Retro Television Review: The American Short Story 1.2 “Parker Adderson, Philosopher”

Posted on June 14, 2025 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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, we have an adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story.

Episode 1.2 “Parker Adderson, Philosopher”

(Dir by Arthur Barron, originally aired on January 8th, 1974)

This adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story takes place during the Civil War. Parker Adderson (Harris Yulin) is a Union spy who is captured behind Confederate lines. Brought into the ramshackle Confederate camp, he’s put into a small cabin. He knows that, as a spy, he’s going to be executed in the morning and he seems to be at peace with that. For the most part, his captors treat him humanely. Though they may be at war, there doesn’t seem to be any real animosity between Adderson and the Confederate general (Douglass Watson) who is in charge of the camp. They are two men who have a job to do and they both seem to respect each other. At night, the General and Adderson have a conversation, talking about the war and mortality. Adderson gets a last meal. Everything seems to be strangely peaceful …. until Adderson discovers that he’s not going to be executed the way that he wants to be executed. By the time the morning sun rises, three men are dead. The formerly philosophical Adderson dies in a rage against his captors while the General dies with the peace and grace that Adderson originally envisioned for himself.

This was an effective and melancholy adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s short story, one that captured both Bierce’s anti-war sentiments and his cynical view of the human condition. For all of his efforts to put himself above the realities of war, Adderson falls apart once the reality of his impending death becomes obvious. Meanwhile, the previously boorish general finds a certain redemption in his death, perhaps because the General, unlike Adderson, never tried to rationalize the violence of war or the cruelty of fate.

It’s a nicely-done episode, featuring good performances from both Watson and Yulin. I’ve gotten so used to seeing Yulin cast as corporate and government villains that it was really eye-opening to see him playing a complicated character for once. Clocking in at a little over 30 minutes, Parker Adderson, Philosopher is a thought-provoking look at war and the men who fight it.

Brad reviews RIDERS OF JUSTICE (2020), starring Mads Mikkelsen!

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Bradley Crain

RIDERS OF JUSTICE (2020) is the genre-bending story of Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), a badass soldier who returns to his home in Denmark after his wife dies in a train accident. His daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), who survived the accident that took her mother’s life, needs her dad to help her through this difficult time, but he has no idea how to process what happened and is failing miserably. Enter Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a data analyst and another survivor of the train crash. Otto tells Markus that his mathematical analysis indicates that the “accident” was actually the staged assassination of a person on the train by a group of criminals who go by the name “Riders of Justice,” and that his wife was an innocent casualty of that attack. Otto also brings along his eccentric, intelligent and emotionally troubled friends Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) to help convince Markus of their findings. Markus accepts their premise, mainly because he wants someone to blame and take vengeance upon. Soon, the badass and the unlikely trio of nerds set out to kick ass, compute probabilities, hack computers, and get in touch with their innermost feelings. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride, with both blood and tears flowing like raging rivers!

I must admit that prior to sitting down with a group of friends and watching RIDERS OF JUSTICE this weekend, I had never heard of the film. It came out during the COVID lockdown periods of 2020 and 2021 and somehow flew completely under my radar. I’m so glad my friend Stewart chose the film for us to watch because it’s filled with awesome action sequences, absurdist comedy, and real human emotions. I also give it bonus points for being a Christmas movie, as it begins and ends with musical renditions of “The Little Drummer Boy,” even featuring Mads Mikkelsen wearing an ugly Christmas sweater!

I’ll start my discussion of the film with Mads Mikkelsen, an actor I’ve always appreciated, as the emotionally repressed and extremely lethal soldier, Markus. Usually a film like this would star someone like Jason Statham or Liam Neeson and focus solely on his quest for vengeance and not detour too much from those goals. This movie leaves us with no doubt of Markus’ killing abilities, but it also forces him to deal with his daughter’s feelings, as well as her sensitive boyfriend’s attempts to help him heal. Men who try to push Markus into revealing his feelings usually end up with a black eye or broken nose. But to his credit, he usually does feel bad about it afterwards. Next we have Otto, the nerd whose math calculations convince Markus that the riders of justice need to die. Otto is a sweet guy who truly wants to help Markus and Mathilde, but we find out over the course of the film that beneath his pleasant personality is a life fueled by guilt and shame. And then there’s Otto’s nerdy friends Lennart and Emmenthaler. I won’t go into all of the details of their lives, but these guys are also revealed to be thoughtful, kind, angry, funny, and extremely damaged depending on the time and the circumstances. On a funny side note, Emmenthaler’s unexpected ability to assemble a weapon is second to none. RIDERS OF JUSTICE pulls off the genuinely surprising feat of creating a “family” out of this mismatched group, and we see how they come to help each other and depend on each other. This makes the stakes so much higher when they inevitably must battle the evil riders of justice. The movie is funny, dramatic, and badass in equal measures and somehow it all works!

RIDERS OF JUSTICE was written and directed by a Danish filmmaker named Anders Thomas Jensen. I’m going to be emotionally vulnerable here and admit that I was completely unaware of Jensen, and that he and Mikkelson have an ongoing director / star, filmmaking collaboration that extends back to 2000 and currently includes six movies, with their latest, THE LAST VIKING (AKA BACK TO REALITY), set to be released in the fall of 2025. This collaboration also includes the actors Nicolaj Lie Kaas, Nicolas Bro and, with increasing frequency, Lars Brygmann. Based on my appreciation of RIDERS OF JUSTICE, I will be going back in time and watching some of their previous films to see how they stack up, and I’ll be looking forward with great anticipation to the release of their most recent work later this year. One of the great joys of cinema is the discovery of something new and special. I feel like this may have just happened for me again with a late night viewing of RIDERS OF JUSTICE!

Song of the Day: Atomic by Blondie

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Our song of the day is my favorite of Blondie song (and, believe me, there were many to choose from), Atomic! This song, which was subsequently covered for Trainspotting by Sleeper, is one that I often find myself not only quoting but also hearing in my head.

Uh huh, make me tonightTonight, make me rightUh huh, make me tonightTonightTonight

Oh, uh-huh, make it magnificentTonightRight

Oh, your hair is beautifulOh, tonightAtomic

Uh huh, make me tonightTonight, tonight

Oh, your hair is beautifulOh, tonightAtomic

Tonight, make it magnificentTonightMake me tonight

Your hair is beautifulOh, tonight

AtomicOh, atomicOh

Oh, atomicOh, atomicOh

Music Video of the Day: Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter (2025, dir by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia)

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Jeff and I start our first vacation of the year tomorrow and this video feels like a vacation video. Hopefully, our vacation will feature less desert hitchhiking.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.15 “The Long Road Home”

Posted on June 13, 2025 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!

This week …. ugh.

Episode 3.15 “The Long Road Home”

(Dir by Allan Kroeker, originally aired on February 12th, 1990)

This week’s episode starts where most episodes end. Micki and Johnny retrieve the cursed antique. In this case, it’s a yin-yang charm that allows the owner to swap minds with a recently deceased person. That sounds like a really cool antique and I have to admit that I’m kind of annoyed that this is one of those shows where the antique is recovered early. I would have enjoyed seeing the entire search.

I certainly would have enjoyed it more than having to spend the next 40-something minutes listening to Micki and Johnny discuss whether or not to start a relationship while, at the same time, being pursued by an inbred redneck and his brother. This episode goes off the rails as soon as Micki and Johnny step into a roadside diner that is owned by a family of homicidal hillbillies. In order to save their lives, Johnny had to use the cursed antique himself so that he could enter the body of one of the brothers. That went against everything that the show previously established about the cursed antiques. You’re not supposed to use a cursed antique, not even once. Johnny uses it and everything works out fine for him. It feels like cheating and it was something that Ryan would never have done. God, I miss Ryan.

But I want to get back to this relationship nonsense. Since when is Micki attracted to Johnny? Johnny’s been hitting on Micki since his first appearance and she’s never been interested in the past. Now, suddenly, they’re having a relationship talk? It comes out of nowhere. In the end, Micki and Johnny agree not to have a relationship as long as there are still cursed antiques that need to be found and that’s a good idea. Still, the whole thing just felt tacked on.

This episode was dull. Chris Wiggins wasn’t in it and that’s a shame because this episode needed his steady, no-nonsense presence.

Oh well. Not every Friday can be a great one!

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 2.2 “Lust Et Veritas”

Posted on June 13, 2025 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!

This week, St. Eligius gets a new plastic surgeon.

Episode 2.2 “Lust Et Veritas”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on November 2nd, 1982)

This episode sees the addition of two new doctors to the hospital’s staff and they’re both played by familiar actors. Elliott Axlerod is played by Stephen Furst. He’s a new resident and obviously terrified of screwing up in the ER. He asks Ehrlich and Fiscus for advice. When told that he’s required to perform a rectal exam on every patient, he asks, “Is it too late to go to law school?” Ehrlich assures him that it is.

(It’s never too late!)

Secondly, Mark Harmon joins the cast as plastic surgeon Bobby Caldwell and not even a porn star mustache can obscure the fact that young Mark Harmon was amazingly hot. (Actually, old Mark Harmon isn’t that bad either. He aged well.) Bobby, we learn, was brought to St. Eligius by Dr. Craig. He’s cocky and confident and it’s obvious that he loves being lusted after by Dr. Armstrong and Nurse Daniels. However, he already has a secret lover as this episode finds him showering with Joan Halloran, the city hall bureaucrat who spends most of her time arguing with Dr. Craig about whether or not to shut down one of the hospital’s non-profit programs.

Dr. Craig is nervous because he’s waiting for a heart to become available so he can perform his first transplant on Eve Leighton (Marian Mercer), a teacher who wants to get back into her classroom as soon as possible. Ehrlich is nervous because Craig is taking all of his frustrations. and his nervousness out on him.

Meanwhile, Jerry Singleton (Alan Arkin), the demanding husband of stroke-victim Fran (Piper Laurie), continued to push his wife to recover until finally, at the end of the episode, she yelled that he was pushing her too hard. It was a heart-breaking moment. Jerry thinks that he’s helping his wife but, as this episode showed, he’s actually been torturing her with his overbearing demands that she hurry up and get better.

Finally, a former resident named Barry Dorn (Peter Horton) returns to the hospital to try to convince Dr. Cavanero to change her negative evaluation of his job performance. Everyone acts as if Barry was a character on the show during the previous season, even though he wasn’t. It’s even revealed that he is Wendy Armstrong’s former boyfriend. When Cavanero refuses to change her evaluation, Armstrong accuses her of not having any feelings. (Seriously, Armstrong is the worst!) Even worse, when Cavanero heads to the doctor’s lounge, she finds Barry waiting for her. Barry punches her, busting open her lower lip. Armstrong stitches up the cut and then says that Cavanero is lucky because now, she’ll have an excuse to meet Dr. Caldwell! Armstrong then offers a half-hearted apology for previously accusing Cavanero of being heartless. (Again, Armstrong is the worst!!!!)

This wasn’t a bad episode. Mark Harmon and Stephen Furst seem like they’ll be good additions to the show’s ensemble. The Barry story felt a bit odd, just because Barry was apparently present but 0ff-camera during the entire first season. It sounds like Barry went through a lot of the same things that Peter White went through during the first season and Peter was not present in this episode. There’s a part of me that suspects that Barry was originally meant to be Peter but the show’s producers obviously decided they wanted to keep Peter around for a bit longer.

Next week …. well, I have no idea how things are going to develop. There’s a lot going on in this hospital. We’ll see what happens.

10 Films For The Weekend (6/13/25)

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here are just a few recommendations from a girl who is currently packing for her vacation!

Happy Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th kind of snuck up on me this year, which is a shame because this is the only Friday the 13th that we’re going to get in 2025. I have a feeling that I’m not alone in being taken by surprise, though. Usually the streaming services make a bigger deal about Friday the 13th. This year, only Pluto TV has the complete series available to stream.

That said, you can watch the first Friday the 13th (1980) on Tubi. Though the films were never critical favorites and I doubt they’ll ever have a Halloween-style resurgence (and really, that’s the way I like it because the last thing that horror fans need or deserve is for David Gordon Green to screw up Jason like he did Michael), the first Friday the 13th is still entertaining to watch. It’s interesting to see how much the first few films drew from the Italian giallo movies. The first Friday the 13th is even a whodunit, featuring a killer wearing gloves! It also features a young Kevin Bacon in a speedo so what’s your excuse for not watching? Personally, I always relate to Marcie in this film. I imagine I’d share the same fate if I ever found myself working at a summer camp, wandering around in my underwear and saying, “C’mon, guys….” until someone got annoyed and hit me with an axe. You can watch the film on Tubi.

Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981) is actually a really good horror movie, featuring interesting victims and, for the first time, Jason Voorhees as the killer. Jason dresses like a hillbilly in this one. Amy Steel is a badass heroine. Russell Todd’s an incredibly handsome man. The film itself actually has some wonderfully creepy shots, from the POV tracking shot that creeps up on Lauren-Marie Taylor to the shadowy shot of the cars driving into town. It can be viewed on Pluto.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) was quite obviously not the final chapter but it was, in my opinion, the best of the films. Everyone remembers this one for Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis and Crispin Glover as one of the victims but really, the entire cast does a great job of bringing their characters to life and actually making them interesting for once. My heart always breaks a little for Peter Barton and Barbara Howard. They were such a cute couple. It can be viewed on Pluto.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987) is hardly the best of the Friday films but I have to admit that I’ve always kind of liked it. Not only does it feature the first appearance of Zombie Jason but it also features enough strange plot twists to keep things watchable. The recently passed Lar Park Lincoln plays Tina, the girl with psychic powers and she gives a far better performance than the material probably deserved. Terry Kiser plays “Bad News” Crews. It can be viewed on Pluto.

Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood (1971) is a classic giallo and it features a rare (and successful) stab at social satire on the part of Mario Bava. It’s also interesting to see the scenes that were lifted, almost shot-for-short, for Friday the 13th Part 2. It can be viewed on Tubi.

Happy Father’s Day

This s going to be a bittersweet Father’s Day for me and my sisters. Our Dad passed away last August. Indeed, one of the reasons why I’m going on vacation next week is so I can get away from the sad memories for a bit. If I had to think of any film that captured my Dad’s independent spirit, I’d probably go with Convoy (1978). When I was growing up, my Dad sometimes worked as an independent trucker. He liked this movie and he liked Rubber Duck and you know what? Rubber Duck would have liked him as well. Convy was notorious for the cost overruns and the amount of drugs done on set but I’ll tell you right now — if you don’t cheer when Kris Kristofferson, Burt Young, and other truckers defy the law, you have no heart. Convoy can be viewed on Tubi.

My Dad was also a Godzilla fan, which is one reason why I’m a Godzilla fan! I can still remember being little and watching Godzilla films with him. They used to air every Saturday afternoon. One of our favorites was Godzilla vs Megalon (1973), in which Godzilla teams up with the giant robot, Jet Jaguar. I know that Godzilla purists tend to be dismissive of this film but I don’t care. I loved it! It can be viewed on Max.

I guess it says something about my job here that I can get sentimental about a violent and bloody film like 10 to Midnight (1983) but I have to admit that I’m always touched by the father-daughter relationship of Leo (Charles Bronson) and Laurie Kessler (Lisa Eilbacher). It reminds me a lot of my relationship with my Dad. Of course, those of you just looking for a good Cannon-era Bronson flick won’t be disappointed either. Gene Davis turns Warren Stacy into a truly loathsome villain and Bronson’s final line is a classic. Plus, this film has got Andrew Stevens in the role of the liberal rookie detective who no one can believe is a cop. The film can be viewed on Tubi.

Happy Odds and Ends

If you want to watch a Bava film that’s a little less gory than Bay of Blood, Planet of the Vampires (1965) is an atmospheric delight. Just as Bay of Blood inspired Friday the 13th, Planet of the Vampires inspired Alien. Keep an eye out for Ivan Rassimov, who had the best head of hair in Italian horror. The film is on Pluto.

Jim Belushi celebrated a birthday this week and you can celebrate as well by watching one of my favorite guilty pleasures, The Principal (1987). This film is heartfelt, violent, occasionally funny, thoroughly ludicrous, and actually kind of touching in its determination to actually say something. Jim Belushi vs Michael Wright is one of the ages. Lou Gossett, Jr. appears to be amused by the whole thing. “He’s the Principal, man!” The film is on Tubi.

Have a great week!

(Check out last week’s films here!)

Four Books To Read This Weekend (6/13/25)

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy Friday the 13th! I am currently packing for a two-week vacation that will start on Sunday. I’ll be bringing along several books with me. I am very much a believer in “the beach read.” If you’re going to be relaxing on the beach, it’s important to not only have the perfect bikini but also to have a good book to read. A book can be used to shield your eyes from the sun. A book can give you an excuse not to talk to someone. A book can make you look smart and that’s always a good thing. Never underestimate the importance of the beach read!

First published in 2024, Ask Not: The Kennedys and Thee Women They Destroyed is beach read for gossip-lovers who are also into politics and history. Written by Maureen Callahan, Ask Not looks at the lives of the women who had the misfortune to know the members of the Kennedy family. Using the death of Carolyn Bessette as a framing device, Callahan examines the lives of Jackie Onassis, Mary Jo Kopechne, Joan Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Martha Moxley, and several others. Callahan doesn’t just look at the famous victims of the Kennedy men. One of the best chapters deals with a young woman who was left paralyzed by Joseph P. Kennedy III’s reckless driving, someone whose name may not be nationally-known but who will never forgotten by those who loved her. The tragic death of the ex-wife of RFK Jr., who committed suicide after he left her and then tried to annul their marriage, is also examined. Callahan writes that she has no personal animus against the Kennedys. I’m not sure that I buy that but still, her book is a fascinating look at both the arrogance of power and the way that the Kennedys were protected, for decades, by a sympathetic and compliant media. The book reminds us that Chappaquiddick was not a Kennedy tragedy. Instead, it was a Kopechne tragedy. Of the many who have written about Chappaquiddick, Callahan is one of the few to actually show any interest in who Mary Jo Kopechne was and who she could have gone on to been if she hadn’t been abandoned to drown that night. If just for that, this book deserves to be read.

If you’re a Degrassi fan, you simply have to read 2022’s The Mother Of All Degrassi. Linda Schuyler’s memoir charts her life and shows how she went from being an 8th grade teacher to co-creating the most important thing to ever come out of Canada. Schuyler includes all the behind-the-scenes details that you could possibly want but, even more importantly, her personal story is an inspiring and a heartfelt one.

Speaking of memoirs by television producers, 2016’s Truth Is A Total Defense: My Fifty Years In Television is Steven Bochco’s somewhat self-aggrandizing memoir. It’s nowhere near as well-written as Linda Schuyler’s memoir but if you’re looking for gossip, this is a good book to go with. Bochco, who passed away in 2018, was known for creating hit shows and pissing off the networks. This memoir spends a lot of time on the people who Bochco did not like. It makes for a fun read, if not a particularly enlightening one.

Finally, no vacation is complete with a true crime book to read. If you want to read one that will truly leave you angry, I recommend Philip Weiss’s American Taboo, which examines the 1975 murder of Peace Corp volunteer Deborah Gardner and how the crime was covered up by both the Peace Corp and the government. Not only was Gardner’s name smeared but the killer was never punished for his deeds. True crime is a genre that has produced a lot of bad books but it’s produced some good and important ones as well. American Taboo is one of the best.

Of course, the whole fun of traveling is seeing what you discover. I’ll be bringing books with me but I’ll also be leaving plenty of room for any trashy paperbacks I come across on the way! I’ll let you know what I find.

Song of the Day: Title Music From A Clockwork Orange by Wendy Carlos

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Seeing as how today is Malcolm McDowell’s birthday, it only seems right that today’s song of the day should be one that was used in his best-known film.

The Title Music For A Clockwork Orange was, of course, adapted from Music For The Funeral of Queen Mary, composed by Henry Purcell.