, was an ending that would have been perfect for a television show. Dale Cooper, back to normal, defeated the bad guys and was reunited with all of his friends. The second ending — also known as Part 18— was a much more Lynchian ending as two strangers took a road trip to nowhere. Part 17 gave us hope for the future. Part 18 ended with a dark reminder that the past cannot be changed, no matter how much we obsess over it. For me, Part 18 was the most important chapter of Twin Peaks: The Return. Part 8, of course, is the chapter that got and continues to get all the attention. And Part 8 was probably one of the greatest stand-alone episodes in television history. But, when considering the reoccurring themes of Twin Peaks: The Return and all of Lynch’s work, Part 18 was far more important.
What’s interesting is that, while the show ended on a dark note, Twin Peaks: The Return was often Lynch at his most optimistic. For all the terrible things that happened, the show also featured a reoccurring theme of redemption. Two of the original show’s most villainous characters — Dana Ashbrook’s Bobby Briggs and Richard Beymer’s Ben Horne — were reintroduced as two of the most sympathetic characters to be found in The Return. Agent Cooper finally escaped from the Black Lodge and not only got a chance to redeem himself by destroying Bob but he also destroyed his evil Double. He even got a chance to turn Dougie Jones into a good husband, father, and employee.
In the end, it would appear that Cooper’s only mistake was thinking that he could change the past. He may have saved Laura but, in doing so, he just transformed her into Carrie, an unbalanced woman living in a house with a dead body on the couch. As her final scream confirmed, he could save her life but he couldn’t erase her pain. The past is the past but the future can always be better.
Of course, it wasn’t just the characters on the show who won redemption. The cast of Twin Peaks: The Return was truly amazing and, by the time the show ended, my opinion of several performers had changed forever. Who would ever have guessed that Jim Belushi would end up being one of my favorite characters? Or that Michael Cera would turn Wally Brando into a minor cult hero? Or that David Lynch would prove to be as good an actor as he is a director? Or that Balthazar Getty would get a chane to redeem his less than impressive work in Lost Highway with a chilling performance as the newest face of Twin Peaks corruption? Even the returnees from the original show — Dana Ashbrook, Wendy Robie, Sheryl Lee, Harry Goaz, Kimmy Robertson, Russ Tamblyn, Everett McGill, Peggy Lipton, Grace Zabriskie, James Marshall, Madchen Amick, and others — were given a chance to reveal new depths of character. Veterans like Robert Forster, Ashley Judd, Laura Dern, Don Murray, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Naomi Watts and Tim Roth shared the stage with newcomers like Chrysta Bell and Eamon Farren and they all came together to create an unforgettable world.
You could even argue that Twin Peaks: The Return was a comeback of sorts for Kyle MacLachlan. Hollywood has never seemed to really understand how to best use this appealing but quirky actor. Twin Peaks: The Return provided him with a chance to show what he can do, giving him not just one but three characters to play.
Twin Peaks: The Return gave us one final chance to appreciate some talented people who are no longer with us. Harry Dean Stanton was the face of old-fashioned decency. Miguel Ferrer provided snarky commentary, letting the audience know that the show understood how strange it was. Warren Frost returned briefly, still as reliable as ever as Doc Hayward. And Catherine E. Coulson, who was so often Lynch’s muse, got to play the role one more time.
(Jack Nance, Don S. Davis, Frank Silva, and David Bowie all made appearances as well, a reminder that they may no longer be with us but they will never be gone.)
In the end, it seems appropriate to end this post with a picture of Ed and Norma, finally together. The world of Twin Peaks: The Return was frequently a dark one but sometimes, love won.
Tomorrow, my look back at 2017 continues with my picks for my favorite songs of 2017.
Previous entries in the TSL’s Look Back at 2017:
What’s This?
Hi there! Welcome to Lisa’s Week In Review. This year, on Monday, I’m going to post everything that I watched, read, and listened to during the previous week. Since I love to make lists, I’m hoping that this will encourage me to see more, read more, and listen to more this year than I did last year!
I’m happy that 2017 started on Monday, which is also the start of the week. I like it when things are neat and orderly like that. For the first three days of 2018, the temperatures in DFW were below freezing though, unlike the rest of the country, we didn’t get any snow or ice. Around Wednesday, the temperature got up above 32 degrees and the last few days have actually been wonderfully pleasant. Of course, I spent most of the week lying on the couch with a cold.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s my week in review!
Movies I Watched:
TV Shows I Watched
(For whatever reason, I watched a lot of true crime last week.)
Books I Read
(I’m ashamed to say that, over the course of last week, I watched over 60 different movies and TV shows but I only read two books. This will change in the future.)
Music I Listened To
Links From Last Week
(These are blog posts that I saw last week that I’m recommending you check out.)
On this site, be sure to check out:
Have a great week everyone!
Well, let’s get this over with…
(Seriously, if I ever get tired of “Stay supple!,” that’ll probably be my new catch phrase…)
As you my remember, way back in 2016, I reviewed the 10th season of The X-Files. With the exception of the episode that featured Rhys Darby, I didn’t care much for it. In fact, the episode that was set in Texas almost drove me to throw a shoe at the TV. However, the 10th season did end with a big cliffhanger and, since I hate the idea of a story going unfinished, I knew I would have to watch the 11th season whenever it premiered. And I also knew that I’d have to review it because that’s what I do.
Well, tonight, the 11th season premiered. Armed with as much knowledge as one can hope to gain from scanning Wikipedia, I twice watched My Struggle III.
The episode began with a lengthy monologue from the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), in which he talked about how, if the American people knew about what was truly going on in the darkest corners of the government, there would be riots in the streets. Personally, I love conspiracy theories and I’m generally opposed to all forms of controlling legal authority so I enjoyed that part of the show. The episode managed to work footage of every U.S. President except for Obama into the opening conspiracy montage. Personally, if I had edited the show, I would snuck Obama in there just to mess with people and their expectations. But that’s just me!
Anyway, as much fun as that little conspiracy monologue may have been, I was more concerned with how the show was going to deal with the fact that the world literally ended at the end of season 10. Well, it was quickly revealed that nothing that happened during My Struggle II actually happened. Instead, it was all just a vision that Scully had. Apparently, it’s a premonition of what will happen unless Mulder … does something.
Does what exactly? I’m not sure and, to be honest, I’m not really sure that the show does either. I understand that this episode is meant to be part of a bigger mythology and, as a result, it was supposed to be a bit open-ended. However, as I watched My Struggle III, I got the feeling that the episode was mostly just something that was hastily whipped up so that the show could do away with season 10’s disastrous finale. And it was hard not to feel that, narratively, the show took the easy way out.
The majority of the episode was made up of Mulder driving his car from location to location, searching for the Cigarette Smoking Man. This led to Mulder breaking into a mansion and having a conversation with Mr. Y (Alexandre Campion) and Erika Price (Barbara Hershey) about aliens and the secret history of the world. To be honest, it was kind of boring and it didn’t really hold my attention.
Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man and Agent Reyes (Annabeth Gish) were having a conversation with Skinner (Mitch Pileggi). During the conversation, the Cigarette Smoking Man revealed that he, and not Mulder, is the true father of Scully’s son, William.
And twitter exploded in rage.
Don’t fear, twitter! There’s always a good chance that next week’s episode will open with the Cigarette Smoking Man revealing that he actually isn’t the father or maybe it’ll just turn out that someone else was having a vision. By dismissing season 10’s cliffhanger as just being a dream (or a vision or premonition or whatever), The X-Files has reminded us that nothing on the show actually means anything. Who needs to maintain continuity or narrative integrity when you can just shrug and say, “Well, y’see, it’s all a part of the conspiracy…”
(As I watched tonight’s episode, I found myself thinking about Twin Peaks: The Return. No matter how weird or convoluted Twin Peaks got, I still never doubted that David Lynch did have a definite destination in mind. That’s not a feeling that I got from tonight’s episode of The X-Files.)
Now, here’s the good news! I have heard, from people who I trust, that the upcoming episodes are nothing like the premiere. Apparently, the premiere was one of those “we have to do it” things. The upcoming episode will be stand-alone episodes, much like the one where Mulder met the Were-Monster.
So, with that in mind, I will tune in next week to see if episode 2 is any better than episode 1.
Will you?
Before Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and The Grinch, nearsighted cartoon star Mr. Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus ) headlined the first animated Christmas special, MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL. First broadcast on NBC-TV in 1962, the special is presented as a Broadway musical, with Magoo as Ebeneezer Scrooge. Directed by Chuck Jones acolyte Abe Levitow , it features songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill (FUNNY GIRL), and a voice cast that includes Morey Amsterdam , Jack Cassidy , Royal Dano, Paul Frees (of course!) , Jane Kean, and Les Tremayne. And yes, that is Magoo’s fellow UPA cartoon stablemate Gerald McBoing-Boing as Tiny Tim! Besides 1938’s Reginald Owen version , this may very well be my favorite adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas classic! So here’s my Christmas gift to you all, MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL in its entirety!:
Merry Christmas from Cracked Rear Viewer!
Eighty year old Fred Astaire takes on nine different roles in THE MAN WITH THE SANTA CLAUS SUIT, his next to last film. Fred is as charming and debonair as ever, and his presence is what carries the saccharine script, with three varied tales of romance, comedy, and drama interwoven and played by a cast of Familiar TV and Movie Faces, kind of like a “very special Christmas episode” of THE LOVE BOAT.
Gary Burghoff (M*A*S*H’s Radar) is a nerdy math teacher in love with his neighbor, a beautiful (are there any other kind?) fashion model (Tara Buckman, THE CANNONBALL RUN). The model secretly digs him too, but the nerd’s too shy to express his feelings, until a chance encounter with a jeweler (Fred) leads him to rent a Santa suit and propose before she makes the mistake of marrying a rich, handsome playboy (again, are there any other kind?)…
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Through the Shattered Lens