Tag Archives: review

Film Review: Your Place or Mine (dir by Aline Brosh McKenna)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Your Place or Mine asks the eternal question: Can a woman and man be best friends without also being lovers?

The answer to that is that of course they can.  It happens all the time.  The more important question is whether or not to physically attractive people can be friends without eventually falling love.  The answer there is of course not.  Being the most attractive person in your social circle means that you eventually have no choice but to pursue a relationship with the second most attractive person around.  That’s just the way it works.

Your Place or Mine opens in 2003, with two attractive 20 somethings named Peter and Debbie having sex for the first and what they initially believe will be the final time.  The action than jumps forward to 2023.  Peter (Ashton Kutcher) lives in New York City and has seemingly given up his dream of being a writer.  Instead, he makes a lot of money doing …. well, I’m not really sure what Peter’s job was.  It had something to do with banking and it allowed him to afford a really big apartment.  Meanwhile, Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) lives in Los Angeles.  Recently divorced, she is the overprotective mother of 13 year-old Jack (Wesley Kimmel) and she is a teacher.  Apparently she’s not supposed to be as rich as Jack but, for a teacher, she has a surprisingly big house.  She also has eccentric neighbor, played by Steve Zahn and an eccentric co-worker played by Tig Notaro.  Everyone was so eccentric that it made me miss the days when the lockdowns gave me an excuse not to talk to anyone.

Peter and Debbie are still best friends, even though they haven’t actually been in the same room together since 2008.  Still, that’s about to change.  Debbie’s coming to New York so that she can complete an accounting program and get a better job.  (Ha!  Take that, teachers!)  However, when her eccentric babysitter is cast in a movie, it looks like Debbie will have to cancel because there won’t be anyone around to keep Jack from accidentally eating something with nuts in it.  Peter, who has recently been dumped by his eccentric girlfriend and who is having a bit of a midlife crisis, volunteers to come to Los Angeles to look after Jack while Debbie goes to New York and stays in his apartment while taking her super-exciting accounting class.

Okay, let’s pause while I catch my breath.  This is one of those comedies where it takes way too long to set up the central premise.  Sometimes, it’s best to keep things simple.

Anyway, Peter bonds with Jack and helps him to find some confidence.  Living in Debbie’s house, Peter realizes that he has always loved Debbie.  Meanwhile, Debbie goes to New York, bonds with Peter’s eccentric ex-girlfriend (Zoe Chao), and discovers that Peter has written a novel!  Debbie takes it upon herself to read the novel.  She takes manuscript out of Peter’s apartment and is seen reading it at various New York locations.  I found myself cringing as I worried that a sudden gust of wind would blow the pages away or maybe someone would spill coffee on it.  (For all of Debbie’s happiness to discover that Peter is still writing, she’s not particularly careful with his manuscript.)  Without talking to Peter, Debbie gives the manuscript to an eccentric publisher named Theo Martin (Jesse Williams) and explains that the story is about a 13 year-old boy who can’t go out in the sun.  It sounds like an extremely dreary read but Theo is impressed with both the manuscript and with Debbie.

I usually enjoy romantic comedies and I like Reese Whitherspoon and I’m coming around on accepting the idea of Ashton Kutcher being a movie star (especially after his excellent performance in Vengeance) so I was really hoping that I would enjoy Your Place or Mine.  Unfortunately, the film itself suffered from what I call the Apatow Syndrome, in that every character had to be quirky, every joke had to be repeated ad nauseum, and there was a deliberate awkwardness to the dialogue that got old pretty quickly.  As individuals, Witherspoon and Kutcher were likable but I never really bought them as lifelong friends, much less a romantic couple.  They just didn’t have the right spark.  Unfortunately, Your Place or Mine just didn’t work for me.

Retro Television Reviews: Hang Time 4.19 “Rocky Road To The Playoffs” and 4.20 “Kristy Nightingale”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing Hang Time, which ran on NBC from 1995 to 2000.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

The championship is approaching, yet again!  Hang time!

Episode 4.19 “Rocky Road To The Playoffs”

(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on November 14th, 1998)

It’s that time of year again!  The team just has to win one more game to make it to the playoffs.  Unfortunately, because Michael has been distracted, it’s starting to look like it might not happen.  It turns out that Michael has gotten a really bad report card, one that has more C’s than B’s.  His father has said that Michael can only play basketball as long as he keeps his grades up.  Technically, C’s are passing so I’m not really sure what the problem is but whatever.

After Michael has a shouting match with his father, Coach K says that, while he sympathizes with Michael, he can’t let him play in the big game because Michael has got too much on his mind.  As a result, the Tornadoes finish the first half of the game with the score tied!  Fortunately, Michael’s father shows up during halftime and has a conversation with his son.  Michael agrees to go to summer school and his father says that Michael can keep playing.  Michael enters the game during the second half and — yay!  The Tornadoes win!

Actually, that’s not a surprise.  The Tornadoes haven’t lost an important game since the second season.

While this is going on, Mary Beth and Kristy play a game of one-and-one basketball in order to win a car.  It wasn’t a terrible B-plot.  Megan Parlen and Amber Barretto were always at their best when they got to do something ridiculous together.

This wasn’t a bad episode.  I don’t think there was ever any doubt that the Tornadoes would win that game but the episode finally gave Adam Frost something to do and Frost proved himself to be a better actor than one might have previously expected.  All in all, this was a good episode.  Even Julie was a little less self-centered than usual.  Way to go, Hang Time!

Episode 4.20 “Kristy Nightingale”

(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on November 14th, 1998)

Meanwhile, back at the camp….

KRISTY NEARLY KILLS RICO!

Well, seriously, can you blame her?  I mean, what do we know about Rico?  First, he got addicted to marijuana.  (Seriously, do you have any idea how much weed you have to smoke to get addicted to a non-addictive drug?)  Secondly, he freaked out because he was dating a tall girl.  Finally, at camp, Rico got stung by a bee.  Kristy, who is apparently now working as the camp’s nurse, removes the stinger but she doesn’t realize that you’re supposed to keep an eye on someone after they get stung by a bee.  Instead, she sends Rico back to his cabin, where Rico nearly dies as a result of an allergic reaction!  Luckily, there’s a real doctor at the camp and she gives Rico a shot that saves his life.

Kristy feels terrible.  Everyone tells her that she’s being too hard on herself, despite the fact that Kristy did nearly kill someone.  Kristy worries that she might not be cut out to be a doctor and, again, that would seem like a fair assessment considering that she nearly killed someone.  Still, all the members of the team start faking injuries so that Kristy can fix them.  Awww, that’s nice of them!  Unfortunately, Kristy overhears everyone talking about how they faked all of their injuries and she loses her confidence again.  Fortunately, Michael makes himself useful by breaking his arm for real and Kristy gets to help him and regain her confidence.

WAY TO GO, MICHAEL!

While all of this is going on, the counselors engage in a prank war and remind me of why I’m glad to have never gone to any sort of camp.

As far as the basketball camp episodes are concerned, this was an okay one.  But Hang Time is a show that is at it’s best when it focuses on high school.  Hopefully, this is the last of this season’s camp episodes.

We’ll find out next week!

Film Review: The Girl On A Motorcycle (dir by Jack Cardiff)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who would have guessed that a film from 1968, starring Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon, would be a little bit pretentious?  I’m as shocked, as anyone.

The Girl On A Motorcycle is Rebecca (Marianne Faithfull), the wife of Raymond (Roger Mutton).  One day, Rebecca wakes up, puts on a black leather jumpsuit, and gets on her motorcycle.  Abandoning her husband and her home, she rides through France and eventually reaches Germany.  Along the way, she thinks about how the motorcycle represents freedom and how no one is truly free unless they’re doing what they want to do.  We hear her inner monologue and it’s hard not to notice that, for someone riding a motorcycle across two countries, she often doesn’t seem to be paying that much attention to the road.  Rebecca has more important things to think about, like free love and Vietnam.  She watches as a transport of soldiers drive past her and she silently tells them not to look at her.  She drives through a city and starts to laugh while shouting “Bastard!” at the top of her lungs.  Pedestrians, all of whom are unhappy and middle-aged, stare at her in shock.

Along the way, Rebecca thinks about her life.  She’s married to Roger, who is a mild-mannered teacher who is so ridiculed by his students that even the local gas station attendant mentions how little respect anyone has for him.  However, Rebecca is haunted by memories of Daniel (Alain Delon), who is very, very French.

How French? This French.

Rebecca first met Daniel while working in her father’s bookstore and they had a passionate affair, despite the fact that Rebecca was already engaged to boring old Raymond.  Daniel even taught her how to ride a motorcycle.  When Rebecca got married, Daniel sent her the motorcycle that she is now riding as a wedding gift.  Rebecca is racing through Germany to be reunited Daniel, though it’s never quite clear if she’s truly leaving her husband or if she just wants to have a quick tryst before returning home.  Will Rebecca make it or will the unpredictable whims of fate intervene?

The Girl on a Motorcycle was directed by Jack Cardiff, a veteran cinematographer who first found acclaim working with directors like Michael Powell, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.  Not surprisingly, the film is full of striking shots.  Unfortunately, Cardiff was 54 when he directed The Girl On A Motorcycle and he had been involved in the film industry since he was a child.  Watching the film, one gets the feeling that Cardiff was trying a bit too had to appeal to a young counterculture audience that he didn’t really have much of a natural affinity for.  As such, Cardiff drags out every psychedelic trick in the book.  Do you want excessive use of the zoom lens, ludicrously skewed camera angles, pointlessly surreal flashbacks, portentous narration, extreme close-ups, retina-burning solarization effects, and an ending that feels like it was stolen from Godard?  The Girl On A Motorcycle has all of them!  For every impressive shot of Rebecca riding on her motorcycle, there are several more shots that feel as if they were filmed in migrainevision.

There’s also quite a few shots that make remarkably poor use of rear projection.

The Girl On A Motorcycle is definitely a film of its time.  To give credit where credit is due, Alain Delon is handsome and charismatic as the enigmatic Daniel.  The viewer gets the feeling that Rebecca is probably idealizing him and assuming that he has more depth than he actually does but it’s still easy to understand why she would not be able to resist the temptation.  Marianne Faithfull seems a bit lost as Rebecca.  She smiles a lot and she laughs a lot but her inner monologue is flatly delivered and, as a result, the character comes across as being vapid.  The ideal Rebecca probably would have been a young Helen Mirren.

As it is, The Girl On A Motorcycle is a time capsule of the 60s aesthetic (albeit an aesthetic translated through the lens of a director who seems to be trying too hard to remain relevant).  Due to a few flashes of nudity and some sex scenes that are so psychedelic that they’re nearly impossible to watch, Girl On A Motorcycle was the first film to be slapped with an X rating in the United States.  It seems rather tame today.

Retro Television Reviews: Call Her Mom (dir by Jerry Paris)

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 the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1972’s Call Her Mom!  It  can be viewed on YouTube!

While all of the other college campuses across America are in turmoil with protests and student walk-outs, Beardsley College remains at peace.  It’s a place where the 50s never ended.  Everyone is perfectly behaved.  No one is into politics.  Fraternity Row is a peaceful place, largely due to the elderly housemothers who keep the frats in order.

Except for Alpha Phi Epsilon, that is.  The A.P.E. House is known for being the wildest house on campus and every housemother that they get walks out on them.  If they can’t find a new housemother, they’ll lose their charter.  President Chester Hardgrove (Van Johnson) and Assistant Dean Walden (Charles Nelson Reilly) are practically salivating at the possibility of kicking A.P.E. off of campus.  And who can blame them?  Take a look at how wild these guys are:

These guys are crazy!  They wear yellow sweaters!  They play tennis indoors!  Occasionally, they leave a towel or two hanging on the bannister.  A.P.E. is out of control!

A.P.E. tries to find a new housemother but the word is out that A.P.E. is no good.  Not a single elderly woman in town is willing to work with them.  However, when the members of the frat realize that there’s not actually an age requirement for housemothers, they offer the job to Angie Bianco (Connie Stevens), who works as a waitress at the local pizza place.  Angie accepts the job.

It’s a scandal!  All of the older folks say that Angie is too young and too attractive to be trusted as the housemother for A.P.E.  Angie, however, proves herself to be a lot tougher than anyone was expecting.  The members of the frat soon come to respect her.  However, President Hardgrove is determined to force her out of the job and off of the campus.  Rumor has it that she’s encouraging the A.P.E. brothers to hold rollicking 20s style parties and she’s also allowing them to dance!

Check out this decadence!

The attempts to force Angie out of her job makes national news.  Soon, Angie and the frat brothers are featured in Time Magazine.  President Hardgrove points out that he’s never appeared in Time Magazine.  While an group of middle-aged women march outside of the A.P.E. House and demand that Angie be fired, the younger female students rally to Angie’s side.  Suddenly, Beardsley College is home to a protest!  (The protest is about as a wild as the 20s dance party at the A.P.E. House.)  President Hardgrove realizes that keeping Angie at the A.P.E. House will actually lead to the college getting more donations but Angie has decided that she has to quit.  Not only is she in love with A.P.E.’s sponsor, Prof. Calder (Jim Hutton), but a member of the fraternity has decided that he’s in love with her and he’s going to drop out of school to be with her.

Can A.P.E. convince Angie to come back?

Call Her Mom is a silly movie that was obviously meant to serve as a pilot for a television show, one in which I imagine Angie would have solved the fraternity’s problems on a weekly basis.  Seen today, it’s mostly memorable for its thoroughly innocent portrayal of college life.  A.P.E. House is the wildest frat on campus but no one is ever seen drinking.  Certainly no one is indulging in anything stronger than perhaps a Coke or a Pepsi.  I imagine this show was an accurate portrayal of what most parents hoped college was like.  That said, Connie Stevens and Jim Hutton made for a cute couple.  Hopefully, there were many good times in the future for the residents of A.P.E. House.

Film Review: The Mother (dir by Niki Caro)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Jennifer Lopez is …. THE MOTHER!

The Mother is a professional assassin, a former U.S. military operative who has spent the last 12 years isolated in Alaska, hiding out from two of her former associates, drug lord Hector Alvarez (Gael Garcia Bernal) and mercenary Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes).  In the past, The Mother went to the FBI when she discovered that Alvarez and Lovell were involved in human trafficking.  Lovell reacted by killing a bunch of FBI agent and attempting to kill The Mother’s unborn child by stabbing The Mother in the belly.  (I actually gasped in shock at this act of violence.)  Both The Mother and her daughter, Zoe, survived.

The Mother left her daughter to be raised by an FBI agent named William Cruise (Omari Hardwick).  But, twelve years later, Zoe (Lucy Paez) is kidnapped and The Mother has to come out of hiding to rescue her.  It’s a mission that will lead The Mother and Cruise to Cuba and which will eventually bring Lovell and his men back to Alaska.  Along the way, The Mother learns how to forgive herself and to how to open up emotionally and Zoe learns why her mother abandoned her so many years ago.  Zoe also learns that nature can be ruthless and unforgiving.

The Mother isn’t really a bad film as much as it’s just a very predictable film.  It’s very much from the Taken school of cinematic action, with a parent doing whatever is necessary to protect their children.  This is another one of those films where everyone tends to be very grim and there’s a lot of scenes of people coldly threatening each other.  The film opens with the FBI interrogating The Mother and the dialogue was so familiar and the attitudes so reminiscent of every single action film and television show that I’ve seen recently that I had to take a few minutes to remember which film I was watching.  Even The Mother’s eventual trip to snowy Alaska caused me to have flashbacks to both Those Who Wish Me Dead and the recent Dexter revival.  Oddly enough, it also reminded me of Sound of Metal, if just because The Mother‘s one friend in Alaska was played by Paul Raci.  It was nice to see Raci again.  With his haunted eyes and his kindly voice, he’s the type of guardian angel that everyone would want to have.  But again, it just all felt so familiar.

Jennifer Lopez gives a convincing performance as The Mother.  Though the film may be predictable, her commitment to protecting her daughter no matter what was undeniably moving and she and Lucy Paez has a believable mother/daughter relationship.  That said, Jennifer Lopez is always at her best when she’s allowed to play a character with a sense of playfulness and there’s little of that to be found in The Mother.  It’s a grim film about serious characters and it hits all of the expected beats with efficiency but not much more.  When it comes to 2023 Jennifer Lopez films, I still prefer the appealingly silly Shotgun Wedding.

Music Video of the Day: Picture To Burn by Taylor Swift (2006, dir by Trey Fanjoy)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Taylor Swift gets revenge on an ex-boyfriend!  The ex-boyfriend, in this case, was played by a football player named Justin Sandy was not an ex-boyfriend of Taylor’s.  Taylor said that he was perfect for the part because he was a “real-life Ken” doll.  Playing the role of Taylor’s friend in this video is an actual friend of Taylor’s, Abigail Anderson.

Enjoy!

May Positivity: One Church (dir by Bill Rahn)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Originally released in 2016, this low-budget political/religious thriller opens with a rather unsettling scene.  An obviously disturbed woman wanders down a suburban street, loudly singing This Little Light of Mine.  She stops in front of one house and starts to screech the lyrics, like a banshee predicting future doom.

The house is the home of Congressman Neil Barlow (Don Brooks) and both he and his wife Catherine (Kera O’Bryan) are about to discover that their teenage daughter has been taken away.  She has left home and she is now living with a religious communal cult.  When the FBI approaches the cult’s headquarters, all of the members drink poison in a mass suicide.  Neil Barlow becomes determined to one day become President so that he can stamp out the scourge of religious extremism.

18 years later, Neil Barlow is president and he’s just announced the creation of the Department of Religious Freedom.  Televangelist Randy Mason (Tim Ross) is put in charge of the Department but it turns out that this is just the beginning of Barlow’s plan to change America.  Barlow soon announces that all religions are going to come together under the umbrella of one state-run church.  Across America, people watch the press conference and say things like, “This will cut down on division,” and “We all believe the same thing anyways.”  The Department of Religious Freedom proceeds to outlaw all of the old religious texts and requires that all religious leaders preach the same pre-approved sermon.  Failure to do so can lead to being sent to a reeducation camp.

Randy’s brother, Jake Mason (Jason Frederick), knows a little about what has happened but not everything.  He’s been down in Mexico, ministering to a small village.  When Jake returns to America, he discovers that it’s no longer the country that he once thought it was.  Along with his girlfriend, Beth Barlow (Jessica Lynch), Jake tries to stand up against the One Church.  Beth also happens to be the President’s daughter and she, more than anyone, understands the anger that is fueling Neil Barlow’s actions.

I have an admitted weakness for low-budget, conspiracy-themed movies and One Church is definitely qualifies.  Say what you will about the film’s plot and themes, it’s hard not to appreciate a film in which the President gives a major, history-changing press conference in what appears to be a high school auditorium.  The offices of a major news network are represented by a small room that has several televisions propped up against the wall.  The White House dining room is about the same size as my dining room.  The future president of the United States lives in a house that’s about the size of the house where I live.  Suddenly, I’m feeling very important!

As for the film itself, it actually makes the perfect case for maintaining the separation of Church and State.  As soon as the State gets involved in religion, it starts using the Church as a way to control the citizens and to make itself more powerful.  Preachers like Randy Mason are easily corrupted once they’re in partnership with the government.  As for the citizens, they’re portrayed as being eager to be ordered about, which is perhaps the most realistic thing about One Church.  Beth is played by the same Jessica Lynch who was, in 2003, captured by and subsequently rescued from the Taliban.  She has appeared in a few films over the past few years, usually in small roles.  She’s actually a surprisingly good actress and she certainly gives the best performance in One Church.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 5/7/23 — 5/13/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Accused (Tuesday Night, FOX)

The season finale of Accused started out strong but, towards the end, it felt like propaganda for euthanasia.  Plus, the big twist — i.e., the accused taking the blame for a crime that was actually committed by a loved one — was one that the show had already done before.  It’s a bit early for this show to be repeating itself.  That’s one reason why I think Accused would be well-served by having a regular set of writers and a regular set of directors as opposed to bringing in new people for each episode.  That said, Keith Carradine gave a powerful performance as the man on trial.  The first season of Accused was extremely uneven but hopefully, they’ll work out the kinks by the time the second season begins.

Barry (Sunday Night, HBO)

The rumors were true!  There has indeed been a time jump and Barry and Sally are now living in the middle of nowhere and raising their son, John.  Sally, who now wears a dark wig and works as a waitress, is miserable and, on Sunday’s show, nearly strangled a guy.  Barry is oddly obsessed with Abraham Lincoln.  Barry spends a lot of time with John and obviously considers himself to be a good father but, ultimately, Barry is just as manipulative towards his son as Monroe Fuches was towards him.  When Sally came across a news story about Gene Cusineau coming out of hiding to consult on a Barry Berkman biopic, Barry replied, without hesitation, “I have to kill Gene Cusineau.”  That’s where this week’s unsettling episode of Barry ended.

As I watched this week’s episode, it occurred to me that if someone ever did decide to do a new version of The Shining, Bill Hader would be an ideal Jack Torrance.

Beavis and Butt-Head (Paramount Plus)

Episodes that feature both the young and the old Beavis and Butt-Head are so depressing.  It’s so easy to laugh at them when they’re young and they’re trying to plant cigarettes and destroying the community garden.  But then you see what the future has waiting for them.  Butt-Head’s a fat alcoholic and Beavis looks like he’s about 70 years old when he should just be in his 40s.  It’s sad but it’s also funny.  I do take some comfort in the fact that Beavis and Butt-Head always seem to be blissfully unaware of how terrible their lives truly are.  Beavis never seems to give up hope.

Bubblegum Crisis (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Saturday morning but, to be honest, I was half asleep.  All I know for sure is that a lot of stuff blew up.

Forgive or Forget (YouTube)

On Sunday, I sat through three episodes of this old 90s talk show on YouTube.  A son demanded that his mother apologize for robbing him.  (She didn’t.)  A man told his fiancée that he was an exotic dancer just for her to then reveal that she was a stripper.  (The audience went crazy.)  A woman demanded that her friend apologize for “sleeping with my first love.”  (“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the friend replied.)  Mother Love said to never forget the power of forgiveness.

On Friday, I watched one more episode.  A woman begged another woman to forgive her for backing out of an adoption arrangement.  No one was forgiven.  Mother Love started to cry.

Jury Duty (Freevee)

I absolutely loved this 8-hour, semi-improvised comedy about jury duty.  Essentially, the series followed one guy as he took part in a very strange court case and got to know his fellow jurors (including James Marsden, who played a comedic version of himself).  The catch was that everyone else in the court room was an actor and our hero was being filmed without even knowing it.  It was wonderfully weird, funny, and ultimately rather sweet.  It helped that the main guy, Ronald Gladden, came across as being incredibly likable and nice, even when James Marsden went out of his way to annoy him.  Give Marsden an Emmy!

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

This was a pretty dumb episode this week.  Cosgrove got shot by this week’s suspect after the suspect got out on bail.  Because he was captured at the scene, everyone knew who shot Cosgrove but, at the trial, no one brought up the fact that the suspect had shot a cop and, unless I missed it, I don’t think he was ever charged with shooting Cosgrove either.  Instead, Price was worried he wouldn’t be able to get a conviction on the crime that the guy was originally accused of and I was just like, “Uhmm, he shot a cop while trying to kill the state’s main witness against him.  Isn’t that pretty good evidence that the cops were onto something when they arrested him?”

Cosgrove considered retiring and going to Florida but, at the end of the episode, it appeared that he was planning on staying in New York.  I got the feeling that entire storyline was just included as some sort of “That that!” to Florida.  But, honestly, Cosgrove is 50 years old and politically and culturally conservative.  Why wouldn’t he want to move to Florida?

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I wrote about this week’s episode here!

The Master (Tubi)

Since Freddy’s Nightmares is no longer available on Tubi, I decided to watch and review all 13 episodes of this 80s ninja show instead.  You can read my review of episode 1 here!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Tubi)

Apparently, after the show went off the air, NBC edited the first two episodes of The Master together and they released the result theatrically under the name Master Ninja One.  And then, years later, the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000 watched Master Ninja One and spent a lot of time pointing out Lee Van Cleef’s stunt double.  Anyway, I watched the Mystery Science Theater version on Thursday, after I finished writing up my review of The Master.  It made me laugh!

Night Court (Tuesday Night, NBC)

The season came to an end much as I predicted it would.  Abbi and Rand broke up.  Dan went to Louisiana and became a judge but I imagine he’ll be back whenever season 2 starts because, if there was anything that was consistent about the first season, it’s that the action always grinds to a halt whenever John Larroquette isn’t onscreen.

Sally Jessy Raphael (YouTube)

I watched an episode on Monday night.  Sally talked to parents who had out-of-control children.  The kids were forced to take part in the Scared Straight program.  Did it do any good?  Probably not.

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about this week’s episode over at Reality TV Chat Blog!

The Traitors (Peacock)

I binged this enjoyably silly reality show over the course of the week.  Basically, a combination of newbies and reality TV vets moved into a Scottish castle and tried to figure out which of the three of them had been designated as “traitors” by host Alan Cumming.  The traitors could “kill” a guest every night.  (Well, not literally.)  I was happy to see Survivor’s Cirie Fields do well and outlast Big Brother‘s Rachel Reilly.  “I’m an icon!” Rachel exclaimed at one point.  (Truth be told, I may complain about Rachel whenever she shows up on yet another reality show but she knows exactly what the audience wants from her and she plays her role well so good for her!)