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Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.2 “Bad Blood: Part Two”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

This week, Dwayne gets some life-changing news.

Episode 2.2 “Bad Blood: Part Two”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 12th, 1990)

After his summer girlfriend informs him that she’s tested positive for HIV, Dwayne goes to the local clinic to get tested.  He’s understandably nervous as the doctor draws his blood.  The doctor mentions that Dwayne is in a high-risk group because he had sex without a condom.  Dwayne gives about twenty different excuses for why he didn’t use a condom.  The doctor looks on, disappointed.  Two weeks later, Dwayne returns to the clinic and is informed that he has tested positive for HIV.  The doctor informs Dwayne that he’s going to have to start living life differently.  He’s going to have to take care of himself.  He’s going to have to give up any plans he ever had of being a father.  He’s going to have to be careful when it comes to his blood.

At school, Dwayne takes out his anger on one of the condom machines in the bathroom.  Wheels witnesses this and quickly runs off to tell Joey.  Joey still needs a little over $300 to get his car.  He also needs some money to pay everyone who took a bet on the previous episode’s attempt to walk through the cafeteria naked.  Joey decides to blackmail Dwayne to get the money.  (Joey has figured out that Dwayne is the one who snitched to Raditch about the walk through the cafeteria so Joey feels that Dwayne owes him the money regardless.)  When Joey confronts Dwayne in the boys bathroom, it leads to another fight.  Joey cuts his head.  Dwayne ends up with a bloody nose.  As soon as Dwayne sees that he’s bleeding, he backs off and tries to end the fight.  Joey taunts Dwayne for being scared of a little blood.

“What if I have AIDS!?” Dwayne yells back.

Joey laughs off Dwayne’s comment, which leads to Dwayne throwing a fit and shouting that he didn’t do anything wrong.  Joey figures out that Dwayne actually is HIV+.  Later, Dwayne gives Joey the three hundred dollars in return for Joey not telling anyone.  “We’re getting a car!” Snake and Wheels celebrate but the look on Joey’s face indicates that Joey is not happy about the way he got the money.  In other words, Joey has a conscience!  Yay, Joey!

And so does Dwayne.  One of the things that Degrassi did very well was that it took characters who conformed to certain stereotypes and then dug underneath the surface and revealed that everyone — even the school bully — had their own individual fears and dreams.  This episode finds Dwayne’s bravado crumbling as he’s forced to face his future as someone who is HIV positive.  Darrin Brown, who is now a director, did a great job as Dwayne as did Pat Mastroianni as Joey.  Both of them really grew as actors over the course of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High.

While that was going, BLT finally broke up with Michelle.  Michelle was not happy.  Eh, who cares?  This was a good episode but BLT and Michelle were  a boring couple and it’s hard to get overly worked up about them splitting up.  Dwayne had a real isssue to deal with.  Michelle will eventually find someone else willing to deal with her nonstop drama.  Such is the way of the world.

One final note: in this episode, Lucy is shooting a video for L.D.  Spike appears with her baby, Emma.  Emma says, “Hi, L.D.”  These were the first of many words to be spoken by Emma Nelson on Degrassi.  (Emma, of course, will grow up to be one of the leads on Degrassi: The Next Generation.  We’ve got a while to go before we reach that point, though.)

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.9 “Nothing Personal”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Felton again proves himself to be the most incompetent cop in Baltimore.

Episode 3.9 “Nothing Personal”

(Dir by Timothy Van Patten, originally aired on April 21st, 1995)

Woe be anyone whose murder is investigating by Detective Beau Felton.

Felton (played by Daniel Baldwin) shambles his way through this episode, his hair a greasy mess and his eyes bloodshot.  The episode takes place over the course of several days and Felton doesn’t change his clothes once.  Just looking at him, one can smell the pungent mix of sweat, cigarettes, and booze.  Felton is searching for his wife and his son.  In this episode, his mother-in-law tells him that his wife is planning on coming home, just for her to change her mind at the last moment.  On the one hand, I do feel a bit bad for Felton, even if he was an absolutely terrible husband.  On the other hand, he’s got an important job and, right now, he sucks at it.  His decision to go back to Megan Russert’s place after he talks to his mother-in-law definitely does not make him in any way extra sympathetic.

Poor Kay!  She has been just been assigned the Chilton murder, which was one of Crosetti’s unsolved cases and now her 100% clearance rate is threatened.  The case is considered to be unsolvable.  Someone strangled Erica Chilton.  Her husband (Dean Winters) gives Kay and Felton a stack of letters that were sent by Erica’s secret lover.  Alcoholic Felton loses the letters.  The episode ends with Kay reluctantly accepting that she might never solve the case.  Personally, I think Kay should consider that the victim’s husband is played by Dean Winters.  With the exception of Law & Order: SVU, I have never seen Dean Winters appear on a show like this without eventually turning out to be the murderer and the fact that he had a huge stack of letters from Erica’s boyfriend would give him a motive.  See, Kay?  I solved your case for you!

Meanwhile, Giardello goes out to lunch with Megan Russert and one of her friends.  Russert wants to set them up.  Giardello is interested but Russert’s friend isn’t.  Giardello, in a wonderfully performed moment (all hail Yaphet Kotto), tells Russert that he feels that light-skinned black women always reject him because he’s “too black.”  Russert says that’s ridiculous, just for Giardello to reply that, as a “white woman,” she wouldn’t understand.  Giardello spends the rest of the episode depressed.  It’s always interesting whenever Giardello, who is usually so imposing, let’s down his guard a bit and reveals his emotions.  Kotto always did a great job playing Giardello, regardless of whether Giardello was ordering Pembleton to work with Bayliss or just trying to avoid doing his laundry with Munch.

Speaking of Munch, the Waterfront Bar continues to be a headache.  Lewis, Bayliss, and Munch have finally purchased their bar but it turns out that the former owner is not allowed to leave behind any of the liquor that she previously had at the bar.  So, the three partners are going to have to pay for all their liquor themselves.  The Waterfront Bar storyline has been dragged out a bit but it is a storyline that shows just how difficult it is to start a business in an overregulated state.  So, it appeals to be my libertarian side.

There were a lot of good moments in this episode, even if I am getting a bit tired of Felton and his incompetence.  One thing that I’ve really enjoyed about this season is how much Kay and Russert seem to sincerely dislike each other.  This episode featured Russet calling Kay out for obsessing over her perfect clearance rate and Kay’s barely pent up irritation was entertaining to watch.  Still, I do find myself wondering why Russet is always at the station, even though her shift is over.  Seriously, Russert, spend some time with your child and tell Felton to get off your damn couch!  There’s murders that need to be solved.

 

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out 3.14 “Marlene For Hire”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and Peacock!

It’s Christmas in Canada!

Episode 3.14 “Marlene For Hire”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on December 12th, 1987)

A married couple who shops at C0bb’s — Cindy (Lynne Cormack) and Ron (Hal Eisen) — ask Marlene is she’ll be a surrogate mother for them.  Once Marlene figures out that they’re not asking her to become a swinger, she agrees.  But then, during a doctor’s visit, Marlene is told that she’s “not a good candidate” to be a surrogate mother.  It’s a bit of an odd storyline because the biggest part of the story — the visit with the doctor — occurs totally off-screen.  We only hear about it when Marlene talks to Edna about it.

Still, Marlene does confess that she is somewhat relieved because she doesn’t think she would have been able to actually give the baby up.  Edna, who has been in a loveless relationship with Howard for what seems like a decade, starts to cry.  Awwww!  It’s a sad scene, really.  It’s also the type of scene that would not have worked during the first or second seasons of the show, when all of the characters were a bit too cartoonish to really touch the viewer’s heart.  The third season has been a marked improvement.  Kathleen Laskey and Dinah Christie both gave good performances in their scene together, making it far more poignant than I would ever expect an episode of Check It Out! to be.

As for the other storyline, there’s a contest to see which store can build the best Holiday display.  (It’s a Christmas episode.)  Howard goes with a manger scene, which would probably get the store sued nowadays.  Leslie wants to make a manger out of bread but Howard says that’s a foolish idea.  In the end, the judge says that he loves Howard’s display but the winner is another Cobb’s that made their manger out of …. wait for it! …. bread!

As I said, it’s a bit of an odd episode but it actually worked because of the — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — strength of the ensemble.  After two seasons of everyone acting as if they were all appearing in different shows, the third season has found the cast really clicking.  Kathleen Laskey and Dinah Christie handled the em0tional part of the show while Jeff Pustil, Aaron Schwartz, and Don Adams handled the comedy as they bickered over the best way to build a manger.

In other words, this was a good epioode.  It’s a Christmas miracle!

The Eric Roberts Collection: Dawn (dir by Nicholas Ryan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2022’s Dawn has a running time of 78 minutes.  Eric Roberts is in the film but unfortunately, his nameless character is killed off at the four minute mark.  It’s a bit of a pointless cameo, even by Eric Roberts’s standards.  If you’re going to get Eric Roberts in your film, do something more than just have him pathetically beg for his life.  Is it worth watching a 78-minute Eric Roberts film if you already know that Roberts is going to be in at least 74 of those minutes?

Eric Roberts’s character is killed by Dawn (Jackie Moore), a serial killer who drives around and pretends to be an Uber driver and who makes her victim play various games before killing them.  Dawn is a celebrity on the Dark Web.  It’s always funny to me how movies like this pretty much use the Dark Web as their go-to plot device.  If someone needs a motivation …. hey, Dark Web!  If a plot twist doesn’t make any sense, just say it’s somehow connected to the Dark Web or a Russian troll farm.  It’s not difficult.  Since the entire film is pretty much just Dawn tormenting a couple (played by Sarah French and Jared Cohn), it’s important that Dawn be such a charismatic and witty killer that we’re willing to put up with antisocial actions.  Unfortunately, as played by Moore, she’s just annoying.

Roberts is not the only celebrity to make an appearance as Dawn.  In one of the film’s few effective moments, Nicholas Brendon shows up as a man at a gas station who is a huge fan of Dawn’s and who wants her to murder him.  Later, Michael Pare shows up as a cop who pulls over the car.  How many times has Pare played a cop in movies like this?  He always seems to be pulling someone over.

Anyway, it didn’t take me long to get bored with this, despite the fact that both French and Cohn gave better performances than the film deserved.  There’s only so much that can be explained away by saying, “Dark Web.”

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

  1. Star 80 (1983)
  2. Runaway Train (1985)
  3. Best of the Best (1989)
  4. Blood Red (1989)
  5. The Ambulance (1990)
  6. The Lost Capone (1990)
  7. Best of the Best II (1993)
  8. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
  9. Voyage (1993)
  10. Love Is A Gun (1994)
  11. Sensation (1994)
  12. Dark Angel (1996)
  13. Doctor Who (1996)
  14. Most Wanted (1997)
  15. Mercy Streets (2000)
  16. Raptor (2001)
  17. Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001)
  18. Strange Frequency (2001)
  19. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
  20. Border Blues (2004)
  21. Mr. Brightside (2004)
  22. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
  23. We Belong Together (2005)
  24. Hey You (2006)
  25. Depth Charge (2008)
  26. Amazing Racer (2009)
  27. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
  28. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
  29. Enemies Among Us (2010)
  30. The Expendables (2010) 
  31. Sharktopus (2010)
  32. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
  33. The Dead Want Women (2012)
  34. Deadline (2012)
  35. The Mark (2012)
  36. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
  37. Assault on Wall Street (2013)
  38. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
  39. Lovelace (2013)
  40. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
  41. The Perfect Summer (2013)
  42. Self-Storage (2013)
  43. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
  44. This Is Our Time (2013)
  45. Bigfoot vs DB Cooper (2014)
  46. Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)
  47. Inherent Vice (2014)
  48. Road to the Open (2014)
  49. Rumors of War (2014)
  50. Amityville Death House (2015)
  51. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
  52. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
  53. Las Vegas Story (2015)
  54. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
  55. Enemy Within (2016)
  56. Hunting Season (2016)
  57. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
  58. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
  59. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
  60. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
  61. Dark Image (2017)
  62. Black Wake (2018)
  63. Frank and Ava (2018)
  64. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
  65. Clinton Island (2019)
  66. Monster Island (2019)
  67. The Reliant (2019)
  68. The Savant (2019)
  69. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
  70. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
  71. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
  72. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
  73. Free Lunch Express (2020)
  74. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
  75. Top Gunner (2020)
  76. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
  77. The Elevator (2021)
  78. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
  79. Killer Advice (2021)
  80. Megaboa (2021)
  81. Night Night (2021)
  82. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
  83. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
  84. A Town Called Parable (2021)
  85. Bleach (2022)
  86. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
  87. 69 Parts (2022)
  88. D.C. Down (2023)
  89. Aftermath (2024)
  90. Bad Substitute (2024)
  91. Devil’s Knight (2024)
  92. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
  93. When It Rains In L.A. (2025

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.10 “Mightier Than The Sword”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

Another Friday, another cursed antique….

Episode 3.10 “Mightier Than The Sword”

(Dir by Armand Mastroianni, originally aired on January 8th, 1990)

Micki’s been possessed again!

This time, it’s the result of a writer named Alex Dent (Colm Feore, who appeared in quite a few episodes of this show, always as a different villain) using his cursed pen to write about Micki becoming a serial killer.  That’s how Alex makes his money.  He writes about people becoming serial killers and then, when they do exactly what he has written, Alex publishes a true crime book about them.

Johnny is a huge fan of Alex’s books.  Micki says that she’s seen enough death in real life without having to read about it.  Johnny doesn’t seem to take her seriously, which is odd.  Sometimes, Johnny seems to forget that he and Micki spend all of their time dealing with cursed antiques and battling the Devil.  I mean, has Johnny forgotten about the time that he spent in prison after he was wrongly convicted of murdering his father?  Johnny seems to go from being streetwise to naive rather abruptly, all depending on what the episode’s story requires of him.  It’s also a bit of an odd coincidence that Johnny would just happen to be a fan of someone who has one of the cursed antiques but, then again, this wasn’t the first time this happened on Friday the 13th and I imagine it will happen a few more times as well.

This episode had an interesting premise, though I do have to wonder how Alex found out about the curse in the first place.  It doesn’t seem like the most practical of curses.  Alex must write, sell, and publish his books in record time.  Micki always seems to be getting possessed, which usually leads to her posing in a doorway and delivering her lines like a 40s noir heroine.  (In this episode, she also takes up smoking.)  Fortunately, Robey always did a good job pulling off the whole suddenly possessed thing.  I imagine it must have been pretty traumatic for Micki but at least Johnny learned a lesson about reading trashy true crime paperbacks.

As for this episode, Colm Feore was a good villain, there was plenty of noirish atmosphere, and the episode didn’t take itself particularly seriously.  It kept me entertained!  Really, what more can you ask from a show?